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C o V E R
budget and its faculty's collegality. requirements and financial aid paint a picture of high quality education
A large enrollment drop at the programs the college appeals to the for the coming decade, or it will at least
University would probably encourage best students available. try, Meilandsaid.
the state legislature to reduce the While this is perhaps one of the most That picture would start with
university's yearly aid, the com- promising paths, it still has its definition of exactly what the college
(Continued from Page 3) mission's interim report said. drawbacks and unknowns for the considers a liberal arts education to
that there were serious gaps between Richard Kennedy, the University's college, especially in emphasizing non- be-a question which surprisingly the
the goals of many colleges and the vice president for state relations, traditional students. college may never have asked itself,
education provided. agreed that "a precipitious drop in Non-traditional studen- according toMeiland.
The panel concluded that over- enrollment would certainly cause some ts-housewives, executives, "If one looks at the latest copy of the
specialization and professionalization questions." But he said that state ap- secretaries, almost anyone whose college Bulletin one finds an apology for
of courses have left students "with propriations are based on need, not on a education has been interrupted for the lack of an educational policy...,"
fragmented and limited knowledge." per capita formula. more than two years-are often shifting Meiland wrote in his memo to the
"Liberal education requirements Even if the college got to keep its aid, fields or upgrading their skills and are Curriculum Committee. "The only
should be expanded and reinvigorated however, the loss in tuition dollars therefore attracted to the University, principles governing the kind of
to insure that curricular content is would undoubtably leave it reeling, said Lance Erickson, as associate ad- education that we give are the prin-
directly addressed. . . to the develop- perhaps never to recover. missions officer. ciples of distribution and concentration.
ment of capacities of analysis, problem Several whole departments would But they would also require major ef- . . the Bulletin accurately represents
solving, communication and syn- probably have to be eliminated; well forts by the University to establish such the lack of integration and lack of focus
thesis." over one-hundred professors would things as night classes and child care that many students actively experience
The LSA Blue Ribbon Commission probably lose their jobs. centers, here."
started by examining three different After the elimination of the The college could also expand its Once the aims and goals of a liberal
ways the college could choose to attack geography department in 1981 and recruiting efforts to areas which are education are laid out, the college can
the problem of a shrinking clientele and large cuts to three large schools in the currently ignored due to tight budgets, make effective decisions on changing
a proportionate rise in competition following years, LSA and Univesity Meiland said. distribution requirements, on whether
among universities, administrators have probably seen And as a final stopgap to shrinking courses are promoting a liberal
The college could choose to employ enough graphic illustrations of the the college, LSA could dip into the education, and whether courses
just one of the strategies or to mix the drawbacks to large-scale, public reserve pool of students who are become too professionalized as they are
positive aspects of several to combat budget reductions to keep them qualified to attend but are bumped out taught year after year.
the problem, the commission said in its cautious of this approach. by more qualified students. But no one Meanwhile, the Blue Ribbon Com-
interim report to the college last spring. "Recall the costs of reducing by 50 can predict how long that pool will exist mission is meeting weekly hoping to
One angle is to maintain the size of faculty," LSA Dean Peter Steiner said as the college age population drops, produce a final report sometime this
the college by lowering admission stan- at a recent faculty meeting, referring to Erickson said. spring, and the college's ad-
dards. blood letting and strained relations 0 COMPLEMENT any or a combina- ministrators are keeping a low public
In doing this the college would in- surrounding the elimination of the T tion of those strategies, Meiland profile.
crease the number of eligible students geography department. hopes the Blue Ribbon Commission will They are waiting for the com-
for which it is competing, probably "We'd have to reduce by another spark solutions to some of the college's mission's final report, for the faculty's
retain its size, its faculty, and its 150," he said. most fundamental problems. reaction, the impending decline of
current revenues . , A final strategy is to uphold ad- He hopes it will provide a framework college students nationally, and
But the strategy certainly wouldn't missions standards, and retain the through which the college can focus ef- ultimately, for the fate of the Univer-
be without costs, Meiland said in a college's size by increasing existing forts and integrate its many courses in- sity's largest school to unfold.
recent interview. recruting efforts, starting to recruit to a meaningful educational
"My concern about this strategy is non-traditional students, and philosophy.JakoisaDlysffrpte
that lowering admissions standards overhauling curriculum, distribution The Blue Ribbon Commission will Jackson is a Daily staff reporter
even slightly might make our school
less attractive to the very best studen-
ts," he said. "The very top
schools-Harvard, Stanford-might not
have to lower their standards."
Those schools may be able to fall
back on their huge private endowments
to offer extensive merit scholarship
programs, he said.
In addition, Meiland said, a drop in
student quality may start a chain reac-
tion which would eventually demoralize
the faculty.
Most of the professors are quite op-
posed to lowering admission standads
they want to teach very good students,
he said. "#
And once those students are gone, r
getting them back would be no easy
task, Meiland said.
"After 1995, the number of high
school seniors in our prime recruitingm
grounds will start to go back up," he
said. "They will go up fairly slowly...
No telling when we would have enough
applications to recoup quality."
Although Meiland said that nobody
really knows what would happen if the
college pusued this course, most of-
ficials harbored fears that the resulting
school might bore top-flight students
and the school's academically elite
professors. And that would certainly
tarnish LSA's highly touted reputation.
A second strategy would involve
shrinking the college along with the
smaller number of students it is able to
enroll.
This, at least in theory, would preser-
ve the admissions standards of the
school. But the tremendous loss of
tuition revenue and perhaps even a
reduction in state support for the
college would cause traumatic, if not
unbearable, strains on the college's Meiland (left) and Al Hermaline: Discuss LSA's future
4 Weekend/Friday, November 16, 1984
r _ , ,.. ... .. .. .. ......x.. . _._ . ..... . .._....... ..............71

R E C 0 R I
plicitly fascinated and the merely indif-
ferent.
Remote Luxury isn't markedly dif-
ferent from the excellent imported
second and third albums, Blurred
Crusade and Seanie. Beyond its further°
defining the Church's curiously
enigmatic skating over variously
musical styles-synthpop ("Maybe
acoustic-based folk fantasia ("Remote
Luxury"), polite psychedelia ("Violet
Town"), and spacey wave-Floyd rock
sw~es("10,000 Miles.").
Steven Killday has a seductive, just
slightly whiny voice that's reminiscent
Remote Luxury of Peter Perret, lead singer of the
The Church defunct British Only Ones; his voice
Warner Bros. seems to invite us into the rather
wearied, but still intelligent inner
By Den sHaworkings of a mind.
His lyrics have an unusual poetic in-
tensity as well. The LP's most ac-
USTRALIANS The Church do folk- cessible cut, the gorgeous acoustic-
tinged new rock with a fey, poetic electric guitar interplaying "Into My
ethereality that makes their one-and- Hands," offers this wistful confession of
off U.S. distribution history (Remote) sexual disappointment: As it gets so
Luxury is the first one of four albums uncertain/when the girl gets too
since their '81 debut to be released near/it 's never as good as I
domestically) seem oddly logical. they hoped/or as bad as I feared/Some
don't make easy commercial sense, seek sleek and slithering char-
they never descend to the status of an ms/Out of reach, their grasping ar-
identifiable image. ms/Our skin like milk, our breath
Always seductive, but equally of words/like happy, awful and ab-
evasive, The Church can't be con- surd."
veniently lumped in with any particular Kilbey writes much of the material, tongue-you get that shiver of pleasure vocals cc
trend, past or present-their charm is but guitarist Mary Willson-Piper wrote subtlety. Rather fey in appeal even smg, par
at once very modern and somewhat and sings lead on two songs, "10,000 when it sports a big beat, this album is no less
timeless. The whimsical, introspective Miles" and the delicious "Volumes." unlikely to change. many opinions singers-
nature of their music seems to cut Remote Luxury slides down the ears among the as-yet-unconverted, but it's McAllist
listeners into two camps, the inex- like Italian ice cream down the ravishingly beautiful music for those length 
with the necessary susceptibility. features,
Morticia
puckish1
The Drongos nedy, an
The Drongos John M
emerged
Proteus Records .snare dru
AC?// R 9 /6 T667 ought to i
(1 RUISING INTO Joe's Star Lounge The Dr
MClast month with virtually no ad- assortme
vance word-of-mouth to speak of an un- upbeat ar
fortunate Tuesday night (same as the eccentric
84I E N,1Psychedelic Furs performance), New interestin
Zealand's Drongos made a pitstop on get are v
their first midwestern tour to a singing a
* miserably small crowd-the sort of making p
crowd too small to encourage dancing, Especi1
because everyone feels so conspicuous Crime," a
' Yet-even given the number of great have the
acts that have passed through clubtown chord ch
tJof late-the Drongos managed with weight p
seemingly little effort to put on the most fits of gri
exhilerating show of pure pop high seen a bai
spirits and melody I've seen all year. as the D:
They actually moved from New energeti
Zealand after a scant two months of cert-thei
playing some five years ago, and since impressiv
have risen from the more casual venues scope of
(i.e. street corners) to some clubland album gi
prominance in NYC. likeability
Their first LP is currently out on the through t
Proteus label-which hitherto
distributed only rock-oriented
books-and, evasively titled The
Dongos, its hook-packed high wave
pop with an unfashionable directly
energy and lack of pretense. The sole
message: fun, fun, fun; not in any
calculated we're-just-silly sense but in
the rarer pure-enjoyment, we-love-
what-we're-doing manner of yore.
If the LP doesn't quite have an im-
pact up to the Drongos joyous stage
SM AAWpresence, it provides a solid introduc-
tion. The production by Steve Katz and
Joe Schick is nicely crisp, bringing out
the Drongo's healthy teen pop-rock
guitars and snappy rhythms. The
Weekend/Friday