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 { t f Sj$j k) ' t SINCE its inception in 1967, RC hasmaintained a renntatinn '_ , ...