Page Teri

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Thursday, September 9, 1971

Page Ter~ THE MICHIGAN DAILY Thursday, September 9, '1971



N EWLY-APPOINTED DE AN
Rhodes: Innovation for

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UNIVERSITY PLAYERS
DEPARTMENT OF SPEECH

LSA

PLAYIL

1971-72

G.B. Shaw's
CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA

Oct. 20, 21, 22, 23 (Power Center)

Samuel Beckett's
WAITINGFORGODOT . . . . . Nov. 10, 11, 12, 13(Trueblood)
Shakespeare's

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The following
was compiled from an interview
held last summer with newly ap-
pointed LSA Dean Frank Rhodes.
Rhodes replaced Acting LSA Dean
Alfred Sussman on July 1st.)
By GERI SPRUNG
"The University is a place
where we maintain the connec-
tion between knowledge and the
zest for life. We must unite ev-
eryone in the imaginative con-
sideration of learning."
Relaxing in his office after
the announcement of his ap-
pointment as the new dean of
the literary college, former geo-
logy Prof. Frank Rhodes gives
the above as his educational
philosophy.
And not surprisingly, for to
students and faculty alike, the
44-year-old Rhodes appears to
be an energetic innovator, will-
ing to try new approaches to-
wards education in his new role
as overseer of the University's
liberal arts program.
"It seems to me to be very
exciting," he explains, "that
someone with ideas like mine,
which I think are fairly wild by
conventional standards, could be
trusted with this sort of ,lob. It's
only a great University that
could do that."
Outlining some of his ideas,
Rhodes says he will work for
curriculum changes which would
create more of a community at-
mosphere within the college, re-
turn the emphasis to undergra-
duate education, and break
down the artificial barriers be-
tween disciplines by instituting
new kinds of departmental pro-
grams.,
Further, Rhodes feels the
"dignity and the importance of

through experimentation and
trying all sorts of different ap-
proaches.
"As Dean," Rhodes says, "I'm
not the boss of LSA. I'm the
servant, literally, of a particular
group of scholars - undergrad-
uate and graduate students and
faculty.
"And so all I can hope to do
is to persuade them to move with
me in a particular direction," he
says. "It has to be done with
their cooperation and not
against their will. I hope then
an open community to live in
and learn in can be developed.
The success of Rhodes' ap-
proach is evidenced in his popu-
larity among students taking his
geology courses. These courses
are consistently among the first
to be filled during registration
and students often speak of his
"concern" and "consideration"
in dealing with students.
"'I really like him as a person,"~
says Sheila Gisser "73, one of his
former students. "He is inter-
ested in students and people
can come to him anytime for
anything. He always has time
to sit and talk."
"Rhodes is an excellent lec-
turer," Larry Scott, Grad., adds.
"He always tries to get students
to participate."
Perhaps some of the praise for
Rhodes comes from teaching
habits startling to those accus-
tomed to most lecture-type
courses. Firstly, Rhodes says he
never keeps office hours, re-
questing students to visit him
anytime they have a problem.
In further consideration of the
student, Rhodes tapes all his
lectures. This way, he says, a
student who has missed a lec-

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. . . Dec.

1,2,3,

4 (Power Center)

Lonnie Elder's
CEREMONIES IN DARN

Jea
Eug

n Genet's
THE MAIDS
ene lonesco's
VICTIMS OF DUTY

K OLD MEN Jan. 26, 27, 28, 29 (Mendelssohn)
.Feb. 16, 17, 18, 19(Mendelssohn)

Arthur Kopit's
INDIANS .arch 29,30,31,ApriI 1 (Power Center)
TICKET INFORMATION
The Box Office at Trueblood Theatre will open for season subscription sales only on October 13, 14, 1 5.
The Box Office at Power Center will be open for season subscriptions and single sales October 18 to
23. Thereafter it will be open weeks of performance only at the theatre scheduled for each play.
Hours: Performance Days: 12:30-8:00; Otherwise: 12:30-5:00. Mail orders will be filled prior to the
opening of the Box Office.

LSA Dean Frank Rhodes

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"We have to create
people feel anxious to

an environment where
learn," says newly-ap-

pointed LSA Dean Frank Rhodes. "We've got
to get students and faculty talking together."
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thing," he continues, "but he
made a good impression on ev-
eryone on the committee from
the first day we met him.
We also talked to hi4 students
and fellow faculty members here
as well as at the University of
Illinois, where he also taught,
and they all were universally
impressed," Hoffman empha-
sizes.
When asked how he would
achieve his goals for the liter-
ary college, Rhodes replies, "I
said these things very force-
fully when I was interviewed by
the selection committee, and,
they received them very well. I
think there's a strong feeling in
the college, amongst the facul-
ty, that we've really lost our
bearings and that we're just a
rudderless ship without any
sense of direction. It really does
something for me to read that
introductory statement about
LSA in the catalogue-I think
we're terrible in achieving it.
"Here we say to students
here's the whole world of experi-
ence-let's open it up and let's
debate it together-that's a tre-
mendous thing to do. I think if
we can approach it on that kind
of level we're going to get fac-
ulty support, we're going to get
student support. I just know
that students want this kind of
educational experience - they
don't want these little boxes
Chemistry 103 or History 207.

"I think another way we can
expose undergraduate audi-
ences to the best people we have
is to start thinking about the
whole structure of undergradu-
ate teaching.
"We're simply fossilized into
this notion that it has to be
three lectures a week for a whole
semester, and that's worth three
credit hours, or whatever. I
wonder if we- don't need to ex-
periment with something like,
for instance, in literature, we
might have somebody who's a
kind of anchorman giving an in-
troduction to the course. We
keep 'him on for let's say, the
first five or six weeks of the
semester, and then we start
bringing in these experts to give
mini-courses on specific areas
that are still part of the big one,
but maybe they lecture every
Monday for five weeks or some-
thing, and you might have sev-
eral mini-courses going, using
the same lecture hours,, and a
student then could really be-
gin within that umbrella course
to study these authors he's in-
terested in.
"Instead of cramping students
as we tend to, what we could
do, at a large University like
this, is to begin to make indi-
vidual courses of the kind that
people want, rather than having
one mold that we force every-
one into," he concludes.

S.

undergraduate education has to
be re-established." Carrying out
this idea, Rhodes intends to con-
tinue teaching one introductory
course in geology while serving
as dean.
"We have to create a learning
environment where people feel
anxious to learn," Rhodes says.
We've got to get students and
faculty talking together."
Rhodes adds that he favors
increased implementation of the
pass-fail grading system and-
some changes in the distribution
requirements. However, he says
that ideas should be introduced

ture can come in, take a tape
and a tray of slides and learn
what he missed.
The dean search committee, a
student-faculty body appointed
by President Robben Fleming to
interview candidates for dean-
ship, was unanimous in their
approval of Rhodes as ' one of
the candidates.
According to committee mem-
ber, Andy Hoffman, '72, "Rhodes
impressed us with his ideas of
reorganization of the college
and the changes he would
make," says Hoffman. "I can't
put my finger on any one

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