Thursday, September 5,=1974

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

rage Seven

Thursday, September 5, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY rage 5even


Writers hit big jacpot

By SARA RIMER
Do you dream of winning the Pulitzer
Prize? The Hopwood Awards may not
be as well-known, but they frequently
offer more money. If you turn out high
quality plays, fiction, poems, or essays,
the University might reward your liter-
ary talent with several hundred dol-
lars.
When Mary Cooley won a Hopwood
Award for creative writing in 1941,
eight publishers were on hand, eager
to snatch up the winning manuscripts.
"For a while publishers would take the
first prize'novel without even reading
it," she recalls.
PUBLISHING HOUSES are now over-
loaded with unsolicited manuscripts,
and no publishers appeared to wine
and dine this year's winners. But ,the
annual Avery and Jule Hopwoods, now
in their 44th year, still rank as a high-
ly prestigious writing contest. This
year $22,900 was distributed among 35
winners.
THE FACULTY Hopwood Committee
appoints nationally known judges each
year. In the past, such notables as Ar-
thur Miller, Joyce Carol Oates and the

late Ezra Pound have judged manu-
scripts.
Manuscripts are entered under four
categories - drama, fiction, poetry and
essay. Fiction is divided into novel
and short story.
Although Cooley jokes about one stu-
dent who diligently read all the old
Hopwood manuscripts in his fruitless
search to uncover a winning formula,
none exists. -
HILDA BONHAM, assistant Hopwood
director emphasizes the tremendous va-
riety of winning entries.
"We get everything," she notes.
"Sometimes a very delightful personal
essay has to compete with a document-
ed manuscript."
This year, for example, Ada Mertz
won in the minor fiction category with
a whimsically illustrated children's
fairy tale entitled "The days of Drag-
ons, Knights, and Penelope."
In contrast to the other professionally
typed manuscripts, Mertz carefully
printed each page in a rainbow of ma-
gic markers.
In a more academic vein was John
Ryskamp's winning honors' thesis,
Civil War Humor.

THE JUDGES' standards vary from
year to year. Cooley remembers one
woman whose short stories went un-
noticed when she first entered them.
Gambling, she entered the identical
stories the next year, and the judges
received them wildly, awarding them
a special prize in recognition of what
they considered to be exceptional
merit.
Over 300 books have been published
by Hopwood winners, and several writ-
ers have achieved wide-reaching fame,
notably Arthur Miller, John Ciardi, and
Betty Smith. Miller won drama awards
in 1936 and 1937.
The Hopwood Room, 1006 Angell Hall,
is a comfortable hideaway crammed,
with books, magazines, and periodicals.
Hopwood teas, held Thursdays from,
3-5 for aspiring writers and inveterate
cookie munchers, are purely informal
affairs.
COOLEY LAUGHS at a friend who
complained about the casual atmos-
phere. "I think she expected a receiv-
ing line." One recent winner was visi-
bly pleased with his new distinction.
"Once you win a Hopwood, you sort of
get to sit in a corner and expounds,"
he said.

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VP Rhodes discards
bureaucraticiag
(continued from Page 6) and depth," says 'Rhodes. "Al-
of the well - educated British though a large University does
gentlman.not have as much latitude to
gentleman. experiment as a small college
HE WAS so nice and smooth - there are very few other
most of the time that he was schools in the same league with
usually hard to confront," saysMichigan."
Weinstein. - Although Rhodes' hopes to con-
Born in Warwickshire, Eng- tinue in his role as an "inno-
land 47 years ago, Rhodes was vator," he acknowledges. t h a t
educated in both England and role is diferent from what-it was
the United States. After receiv- three years ago.
ing his doctorate from the Uni- "Changing anything is a huge
versity of Birmingham, E n g- undertaking. At a time when
land, he served as an associate the University has ceased ex-
professor at the University of panding in numbers and budget-
Illinois and in 1956, became a wise, every new development
professor and geology depart- means that something else has
ment head at the University of to be axed. We're in the seven-
Wales before coming to Michi- ties now - not the golden six-
gan. ties
Although Rhodes has s p e n t
much, of his life in England, he Read and Use
claims the British educational
system has had little influence Dai, Classifieds
on his teaching or administra-
tive policies at the University. -

* eFINDING THE American sys-
tem ofhigher education prefer-~
greater emphasis on diversity,
he also believes that the Uni-
versity distribution policy epit-
omizes the principle of a liberal
education.
"The major strong points ofj
this University are its breadth I

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Battling the bureaucracy:
Students develop courses

i i1

By CINDY HILL
The usually unflappable Jim
O'Brien, a teaching fellow for
the student - developed Future
Worlds courses, sounded only,
mildly discouraged as he de-
scribed the perils of battling
the elaborate University coursel
structure.
"It's like punching your way
through a vat of jello," says4
O'Brien. "They'll get us so tang-j
led up in red tape that we'lll
strangle, and they won't even
have to touch ,us."
STUDENT - DEVELOPED
courses at the University al-
most by definition provide the
most provocative, innovative
and enlightened approach to
education at the University.
And, almost by definition,
they are the most difficult to
organize and perpetuate, and
are usually inundated in a tor-
rent of bureaucratic troubles
long before they see a time
schedule or registration line.
While the list of those courses
that have succeeded and event-
ually earned University acco-
lades is distinguished, so is'
the list of those who perished,
for one reason or other.
AND A MULTITUDE more
are still desperately trying to
'"make it," attempting to keep
their heads above the bureau-
cratic quicksand ,and financial
-quagmire of the University.
Two cases in point: Future
Worlds, a course and lecture
series that has brought such per-
sonalities as Margaret Meade,
Ralph Nader, and Buckminis-
ter Fuller to campus, and pav-
ed the way for futurism courses
at the University; and Arbor-
vitae, a brand-new course that,
if successful, will establish a
satellite community, a sort of
would-be utopia, somewhere in
Washtenaw County.
For Future Worlds, the para-
mount issue is as basic as they
come: With a plethora of speak-
ers planned annually, not to
mention the routine costs of
planning a class, the Future
Worlds organizers need a good-

ly sum of cold, hard, cash to
run their show - often to the
tune of $25,000.
ALTHOUGH THE course and
lecture series have been a pro-
ven success and a boon to Ann
Arbor's self-styled image as the1
,cultural mecca of the Midwest,;
the Future Worlds planners
have found a number of their
financial sources of yesteryear
curtailed or cut off completely.
"They tell us, 'We bleed for,
you. Just fill out these 16,0003
forms in triplicate' and start at
the bottom," says O'Brien.
The viewpoint of the Univer-
sity displays a typically bureau-
cratic line of reasoning that is
strong on logic, but hard on-
student innovation: They want
good, solid evidence of the via-
bility of a program, with a
lear outline of speakers, bud-
get, a department sponsor, and
a professorial sponsor.1
THE UNIVERSITY require-
ments create a Catch-22 situa-
tion for Future Worlds, making1
it, as Future Worlds organizer
and chief fundraiser Peter

Grimes calls it, an academic
"tar baby."
Until the program has suffic-
ient capital, they cannot make
permanent plans to import
speakers from around the coun-
try and world. Without a bud-
get and concrete plans, they
cannot persuade sponsors to ac-
cept responsibility for the
course.
Dick Ahern, founder of this
fall's Arborvitae course, design-
ed the class to institute these
lofty, utopian ideals into a via-
ble, existing community.
AHERN, AN ARCHITECTj
and community planner, claims
there are "enough people will-
ing to put money behind it'
(Arborvitae)," to make the
program work.
Fortunately, Ahern says he
received positive feedback and
help from all the individuals he
contacted for course approval,
although the Arborvitae. plan
was vetoed by several depart-
ments, Course Mart,. and the
Residential College,

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Academic counselling: How to
be a pro at the waiting game

-"Er


By MARNIE HEYN LSA's counseling program is the
Most new s t u d e n t' first same problem with LSA's teach-
encounter University bureauc- ing: the people who perform
racy in the person of a random- the functions, either teaching or
ly assigned counselor. The pro- counseling, usually have little
cest of applying, contacting fi- or no training or feeling for the
nancial aid, arranging for hous- job. They are stuffed into siots
ing ,and memorizing your social as part of their academic (us-
security number are behind, and ually research-oriented) appoint-
ments, and they are as con-
all you have to do is sign up fused about what they should
for courses and go to class, tell you as you are about what,
right? you want to know.I
Wrong. You have just be- Again, if you know what you
gun . . - want, they can be very helpful:
they initial your course selec-
IF YOU ARE like most stu- tions, drop/adds, waivers, and
dents, you carefully read the petitions and smile vaguely
course catalog (boggled by the since you are one of their quota
number, variety, and incompre- of hundreds that they ought to
hensibility of it all) and memo- be nice to. But heaven help you
rize the little map that you got if you don't know what you want
in the mail. to major in.
Then you arrive for what is Is there a better way? Cer-
optimistically c a 11e d Orienta- tainly. But the priorities of the
tion. However sympathetic and College and University would
understanding your group lead- have to be rearranged to favor
er is, you still get dragged students over externally-funded
through the campus and libra- research, and many moons shall
ries until you're dizzy, told cute pass before that occurs spon-
and superfluous anecdotes about taneously .
stone lions and the "girls" in Talk to other students in your
Martha Cook, and grilled by department or dormitory or
a computerized questionnaire whatever, and find out who the
about all sorts of existential per- friendly, well-informed faculty
sonal feelings at 7 a.m. I was counselors are. Then set out to
sure confused; and I have the develop a relationship with one
feeling I'm not alone. of them; not only are they help-
After 10 or 15 minutes for a ful in dealing with the computer
relaxing lunch at any of the so- and Waterman Gym, but some
called restaurants that line the of them are damn fine human
Diag, you present yourself at beings who ought to be rein-
one of several offices (finding forced for sitting in those sen-
the right one is the easy part) sort - deprivation cubicles and
and tell a complete stranger still being nice to students.
what you want to be when you
grow up, and how you intend to IF YOU HAVE decided that
get, there. the problem is more than aca-

s:

improvement (which is actually
a fine service, but probably not
what you need to sort out your
sexuality or tensions with your
parents). If you don't find what
you need, go back to GUIDE
and try again: you pay for the
services, so you should get what3
you need.
One final note: you are a
client of this College and this
University. When you get un-
necessary run-around or snot-
tiness, take your case to a de-
partment head, a dean, an
orientation officer, or the Pres-
ident himself. GUIDE can gen-
erally refer you to the right
person. The counseling you get
will be only as good as you
insist it be.

that all they handle is reading

One of the many historical landmarks on for student living at the University. It
the campus is the Michigan Union. Its houses not only many essential student
top step was the sight of President John services, but recreational facilities and a
F. Kennedy's speech which founded the snack bar as well. So stop in and discover
Peace'Corps. However, more than just a what university life is all about.
landmark, the Union serves as the center

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THERE'S MORE THAN
ICE CREAM AT THE
UNION
STATION!
(but it's the best
ice cream in town)
Be sure to check our
chef's special of the day.

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FACILITIES
Bowling Lanes
Billiard Tables
Music Practice Rooms
A Lounge
Barber Shop
Snack Bar (Union Station)
Souvenir Stand
Bookstore (U Cellar)
The University Club
Hotel Rooms for Campus Visitors
Banquet and Meeting Rooms

SERVICE UNITS IN THE BUILDING
Office of Student Services (O.S.S.)
Office of Special Services and Programs (O.S.S.P.)
Office for Student Services Counseling
(including 76-GUIDE)
International Center
Alumni Association
- University Activities Center (U.A.C.)
Student Government Council (S.G.C.)
Office of Religious Affairs
Inter Co-op Council (I.C.C.)
Legal Aid

demic, there are lots of free-to-
IF YOU KNOW both those cheap personal counseling serv-
things, well and good. - ices around. Some of them are
If you have questions about good in addition to being inex-
life goals, possible majors, and pensive.
the contents of courses, you're A good place to start is with
in the wrong place, although the 76-GUIDE folks (764-8433):
vn ma no t find that not for tell them what von nneed .and

THE "STATION" FEATURES:
GREAT BREAKFASTS and

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