Page 6-Wednesday, July 29, 1981-The Michigan Daily
'U' branch campuses
Academic
philosophies
guide directions

By MARK GINDIN
Daily staff writer
In sharp contrast to the preoc-
cupation on this campus with cutbacks
and "smaller but better," the Univer-
sity of Michigan's Flint and Dearborn
branch campuses, facing similar
budget crunches, are continuing their
efforts to grow into what might be
called "larger and a little bit better"
colleges.
Confronted with similar cutbacks in
state appropriations, administrators at
the three schools have adopted
markedly different approaches to deal
with the problem.
IN ANN ARBOR, administrators
say their first concern is for the Univer-
sity to remain a constant force in the
world of respected learning and resear-
ch institutions. The emphasis is on
preserving quality - even if it means
cutting weaker programs entirely in
order to strengthen the stronger ones.
In Dearborn and Flint, however, ad-
ministrators are more concerned with
expanding in the wake of large budget
cuts to serve the community through of-
fering more programs. They say they
intend to follow through with earlier
plans for continued growth, although at
different rates on each campus.
THIS FUNDAMENTAL difference in
approach reflects the different
philosophies on which the schools -
each separately financed - were foun-
ded.
Initially planned as colleges with dif-
ferent purposes, the University's bran-
ch campuses in Flint and Dearborn
have evolved into comprehensive
schools with essentially the same goal:
to serve the community in the name of
the University of Michigan. To fulfill
that service function, administrators at
both Dearborn and Flint say their
schools must continue to grow, adding
new programs, new students, new
faculty members, and even new
buildings.
THE FLINT campus has moved from
the campus it shared with Mott Com-
munity College to a site on the Flint
River with new facilities - enough to
handle 1,000 (33 percent) more students
than are presently enrolled. Chancellor
Conny Nelson of Flint said new
programs either currently in the works
or already adopted will attract the new
students.
Chancellor William Jenkins of Dear-
born has said the main expansion at his
school will be in programs rather than
overall physical size. There is no man-
date from the Regents or the legislature
to grow, he said, so he has planned a
"controlled growth program" whereby
any growth will be planned very
carefully, and will be a "shift of
(present) resources."
"We are fine-tuning to a position for
more flexibility," said Richard
Reynolds, vice-chancellor for Univer-
sity relations at Dearborn. Fine-tuning

includes making program changes
needed to meet the flexible market.
"But we will not let the market dic-
tate," said Reynolds.
ANN ARBOR is changing, of course,
but in a very different manner. There is
not a need to add new programs or
buildings; they are already in place and
need only to be strengthened or
reduced.
The Flint campus, on the other hand,
is trying not only to improve the state of
its present programs, according to
See DIFFERENT, Page10

ONE OF THE newest buildings on the Dearborn campus, the classroom-shopping mall (above right), contains restaurants, a
bookstore, and classrooms under the same roof. Along wth the new four-story library, the mall doubled the total floor
space of the permanent buildings at Dearborn, said Chancellor William Jenkins (above left).
/x
Those affeeted b the cutbacks
face reality of iscal shortfall
By MARK GINDIN "MORALE IS the lowest I've seen in "NOBODY LIKES to cut budgets,
Daily staff writer - 13 years," said Richard Reynolds, the said Prof. Richard Roehl, chairman of
When budgets 'get tight, and director of university relations at the faculty advisory committee on
programs begin to experience cut- Dearborn. campus affairs. The reallocation "has
backs, faculty members and students The faculty is involved in the budget not been the result of a closed process,
understandably get a little nervous. cutting moves, said Mary Cox, he said, so the faculty generally accepts
On the University's Ann Arbor cam- associate dean in the College of Arts the reality of the situation.
pus, where administrators sounding the and Letters at Flint. "It illustrates the "We have been in an unhappy cir-
cry of "smaller but better" have star- fear." cumstance and we hope as a campus we
ted to slash the budgets of several The general mood in Ann Arbor is ap- could appeal to Lansing to solve the
programs, faculty and student dissent prehensive, with heated dissent often problem," Roehl said. "We have been
has grown steadily while morale has arising during the budget cutting underfunded" and there is where, the
declined. ' procedure. A number of faculty mem- key to the solution lies," he said.
Even at the Dearborn and Flint bran- bers were upset during the review Chancellor Conny Nelson of Flint said
eb campuses, where administrators meetings which resulted in the he has cut all he can from the non-
have vowed to avoid cutbacks in favor geography department's elimination. academic units at Flint and that any
of continued growth, faculty members And other faculty members are gearing more fiscal reductions will mean that
and students have grown edgy about up to oppose the proposed cut of the "fingers and~arms" will be lost.
possible cuts. physical therapy program. See MORALE, Page 10