The Michigan Daily-Thursday, September 4, 1980-Page 11-81-
'U' prof compares past and present students
By GEOFFREY OLANS
Student attitudes and social relation-
hips at the University have undergone
a pronounced transformation over the
past three decades, according to Angus
Campbell, University professor of
psychology and sociology.
"The '50s saw the crew-cut
generation at Michigan," noted Cam-
pbell. "They were conventional in their
social attitudes and weren't raising
ene on campus like following
generations of students."
The one-time director of the Institute
fo'r Social Research (ISR), who has
been associated with the Survey
Research Center since its inception in
1946, added that students in the 1950s
tended to marry and have children
ealy. "They were not very politically
invplved and like the generation before
then they were anxious to get out of
school and apply their knowledge to
their respective careers," he said.
"IN THE 60s the country experienced
a profound change in many of its social
v'alues and social relationships," Cam-
pbell observed. "Vietnam created a
great disturbance among young people
and accounted for most of the campus
unrest around the nation."
He said all the turbulence tended to
distract students from their studies.
Political activism was ripe on campus
and groups such as Students for
Democratic Action were the order of
the day.
Prefacing his remark with a wide
grin, Campbell acknowledged that the
old student: image of the '50s of short
cropped hair, tidy appearance and
relative sobriety had given way to one
of long hair, unkept attire and the
widespread use of drugs.
HE SAID THE counterculture
movement gave birth to a spirit of non-
conformity-"the spirit of doing your
own thing''=that went beyond
resistance to the war and still persists
today among students, albeit in a more
diluted form.
Campbell described the 1970s as a
period of healing from the traumas of
the preceding decade. He
acknowledged a conservative trend
away from the radaical past among
students, but believes that students of
the '70s, as students today, are influen-
ced by the same existential philosophy.
"They've been led to believe that you
make your own values in life and that
you are what you make yourself," he'
explained.
CAMPBELL CONSIDERS this a
disturbing way to live because it forces
students to grapple with another
element of instability and.uncertainty
that they may not yet be mature enough
to handle effectively. He feels that it was
easier for students when they merely
iccepted the values that society
provided for them.
According to Campbell, despite the
fact that the '70s have witnessed a
decline in political activity on campus,
there has been progressively more
student participation in committee ac-
tivity and general University decisions
than there used to be.
"Now it's taken for granted that any
committee that is involved in student
life-even a committee to appoint a new
University president-is going to have
student representation."
WHILE CAMPBELL REMAINS
skeptical of the way in which students
are chosen to represent the student
body he is impressed by their respon-
sible behavior.
"I've seen students behave very well
on those committees in the sense they
take their roles seriously, they're
thoughtful and they say what they want
to and, not uncommonly, it has some in-
fluence," he said.'
One area in which great strides have
been made, according to Campbell, is
minority enrollment.
"THERE IS A great deal more in-
terracial contact among students than
there ever was," he added.
He recounted one ugly incident that
took place only 35 years ago in which an
associate of his was told by the
Michigan Union management that his
black housekeeper would not be allowed
to have lunch in the hotel dining room.
He said student attitudes at the time
were no more emancipated than those
of the University administration.
When asked if the '50s and the '60s
had any such colorful offbeat campus
personalities like the seemingly om-
nipresent Shaky Jake who walks about
town somehow subsisting on his empty
guitar case or the haranguing Doctor
Diag who used to stand up on the Diag
and deliver verbal torrents to passers-
by, Campbell said he did not recall any.
He did say that a small college town
like Ann Arbor is bound to attract ec-
centrics.
WHILE THE POPULARITY of,
fraternities on campus seems to be on
the upsurge once again, Campbell said
that frats came under a lot of criticism
in the late '50s and later, as symbols of
the establishment, the objects of scorn
and derision for the counterculture.
Present day students at the Univer-
sity have heard the often repeated
complaint of professors that students
no longer know how to write. Campbell
wonders if past generations of students
could in fact write better if background
and other such characteristics were
controlled for. He also thinks that
today's generation is at least one up on
other generations in at least one'
respect:
"Maybe students have lost something
in not being able to construct proper
sentences or complete a phrase but
they have gained something in the sen-
se that they have more psychological
insight than students were apt to have
before. Students today are more
familiar with concepts of personality,
development and learning and inter-
personal relationships."
IN ONE LARGE way campus life has
stood still over the past three decades.
According to Campbell, students con-
tinue to be as enthusiastic as they ever
were towards varsity sports in general-
and football in particular. Surprisingly,
he said, Michigan football does not have
the "live and die" character to it.
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Daily Photo by JIM KRUZ
UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR of Psychology and Sociology Angus Campbell
reflects on campus life over the past three decades.
"In comparison to the way they go in
Columbus, Ohio we are absolutely
sedate," he noted.
But even football at Michigan has not
gone unaffected by change. Campbell
said that a greater amount of liquor is
consumed at games than ever before
and that the passing up of girls is a
relatively new occurence.
"Yelling of obscenities is also A
recent occurrence that would not have
been heard prior to Vietnam," he said.
North Campus
sib I I
At the hub of 'U' expansion
By PAUL ENGSTROM
gMost of what you have read has dealt
with happenings around Central Cam-
, but little has been written about
thi most rapidly expanding part of the
thiversity: North Campus. It is
situated about a mile north of campus,
, dozens of buildings-from the
estheticaly-oriented setting of the
music school, to the complex and
technical structures housing the
nuclear, automotive, and areospace
,ngineering labs are spread throughout
the campus'
Nestled anfg the trees, the brick
Earl V. Moore School of Music Building
barely emerges on the left as the Nor-
thwood bus winds through Bonisteel
Blvd. Designed by Eero Saarinen, the
school houses "250 pianos, 12 pipe
organs, 2 large rehearsal halls, a music
library, practice and listening rooms,
teaching studios, and faculty offices.
Outside, the man-made pond and
nature-made greenery provide a home
for ducks and a lounge for artists.
TO THE RIGHT, the glass and brick
Art and Architecture Building houses
the College of 'Architecture and Urban
Planning and the School of Art. Inside,
long corridors lead to administrative of-
fices, north light studios, lecture halls
and classrooms, darkrooms, the
Slusser Gallery, and the lounge, an
oasis for starving artists. Architecture
students occupy the huge third-floor
drafting room.
Across the street, the North Campus
Commons contains meeting rooms, a
cafeteria, an art gallery, a "Ready-
Teller" money machine, and a "U-
Cellar" specializing in art supplies..
Up Murfin Rd. lie the North Campus
Recreation Building (NCRB), Bursley
Hall, and Vera Baits Housing. (The
NCRB offers indoor sports facilities to
registered students and "Facility User
Pass" holders.)
ACROSS FROM THE NCRB, Bursley
Hall houses 1200 students, a cafeteria, a
general store, a library, and a game
room, among other facilities. Vera
Baits Housing shelters upperclassmen
and graduate students within a 10-
building complex. There are no kitchen
or dining facilities here, but students
may purchase a meal ticket and eat at
Bursley Hall.
If you venture further Baits Drive
curves toward the chalet-like Federick
Sterns Building on Gilbert Court. The
Sterns Building originally housed the
Zeta Beta Tau fraternity until 1972.
Today, as part of the School of Music,
the building houses the Sterns Collec-
tion of- Musical Instruments, the Eva
Jessye Afro-American Music collec-
tion, and musicology, music education,
and music camp offices.
The Chrysler Center rests upon a
grassy mound to the right of the North
Campus Commons. Used for "con-
tinuing engineering education," the
brick and fabricated panel faeade en-
closed classrooms, conference rooms,
lecture rooms, and an auditorium.
Behind the Chrysler center, construc-
tion continues on the Herbert H. Dow
building. The Dow building will house
the Departments of Chemical and
Metallurgical Engineering.
THE INSTITUTE OF Science and
Technology towers on the right as you
continue up Bonisteel Blvd, Three in-
terconnecting blond-brick structures
house the Biophysics Research
Division, the Great Lakes and Marine
Waters Center, the Industrial
Development Division, the Macro-
molecular Research Center, and the
Merit Computer Network offices. The
Merit Network interconnects the
University's central Amdahl 470v/7
computer with central computers at
Michigan State University and Wayne
State University.
Behind the Institute is the Computing
Center itself. The Center houses the
Univesity's central computer and
several input/output devices such as
See NORTH, Page 15
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Save yourself the search.
Just clip these handy phone facts
and keep the numbers you need
right at your fingertips
p
Is your social life dragon? Let
these help you to a speedy
recovery.
Michigan Daily (Circulation) 764-0558, (Classifieds) 764-0
IM Building 763-3562
CCRB 763-3084
NCRB 763-4560
Athletic Ticket Office 764-0247
Office of Major Events 763-2071
Hill Auditorium Ticket Office 764-8350
Mendelssohn Theatre 763-1085
Michigan Union 763-0087
Michigan League 764-3177
University Activities Center 763-1107
Student Activities Office 763-5911
Michigan Student Assembly 763-3241
WCBN 763-3500-
..or how abo ut your
academic life?
Graduate Library 764-0400
Undergraduate Library 764-7490
Counseling Services, Office of Student Services 764-8312
Counseling (LSA) 763-1552
Reading Improvement Service 764-9482
Counseling Services 76-Guide
557
We can be very helpful,
yes we can!
University Information (if on campus) Dail "0"
University Information (If off campus) 764-1817
Student Locator 764-2330
Office of Community Services 763-3548
Bureau of Psychological Services 764-9466
Minority Counseling and Information 764-8131
Vocational Counseling Placement Services 764-7460
Legal Aid 763-9920
Housing Information 764-3205
Under the weather?
Health Service 764-8320
Emergency After Midnight 764-8347
University Hospital 764-2192
... need we say more?
Cashiers Office 764-8232
Student Accounts 764-7447
Student Employment 764-2546
Financial Aid 763-2151
El"