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Show (There is a certain type of stereotyping going on here. Just because one is a member of the faculty does not necessarily mean that he subscribes to the "faculty" view. These labels are an attempt to categorize certain thoughts and locate them in the segment of the university in which they are prevalent). THE GREAT ADMINISTRATIVE OVERVIEW. Optimism and great faith in the flexible responsiveness of the U of U is an almost universal attitude among the administrators (including department heads as administrators in this case). They claim that student participation in the decision-making process makes the "U" more responsive to student needs and prevents the friction that has led to campus disturbance elsewhere. "Our ears are open." This participation is taking place at ail levels. "Look at students on departmental advisory boards, look at course evaluation." It might be a good thing that the student body shares a common set of views and biases, however, since those listened to are almost always the same type of person. It is very easy to listen when there is little difference of opinion. Course evaluation-over half the professors ignore it entirely. Community pressures on administrators are often extreme. We are fortunate to have a President as deliberate as James Fletcher, who considers the consequences of his actions very carefully-any other type would get us all hung from the yardarm of community criticism. Presumably Fletcher's views are reflected, or at least honored, in the lower echelons (there being no violent schisms in evidence), so that he can speak for the administration. The obvious limitations placed on the University by the state tax burden are cause enough for expansion into the national scene, and the administration favors moving beyond the state university level on several planes, such as sports and research, medical and legal school expansion, and scientific/engineering drawing cards. Expansion is difficult due to local opposition and the desire to conserve certain values of being a state university, but necessary if the University is to maintain itself and its present standards, let alone improve. The University is a place for educating citizens to be useful and productive community members-indeed, according to Dean of Students Virginia Frobes, it is a place for educating "good"citizens-and since it is a part of both state and local communities, it must be responsible to them. But in order to educate these citizens well, it must go out into the national scene for resources and is thus caught on a twin pronged dilemma. AFACULTYMEMBERISCONCERNED WITH TEACHING, OH YEAH, YEAH, YEAH! Faculty membership isa focus of two large streams of thought underlying the collegiate scene. One hand holds the teaching side of the art; dissemination of data to miles and miles of vacant minds, methods for doing so, the ability to choose what to teach and the capacity for keeping the information taught relevant; the other a drive to keep abreast in a specialized field, an analytic function of the mind, creative endeavor and investigative activities of all sorts. This division can be expressed in a question: Which is more important, Teaching or Research? Solutions to the problem are varied. Some professors teach so that they have a place to do research or creative work; others Knowledge and information come before all else, whether they are being dug out of the unknown or being shoveled into the mind of a student emphasize teaching and must depend on the research of others. But they boil down to the same thing -the fluttering pinions of the SEARCH FOR KNOWLEDGE. Know-le'dge and information come before all else, whether they are being dug out of the unknown or being shoveled into the mind of a student, and all other goals of the university should be subsidiary to the great search/ flow. Get the money, damn the community, full speed ahead, navigate by the light of truth shining over the reef of political squabble and go on. A student learns or gets the information he needs for whatever he is doing in life and it's his business how he uses it or what he does with it. Teaching is a function of the university, a necessary one, but knowledge is the basis for the whole thing. The responsibility in teaching is accurate inculcation of the truth insofar as it is known. There are many opinions and theories as to the best way of doing so, and most are practiced in one form or another. One can hardly do more. Picture a vast organism, a brain, pulling out and digesting or maybe just sitting in a vast influx of information, integrating it all and spreading it out by proxy through the students that come to it to learn-an outpour of fact and creation from the greatest dynamo of human intellectual energy yet constructed. This great body must grow and change in the pursuit of knowledge, and will, despite budgetary hassle, 19 |