Thursday, September 4, 1975
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
lii u rsday, September 4, 1975 THE MICHIGAN DAILY
urriculum
changes
By SUSAN ADES
Most current and incoming students
were incorrectly crawling around in
their playpens when the last thorough
revision of the literary college (LSA)
Faculty Code was done by the Univer-
sity.
In the fall of 1972, for the first time
in two decades, a Graduation Require-
ments Commission (GRC) was estab-
lished to review the code which incor-
porates he gamut of provisions govern-
ing such crucial areas as distributions
requirements, grading systems, counsel-
ing procedures and residency regula-
tions.
THE GRC'S recommended changes in
the faculty code received final approval
by the Board of Regents this past May
and no wit is only a matter of time
before the new measures are imple-
mented. According to Associate LSA
Dean Charles Morris, "Virtually all of
the changes could be implemented by
September 1st."
However, such innovations as the
eight-credit elective freshperson course
designated to introduce students to the
University's resources and programs
may not be ready for institution until
the Fall, 1976, Morris speculates.
In addition, regaridng a new rule
reducing the number of. transferable
credits from 75 to 60, Morris suggested,
"We ought to give a year for the word
to get out to all of the various outside
institutions" as well as updating cata-
logues so as not to mislead potential
transfer students.
guage requirement remains in tact, the on the transcript but not in the grade-
mandatory course in lab-science has point," he added.
been eliminated under the GRC changes. In a move to give students more inde-
Another step in the direction of great- pendence in designing their own pro-
grams of study, numerous changes in
er flexibility involves the grading pro- counseling processes were passed.
cedure. Formerly, an upperclassperson
was entitled to elect a maximum of four
OF THE MORE than 70 other GRC courses on a pass-fail option with no
changes which may conceivably go into more than one per semester. The re-1
effect this September, the revisions in v
distribution requirements could presum- oistd up p g
ably have the most wide-ranging impact of listing up to one quarter of their total
on all LSA students. While the old meas- credits pass-fail regardless of whether
ure dictated fairly rigid requirements, or not they are distribution courses.
the new provisions are quite flexible. However, as before, courses taken for
concentration are not included under the
Under the revsed dstrbufion require- pass-fail provision.
ments, students seeking B.A. and B.S.
degrees will be expected to take at least THE NEW grading system will also
one-quarter of the credit-hours of work include the addition of pluses and min-
outside their field of concentration ac- uses to the current grading structure.
cording to a plan of their own design. The four-point scale will however re-'
The plan can be arranged in any one 'main unchanged and letter grades sub-
of three fashions: by disciplinary con- mitted as "A" and "A-' will both beI
tent, by approaches to knowledge or by accorded four points.
a plan resembling the present system by Professor Raymond Grew, chairman of
which a determined number of courses the CRC, explaining the reasoning be-
are taken from each of three broad hind such a grading scale said, "It will
areas-natural sciences, social sciences discourage any further inflation of grad-
and humanities. ing." He also indicated that the four-
point scale is "rather a common sys-
ALTHOUGH the disputed foreign Ian- tem nationally." "The honor will read
UNDER THE new GRC plan, students
will not be required to obtain a coun-
selor's approval for course selection
each semester. The only mandatory
meetings between student and counselor
will take place at freshperson orienta-
tion, when a distribution plan is chosen,
and at the declaration of a concentration
program which must come before the
end of the second year of study.
Residency regulations will exhibit
more leniency under the new code--
with the requirement for seniors to re-
main on campus being aboilshed. In-
stead, the less specific revised rule
reads, "at least one-fourth the credit
hours required for the degree must be
earned in residence in the last two years
,)f study."
Summarizing the GRC's goals in re-
vamping the faculty code, Coordinator
of Academic Affairs John Meeker said,
"The commission pretty clearly had in
mind that they wanted to provide greater
flexibility and opportunity over the old
system."
'U' Cellar sells the cheapes, ooks in town
By DAVID WHITING '
Six years ago a few students got their
heads bashed in trying to establish a
student run book store. Today, that
store, the University Cellar, sells a lot
more than books, and could be aptly
described as an institution on the Uni-
versity's campus.
Boasting the lowest prices in town,
the Cellar, as it is usually referred to,
sells everything-from artist's supplies
to comics to calculators-that an aver-
age student needs in daily life. And to
boot, it's a non-profit organization where
all books are sold at a five per cent
discount.
THE CELLAR is located in the base-
ment of the Union. Its congenial student-
run atmosphere, enhanced by music
blasting, or whispering in the back-
ground (depending on who's operating
the record player) is a far cry from the
more establishment, profit oriented book-
stores in town.
But it was a hard fight to get the
Cellar. Only after months of battle with
the Regents, culminating in the arrest
of hundreds of students, did the store
finally come into existence.
Denis Webster, Cellar manager, coW
tended, "There had been a movement
for a student bookstore since 1919, but
it wasn't until the 60's when the move-
ment finally got going."
BY THE FALL of 1968 student cries
for their own bookstore rose to shrieks
with the discovery of a loophole in state
tax laws eliminating the four per cent
sales tax on text books sold in univer-
sity-run stores.
The local bookstore merchants coun-
teracted this movement with one of their
own, in which they contended that school
supplies were already being sold at the
lowest possible price levels.
But the propaganda didn't convince
the students who demanded the Univer-
sity give them a site for their store. Un-
sympathetic Regents eventually allowed
them a small supplies store-selling
paper, pens, and pencils-but no book-
store.
TENSION began to mount, and after
a series of demonstrations, and sit-ins
in 1969, the tide finally turned, and the
Regents, in a 5-2 decision, decided to
support the idea of a student organized,
student-run bookstore.
The last, but biggest, stumbling block,
money, was overcome when in the 1969
Student Government Council election
students voted in a ten to one margin to
assess themselves a five dollar fee-to
be paid back when the student leaves
the University-to provide the store with
the necessary capital to get on its feet.
However, Webster maintained, "We
needed a half million dollars to start
out, but with this funding we only re-
ceived $250,000. We had to make it on
a shoestring."
FORTUNATELY, the shoestring turned
out to be long enough for the Cellar to
open a second store, concentrating on
art and architecture,nlocated in the
North Campus Commons.
The Cellar's prices are not locally low-
est across the board. But Webster justi-
fies the stores' presence, declaring, "We
act as a lid on the market. We keep
prices down all over town by making the
market more competitive."
Twice a year the Cellar expands its
operation to twice its original size. At
the beginning of the fall and winter se-
mesters the Union Ballroom, located on
the second floor of the Union, is equip-
ped with shelves, cash registers, and
part time workers in preparation for
book rush. But it's more of avalanche
than a rush. Hordes of students con-
verge in the ballroom and directed by
artfully designed signs, designating so-
ciology, English and his/her story, shell
out the green backs for the sake of their
education.
BUT DESPITE the long shoestring
and bookrushes, the Cellar's low prices
has somehow failed to draw enough
revenues to keep the store out of a
$300,000 debt sludge, according to Web-
ster. Hoping to alleviate this ,situation,1
the Cellar plans a full-scale advertising
campaign this fall. "We have lived on
our laurels for the past few years," said
Webster. "We can no longer do this."
But desipte its financial hassles, the
Cellar will still have its five per cent
discount on books, and its 15 per cent
discount on supplies. It will also be
open seven days a week; from 9 a.mn.-9
p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-S
p.m. on Saturdays, and 12 p.m.-5 p.m.1
on Sundays-students' hours.
I
Daily Photo by PAULINE LUBENS
THE REGENTS gather for their monthly mee ting under the flourescent lights of the Regents
room in the Administration Building.
WRgnts:u oftou
witht University?
By DAN BIDDLE
University Secr', ary D i c k Kennedy, the
good-natured aide-de-camp to the Executive
Officers, once offered a sheepish private por-
trayal of the eight-member Board of Regents.
"You could almost say they're just yes-men,"
he said in 1973. "But it appears that way be-
cause they do put a lot of faith in the recom-
mendations of the President and Vice Presi-
dent."
For vears, the state-elected board indeed
appeared to take the administration's word as
law. There were a couple of possible reasons
for this. The board members, -unlike the Ex-
ecutive Officers, do not receive their positions
on the basis of top-flight educational and ad-
ministrational credentials. The Regents are
elected state-wide for eight-year terms.
ALSO, THE Regents are by nature at least
semi-political and at most, semi-academic.
They are selected for candidacy by the state
parties, usually at the end of conventions, in
a process once described by the governor's
higher Education Commission as scraping the
bottom of the barrel.
And the Board, unlike the administration,
doesn't get in touch' with the campus that
much beyond the two-day monthly meetings.
Currently only two members are from Ann
Arbor; the rest trek in once a monith
Thus the Board's traditional respect for the
opinions of the administration makes a cer-
tain amount of sense. What may make less
sense is that the eight members, despite their
disconnection from the campus and from edu-
cation, have final control over every.major
decision and every dollar spent by the Uni-
versity.
ACTIVIST GROUPS on campus have often
assailed the Board for its alleged rubber-
stamp relationship with President Robben
Fleming and the other top officials. But in
the Winter term of 1974, that pattern suffered
a brief but memorable jolt.
In January, the Board voted 5-3 to name
Jewel Cobb, a black woman educator, the
new dean of the literary college (LSA), de-
spite Fleming and Academic Affairs Vice
President Frank Rhodes' strong preference
for Acting Dean Billy Frye. To make it unani-
mous, the Regents then voted 8-0 for Cobb.
But within a week it became clear that the
administration was still opposing'the naming
of Cobb, a Connecticut biologist. Following
The Daily's disclosure of the lRegental vote,
a series of widely-criticized negotiations with
Cobb led to her rejection by the University.
THE "COBB affair" continued through the
term as the Affirmative Action Committee
probed the negotiations and concluded in May
that Fleming and Rhodes had acted inap-
propriately to some degree. The charges were
denied.
But the Regents, despite their support for
Cobb, expressed continued faith in adminis-
tration decisions even after the "Cobb report
was issued. As one board member noted, "If
they (Fleming and Rhodes) had just told us
how badly they wanted Frye, I'm sure every
one of us would have voted for him."
At the term's end, it appeared that the
Board's 6-2 Democratic majority, which was
created by the election of Democrats Sarah
Power andThomasfRoach in November, might
create a subtle shift to more liberal decisions.
But the Cobb case seemed to show that the
Regents' reliance on the University's execu-
tives would change little.
Dofly Photo bv PAULINE LUBENS
A STUDENT browses through the bookshelves of the University Cellar. The
non-profit store, located in the basement of the Michigan Union carries a
myriad of items from laundry detergent to records at some of the cheapest
prices in this expensive town.
Two alternatives
... the Pilot Program
the fib eral ar ts eucation
...and the Res College
By GLEN ALLERHAND
Billed by the University as
"creating the intimacy of a
small college while maintain-
ing the resources of a large
University," the Pilot Program,
housed in Alice Lloyd Hall, is
one of the few places that a
student can find an orientation
towards personal g r o w t h
through free and independent
thinking.
"The philosophy behind it is
simply the idea of living-learn-
ing, instructors and students liv-
ing together to reduce the en-
mity between them," says out-
going Director Dick Munson.
He cites "a good personal in-
troduction to the University" as
a factor that attracts incoming
students to the Program.
Pilot instructors as well as res-
ident advisors, conducting
classes in informal settings: in
a student's room or at a dinner.
meeting.
Experimental one-credit cour-
ses are also available for any-
one inspired to discuss a topic
of his or her choice, Indoor Bot-
any and Photography being ex-
amples.
O U T S I D E the academic
realm, a student can reap oth-
er benefits of the program. As
Munson explains, "We had
seminars and an experiment-
al course, a 'theme experi-
ence' called Personal and So-
cial Change. It was very suc-
cessful."
In addition. 150 of theS50 Pi-
In fact, it might be such en-
ergy that typifies the Pilot Pro-
gram. When the University an-
nounced in late January that
the Program might be discon-
tinued in light of impending
budget cuts, a groundswellof'
support from present and for-
mer Pilot students was among
the factors which may have
eventually persuaded the Ad-i
ministration not to cut the pro-
gram.
EXPLAINING how'
he thought Pilot was saved,
Munson stated, "I think there
was just a good, strong, intel-
ligent input from students and
parents."
One ofthe innovations insti-
tuted by the Pilot Program is
By ELAINE FLETCHER
The Residential College (RC),j
the University unit devoted to
innovative educational meth-
ods and the living/learning ex-
perience, has been called every-
thing from a "serious scholar-
ly community" to the "candy-
ass college" in its eight yearsl
of existence at East Quad.
Descriptions of the students
involved in the program range
from politicos, freaks and in-
tellectuals to a smattering of
conservatives. In general, just1
about every campus stereotype
in involved, in one way or an-E
other, in RC programs.
more serene - students are pressure put on by both prop
more concerned about how they fessors and students to conform
fit in and how to get a decent to their socio-political views,"
job," he asserted. she said.
Consequently, classes in this
post - political era are largely WHILE walking around the
interdisciplinary, highlighting halls of RC, it is hard to avoid
current urban and ecological is- the bathroom banners request-
sues with strong emphasis on ing residents to save toilet pa-
the creative arts. Most RC per, the debates on the poten-
classes have no literary college tial for a workers revolt, the
(LSA) equivalents. poetry readings where nothing
rhymes and the groups of stu-
WHIL E A course such as dents hotly arguing the merits
Comparative Revolutions or Art! of Cubist art.
and Ideas in the Twentieth Cen- "I thought it sucked," said
tury can provide a refreshing al- one RC dropout, however. "It
ternative to History of Art 101 was very cliquish and it wasn't
or Speech 100, the courses often representative of LSA," he said.
tend toy be generalized to the And it would certainly seem
point that little is learned. that a true community would
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SINCE its inception in 1967,
RC hasmaintained a renntatinn
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