'U' AND LEGISLATURE: RAPPORT BREAKS See Editorial Page Y Sir i ritAau att CLOUDY High-90 Low--G2 Scattered showers likely all day Seventy-Six Years of Editorial Freedom VOL. LXXVI, No. 56S ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, WEINESDAY, JULY 27, 1966 SEVEN CENTS SIX PAGES Do Students Want the ree om' They Ask for? EDITOR'S NOTE: Though we feel this report's opposition of the con- cepts of student freedom and com- munity is misleading, we reprint it here because of what it contributes to the study of the university as a socializing process. Most college students are not ready to be on their own in a big university that promises them too much freedom. This conclusion turns up in a study conducted by a university that takes pride in its atmosphere of unconventional freedom-the University of Chicago. The six-year study, financed by the United States Office of Education, concludes that most college students cannot handle and do not want too much free- dom. Even the highly individu- alistic student who shops for a broadminded college environment later bemoans his freedom. He talks about the need "for some- body to be firm." The freedom makes a student feel no one cares, especially at a large university where the in- difference is compounded by size. Mary Alice Newman, who con- ducted the study, says that sig- nificant numbers of students arel not mature, but instead with uneven independent adults are "young people skills on their way those who are not themselves ready for it." She referred to the University of California student disturbances, pointing out that they began as a protest against "administrative restriction and interference. Now the riots are considered "protests against the lack of concern for individuals, impersonality, and the anonymity of the mass university." She continued, "Students' needs are not always synonymous with what they ask for." Her study shows, she said, that many students do not consider college a "community" but an 'experience in isolation." The stu- dent feels he is on his own to sink or swim, without familiar or even unfamiliar guidelines. He feels "alone in an impersonal world where no one cares." Her project began as a study of college dropouts and turned into more when she found out that even the students who did not leave school had many of the same complaints. She took the freshman class of 1959 and followed it for six years. There were 309 students and al- most 40 per cent of them dropped out. In general, they could not take the mystique of the University of Chicago environment. The dropouts were less self-directed and had a strong need for ad- vice. At least 74 per cent of them were mismatches in the Chicago cultural environment. There were no family, social, or circumstantial factors that made any significant difference between those who stayed and those who left. Academic ability, did not play a major part either. Those who dropped out were generally as intellectually bright as those who stayed. Religion seemed to make a dif- ference, though, Catholics dropped out of Chicago in proportionately greater numbers. In the freshman class of 1959, almost twice as many Catholics dropped out as stayed. Fewer than half of the Protestants stayed. On the other hand, Jewish students stuck. About one third of the freshman class was Jewish, By graduation time, they repre- sented 43 per cent of the class. Even though there were dif- ferences between the dropouts and the "persisters," there were similarities that led Prof. New- man to the conclusion that stu- dents, in general, cannot take and do not want too much free- dom, A good percentage of the per- sisters, she found, were also im- mature, wanted more advice, ex- pected more contact with the fac- ulty, were uncertain about their interests, and expressed some in- tolerance for "differentness." About 52 per cent of the per- sisters found the ethos of the University of Chicago "diffuse or cold and impersonal." So did all the dropouts. Both the drop- outs and 77 per cent of the per- sisters thought the faculty was uninterested. In a university she described as open, mature and diverse, Prof. Newman pointed out there were significant numbers of stu- dents who experienced difficulty. She concluded, "If students have not yet learned to accept differ- entness, to appreciate diverse ideas, attitudes, and people, our present melting pot approval would seem to require some care-. ful thought and appraisal. The evidence suggests that it may actually breed intolerance or in- difference in some instances." She also concluded, "If students have not learned to order their lives in all aspects and are bewil- dered by the absence of guidelines, this need should be recognized as well as the demand for freedom." And if the students want more personal understanding from the faculty, they should get it. This demand, she said, was a "cry" for' substitute parents or "a valid re- flection of adult indifference in today's academic market-place." The university is looked upon as "they," instead of "we", she said. Through some "unholy alchemy, it projects impersonality, anonymity and bureaucracy." Students want "something to catch hold of - an experience, philosophy, a model, a goal, an idea. Something around which one's experience can be organized and made meaningful." "In effect," she said, "though. we are more fortunate than many institutions, our dilemma is' that we participate in the national ed- ucation disease of fragmentation. Students. Faculty. Administration. Fragmented, talking and learning together all too little." She called for a new "commun- ity" at the University of Chicago -one that inspires inquiry, pur- pose and spirit. Reprinted by permission of the Chicago Daily News to becoming adults." The evidence is so strong, she says, that the University of Chi-, cago should change its ways. "It is our task," she says, "to listen not simply to what students say but to what they mean. The treating of students as adults may be perceived as indifference by _.__ _. -- C EWSWigREail ' FNEWS WIRE Deferments Of Teachers Under Study Late World News By The Associated Press SAIGON-Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky said early today the free world must be ready to help his nation for 10 years or more or face the prospect of invading North Viet Nam now. He said peace would never be restored so long as interna- tional communism with its worldwide aim of enslavement en- joyed a sanctuary north of the 17th Parallel. Ultimately, he said, the people of the North would over- throw the Communist regime there. But he posed the question: Does the free world have the patience to aid and build South Viet Nam for the necessary period of waiting? ALEXANDRIA-President Gamal Abdel Nasser said yester- day revolutionary Arab nations can mount an army of four million men for "liberation of Palestine" but that Arab reac- tionaries conspire to sabotage the Arab struggle against Israel. Nasser singled out Saudi Arabia as a prime example, in his view, of a reactionary Arab state. "Let Saudi Arabia liberate itself of United States and Brit- ish bases and then we can talk with its leaders about the libera- tion of Palestine," Nasser declared. "We can pount an army of four million for the liberation of Palestine. America and Britain can give Israel planes but they cannot put four million men into the field to back Israel." WASHINGTON-Sen. Robert F. Kennedy