Page Four
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Wednesday, September 2, 1970
,:s"-1
Flint, Dearborn branches
plan
expansion
By ROB BIER
Back when Michigan was still
mostly cedar swamps and pine
forests, Judge Woodward had an
idea for a state university.
An ardent admirer of his
friend Thomas Jefferson, ,the
judge envisioned a university
centered in Detroit, with branch
campuses over all the state. His
"Catholepistemiad Michigana"
survived in spirit to become the
University of Michigan, but the
branch c a m p u s idea never
caught on until ten years ago
when University campuses were
established at Flint and Dear-
born.
At that time a new idea was
making the rounds in educa-
tional circles-junior and senior
"piggyback" colleges to comple-
ment existing junior colleges. A
few schools tried it, but although
the idea died, the University's
branches did not. Flint became
a four-year institution three
years ago and is now bursting
at, the seams. Dearborn is _ still
an upperclassmen school, but is
slated to begin admitting fresh-
men a year from now.
Both schools are growing' and
changing "to meet the needs of
the times and their communi-
ties" a c c,o r d i n g to Stephen
Spurr, dean of the graduate
school and, as of last December,
vice president in charge ,of over-
seeing, expansion at Flint and
Dearborn.
At Flint, the plan is for a new
campus. Presently, it shares
land with Flint Junior College
and the Flint Cultural Center.
But its over 1700 students only
have one building and are al-
ready forced to make use of
space at the other institutions.
Land for the Flint campus has
been acquired in an urban re-
newal, area about a half mile
away from the present site, and
the first building is scheduled
to be completed in about three
years. Other buildings will fol-
low as, needed, and an enroll-
ment of five to ten thousand is
projected for the end of the
decade, says Spurr. ,
Dearborn's plans do not in-
clude new construction in the
near future, but they do call
for expansion of the library for
undergraduate work, conversion
of some labs, and the hiring of
a few additional professors.
Spurr hopes a student center
with intramural sports facilities
can be constructed for the 800-
student branch before long, but
no plans for that are underway
at present.
In addition to physical chang-
es, both campuses are in for
some organizational ones as
well, aimed at a larger measure
of autonomy for the branches.
Committees of students, fac-
ulty, administrators and local
citizens are working in :both
Flint and Dearborn to choose
chancellors for their sch'ools.
Presently, each campus is head-
ed by a dean, but although Spurr
points out that chancellors will
"clearly run the whole show" as
opposed to a definition of deans.
as basically academic people, the
deans of these branches, he says,.
"practically do everything now."
Budgetary matters will soon
be largely in the hands of these
branches as well, Spurr says.
While the appropriations for the
branches will -still pass through
the Regents, amounts will be
earmarked! for Flint and Dear-
born, But the earmarking will
not be binding, Spurr says, as
part of the increased autonomy
plan is to allow for the branches
to make their own spending
decisions.
But the Regents still have the
last say, and although they have
insited on autonomy for the
Flint campus, they do not think
autonomy is a "proper" ques-
tion to raise now in regard to
Dearborn.
The State Board of Education,
however, believes the expansion
plans for both branches should
include a provision that the
branches will become indepen-
dent when expansion is com-
pleted, because it claims branch
campuses are not as sensitive
to the needs of the local com-
comunity as are independent
schools.
To back up their stand for
autonomy, the board has re-
quested the legislature to with-
hold funds for expansion at
Dearborn until a study by a
citizens' committee has been
made of "educational needs in
Southeast Michigan." As this
supplement goes to press, it
seems likely that the legislature,
following Gov. William Mil-
liken's recommendation, will vote
the funds anyway. But the,
autonomy issue for Dearborn is
still not settled, and seems cer-
tain to cause further trouble
in the future.
The reason apparently is pol-
itics. Since the board is only
advisory to the legislature, it is
the legislators themselves who
must take the lead.
When Flint went to a four-
year program it was feared
that enrollment at Flint Jun-
ior College would drop. ' But
the opposite occurred, partly
because students are allowed at
each school to take courses at
the other. The result is that the
Flint community is more than
happy with their unique ar-
rangement; and for a local poli-
tician to advocate cutting off
the source of some of the Flint
campus' special offerings would
be political suicide.
At Dearborn, the story is dif-
ferent, since the metropolitan
Detroit area of which it is a
part boasts a wide diversity of
politicians who might have an
interest in the Dearborn cam-
pus, but do not have to answer
to the people in that district.
But Spurr says he is leav-
ing such matters for others to
deal with, while he works on
the details of expansion. He says
he is not concerned whether the
branches are independent or not
"as long as they are responsive
to the needs of their communi-
ties."
To that end, Spurr is keep-
ing informed on progress at
each campus, while ;he handles
details in Ann Arbor. He does
not see himself as molding the
future of the branches, but says
"My job is to keep things go-
ing and expidite them." How-
ever, he does have some defi-
nite ideas about how the cam-
puses should evolve.
"Dearborn is not a city col-
lege, but should serve metro-
politan Detroit. It should not
be a carbon copy in any sense
of what we have at Ann Arbor,"
Spurr says.
The same goes for Flint, he
adds, and although the aca-
demic offerings at both are ex-
pected to change "we're not go-
ing to dictate on them at this
end.
So, if everything lives up to
plan, complete autonomy will be
a moot point. Both Flint and
Dearborn will be autonomous,
for all practical purposes, while
still benefitting from the re-
sources readily available to
them in Ann Arbor.
The people of Flint seem to
think that such a set up is the
best of both worlds - all re-
sources of a big university with-
out the size. Whether a four-
year branch at Dearborn will
be greeted with the same en-
thusiasm remains to be seen.
4,
Aerial view of Dearborn's campus
° I
'U'
and overpopulation
By SHARON WEINER
As more and more students
apply for admission to the Uni-
versity, the percentage of those
accepted decreasesaas the limit
of expansion, at least for the
Ann Arbor campus, approaches.
With somewhat over 30,000 of
the University's 38,000 students
studying on the Ann Arbor cam-.
pus, financial pressure and a
shortage of , classroom and of-
fice facilities seem to be the.
reason for the minimal growth
in enrollment over the past five
or so years.
In fact, the largest school in
the University, the literary col-
lege, has made only small in-
creases in its freshman quota
and overall enrollment in the
past four years, with virtually
no increase in the college's class-
room space.
Yet while places are limited,'
applications have been inc'eas-
ing at disproportionate rates, al-
though the increase has slowed
down quite a bit since a year
ago.
One administrator connected
with academic affairs attributes
the decrease in applications to
the $15 application fee required
by the University for the first
time last year.
There was a decrease of from
15 to 20 per cent for the class
of 1974, he says, as opposed to
the previous year's increase of
17 per cent over the class of '72.
But, he adds, there are "justz
as -many qualified students ap-
plying, if not more-the drop in
applications is probably due to
the borderline cases being dis-
couraged by the application fee."
Rackham's applications have
decreased about four per cent,
and most administrators agree
this is due to a lack of fellow-
ship support.
1968 was the first year the
University was faced with sur-
plus qualified in-state applica-
tions. The problem was more or
less resolved when the extra
students were offered admit-
tance to summer and winter
terms, or were encouraged to
apply to Flint or Dearborn. Half
of the 300 accepted the provis-
ional conditions.
Last year, 400 surplus in-state-
ers were offered similar options,
and this year, even more are
being asked to take alternatives
to fall admission, or are being
turned away for lack of space,
even though they are told they
are qualified.
The possibility of raising ad-
mittance qualifications to allevi-
late the problem of too many
qualified students applying has
been suggested, but admission
officials call that solution un-
realistic. Currently, they say,
the University has admissions
standards as high as any public
university in the country, for
in-state as well as .out-of-state
students.
One possible solution to the
long-run problem is, of course,
expansion. But even though a
University enrollment projec-
tion report in 1966 viewed the
obligation to, grow as being
"political, social, economic and
moral", growth is contingent on
funding, and the State Legis-
lature's reluctance and inability
to grant the University's budget
request is well-known.
And in the meantime, stu-
dents take classes in an old
automobile agency, half of West
Quad has been converted into
faculty. offices (while students
are temporarily housed in South
Quad's study halls and not-so-
temporarily in the Union) and
the University rents a student
apartment for dental school re-
search.
W.ELC.,OME
41
U .
of
M~.
Students
MICHIGAN'S Wolverines Michigan's
famous Marching Band-The Victors-
StateI Street -The League- The Union
I, II
- all
are great traditions of
a great
University.
GREENE'S CLEANERS is a tradition, too. For
41
forty-five
years. GREENE'S CLEANERS have
YOUR
given the best in dry cleaning and shirt launder-
ing to thousands of Michigan students. In foct,
many alumni around the country still send gar-
ments to us for special cleaning services.
In Ann Arbor, GREENE'S have three convenient
locations and six routes to service the quad-
I
THE BUSINESS STAFF
of
rangles, dormitories," sororities,
fraternities,
l e irl ig tn
Dattj
(THE STAFF THAT REALLY RUNS THE PAPER)
needs enthusiastic people with or without previous expe-
rience or expertise, who are interested in meeting news
people and learning the workings of the most highly re-
spected college paper in Michigan.
We now have ope ings i the following departments:
apartments and rooming houses. At the infor
motion desks in all quads and dorms you will
find'a GREENE'S card to.fill out and attach to
your garments. You will also find a place to
leave garments for GREENE'S daily pick-up
service..There is no additional charge for pick-
up and delivery.
THE PICK-UP AND DELIVERY SERVICE on
dry cleaning and shirt laundering takes three
days. For same-day service, take your garments
to any of GREENE'S cleaning plants.
i
DISPLAY ADVERTISING
CIRCULA TION
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING
LAYOUT
BILLING
ART
rf
SALES AND PROMOTIONS
Put us first on your list of things
to do at the big "U." Come see us
SFTFkARFD 2Z7IS f ApL
,:YYa.'': ": ii:.... ::iii;%$ :y;;; i;3p+ 2; arir'ii; ii; : iat%:^ i ..
... ,.,, '+YF;?.iPf; },t';;iii s45;iizsi? :;v<:<i:^.:;: -<::::;:;5:;:2. .ii;}hi " i Si'"iiif I