Sunday, March 23, 1975
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Page Five
I
Sunday, March 23, 1975 THE MiCHIGAN DAILY Page Five
_____FILE
John Wilhelm: The life and high
times of a perpetual schoolboy
By CONNIE BOSLEY er program in the dormitory, so
this sort of experience will be
XVOU'VE PROBABLY spoken a part of student life in the
to John Wilhelm at least dorms. It's one thing I have left
once - just didn't hang around hanging, and I may still want
long enough to learn his name. to do something about it.
He sits every day behind the "There are a lot of really good
reserve desk of the UGLI and faculty members who are dy;ng
if he's not there, you can find to have interaction with s t u-
him in the Reference Room of tohvEneatinwt u
the Graduate Library. He dents," he says enthusiastically.
the radate Librry.He Even if only seven or ten
seems unremarkable. His socks people come if you start get-.
are a dashing bright red but i p oo -aiy you dta't he
he is a quiet man and sits com- iang too many you don't nave
fortably in his cloister of books. a dialogue, you have a lecure.
But if you do continual pro-!
But Wilhelm has seen some gramming over the year, and it
remarkable things. This man affects six or ten people every
has been enrolled as a student time, you do touch a lot of stu-
at Michigan for over fourteen dents and it may stimulate
years - from 1961-74. them."
Wilhelm's helief in thq cr'm- ?
9PHE OLDEST continuously en-
rolled student believes pas-
sionately that Michigan is truly3
an academic community, poten-j
tially ideal for learning at itsI
fullest through interaction with
others. What is most fascinat-
ing are his reasons for staying
-they provoke thoughts about
our own reasons for being here.
His small room at Baits is
barricaded by stacks of the
New York Times, stacked in
the easy chair and piled on the
floor, waiting for him to sort
through them to discover which
articles it was that he wanted!
to clip for his "files," which
cover such subjects as econ-
omics, the Middle East, and "U-
M Miscellaneous." He has lived
in University Housing evry
year since he came here from'
California in 1961 to obtain his
Masters in Economics. AfterI
years in East Quad and Burs-
ley, he is now finishing up the
year at Baits. He completed his
dissertation and obtained his
Ph.D. in Economics 1 a s t;
August.
"I don't envy people in apart-'
ments at all," Wilhelm declar-
ed. "They've got too small of az
group - they don't have any
variety. The dormitory provides
a sort of community. I like it
b e c a u s e it institutionalizes
things."
J'HISBELIEF in the dormi-
tory as a community
prompted his' actions as Chair-
man of the Education Commit-
tee at Bursley.
"Living in a dorm should beI
an experience, and the academ-
ic side in an important side of
this. I brought three speakers
in from outside the Univer-ity
to spend a week in the dormi-
tory, living and interacting on
a more informal basis with stu-
dents. One thing I wanted to do,
and I still want to do, is get
the University to go after some
permanent funding to have a
permanent in-residence speak-
munity of the University also'
manifests itself in his attitude
toward the library.
He says there will still, unfor-
tunately, be exceptions under
these regulations. His ideal so-
lution would be one that would
treat all library users alike.
"An effective student organiza-
tion should have gono in and
really gotten those rules chang-
ed" he says, "but SGC wx, a
mess at that time . . . they're
generally not overly int! rested
in doing anything about mb-
stantive student issues."
Wilhelm feels strongly t h a t
relevant issues to the students
and the University community
have been largely ignored.
"These things have beern lost
in the attempt to do great
sweeping things, instead of
small things, moderate things,
that require effort and a cer-
tain amount of frustration. It's
not dramatic-I'm sorry - it's
just not dramatic. But I think
much more substantive in a
sense."
JOHN WILHELM hopes to
teach economics, and he re-
mains here because job in-
formation is available to him
through the economics depart-
ment.
"[ENE OF MY greatest dreams
in life is to leave :r mark,
to make a change. If it'3 a
great change, and its for the
better - that would b !wonder-
ful. But more realistically, most
people can hope to make small,:
minor changes, or say that may-
be something was better be-
cause we did something. Better
for us, or better fr someone
else, maybe for both."
UE SAYS THAT "the library
is the heart of the Uni-
versity" - and his attitude to-
ward faculty and student use of
of the library.
"There are no fines for over-
due books for faculty memb'rs
-there never were. This has
resulted in some intolerable ,re-
datory library behavior. In
1969 I ran into a situation where
I needed a book because a pro-
fessor suggested I should read
an article in it to check on
something for my dissertation.
A faculty member had the otok,
and the library unsuccessfully
tried to call it in several times.
When I went down to Circula-
tion to complain, I was tolI by
a secretary down there, 'Oh,
whenever somebody wants a
book that he has, I write tnem
and tell them that it's lost, be-
cause the guy told us a long
time ago that he wouldn't re-
turn a book until he was ready
to.' "
After several months, a n d
after letters were written to the
Dean by the Library aid by
Wilhelm, the faculty membe' s
office was unlocked (he had
left the country on leave.) Near-
ly thirty other overdue b o o k s
were discovered there, along
with the book in question. This
incident prompted Wilhelm's ef-
fort to have effective sanctions
made against faculty and teach-
ing fellows who misuse the lib-
rary.
"I COULDN'T GO as far as I
wanted to, but thern are
now regulations, whicn will be
fully enforced beginning +his
summer. They will result in the
suspension of library privileges
to any member of the Univrrsity
community who does not return
overdue books. But this is some-
thing I had to do on my own,
and it was a battle.
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Daily Photo by STEVE KAGAN
Connie Bosley is an
sophomore who left thei
after her freshman year.
LSA
dorm
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