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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 1973)
Page 2 College Station, Texas Wednesday, October 17, 1973 University Change: An Educational Journey to Dear Redaer T-Tab, I arrived here from H-Tron as part of the “Earth Dig Team” 6 parsecs ago to analyze records discovered in a region that its for mer inhabitants called “America,” and my special assignment was to discover the causes of the decline and disappearance of the Amer ican civilization. I do believe I have found a clue, if not the clue, and as Chief Edufixer of Dnal Eigga I believe you will be interested. It may be found in tracing the history of the student-teacher relationship in Ameri can universities. Inspired by a folk-hero they called, “Socrates,” Americans persisted throughout recorded history in believing the ideal relationship between student and teach er to be a “dialogue,” the nature of which one “Mark Hopkins” described as, “one pupil, one teacher; seated on opposite ends of a log.” They believed this to be ideal because they defined education as “a process of draw ing out the unique potential excellence of each, individual.” A teacher, then, had to know each student as an individual and have time to find those ways by which each student’s talents could be awakened and developed. But, teachers in America embraced the notion, based on the sayings of another folk- hero, “Jeffer’s Son,” that maximum education for every individual was essential to realize their political ideal, called, “democracy.” They soon discovered that there was not available for every American child a Socrates—or even a Mark Hopkins. So the American teacher,, unwilling to abandon completely either ideal—the Socratic method or the dream of universal education— proposed and tried a variety of student-teach er relationships in the hope that one of them would provide a optimum balance between education for the individual and education for the masses. In this quest the teachers were not without guidance and direction from non-teachers. In a democracy, it seems, every person was considered to be an expert. They were directed by fellow citizens to examine other civilizations for a model and from Germany and England drew inspiration for the original Ivy League institutions. They soon discovered that in such universities the student-teacher relationship was not a dia logue and graduates were too class-conscious and too few to provide even a distant promise of universal education. After this brief flirt ation with “elitism,” as they called it later, the majority of Americans were ready to listen to the advice of the folk-heroes of the mid-19th century, who were called corpora tion executives. The problem of providing universal education, they counseled, was no different than the problem of making manu factured goods available to everyone; all it takes is proper organization. Thus, the state universities, “land-grant” and “hippie” alike, which emerged were careful copies of the prevailing corporate organizations. At the top of a pyramidal hierarchy was a “Board of Directors;” next, administrators ranging from the plant superintendent, called “Presi dent,” down to foreman called “Department Chairmen;” and at the bottom, the workers, called, “Profs.” The students were viewed as raw material to be gathered, processed and shipped out. (Some sources have it “shaped up.”) This factory-model university pleased ev eryone at first because it was efficient and less expensive than the elitist model. Its design guaranteed uniformity of education, now believed necessary to prevent democracy from giving birth to sporadic revolutions. They believed, contrary to Jeffer’s Son, that one revolution was enough. To understand how this university worked, it might be helpful to describe how a factory of this period worked. In a can ning factory, for example, empty, unlabeled cans without tops were conveyed in endless Batt Comentary Selective Booze “Selective enforcement” are the words here in liquor policy. The policy has been unofficially in effect, but is official now. President Jack Williams said yesterday that students would not be in jeopardy for possessing liquor in dorm rooms unless they caused trouble. The TAMU System Board of Directors has refused to change the “house” rule barring •alcohol from the campus. Williams has unofficially been given approval by Board members for a selective enforcement procedure and has passed the word to hall resident advisors and company com manders to overlook liquor in rooms, if no trouble is caused. His announcement is timely because the Student Sen ate is currently studying a resolution which would petition the Board on the matter. The bill, sponsored by Clint Hack ney, says: “. . . Student dormitory rooms and apartments are considered the private and personal domain of the stu dents residing in them . . . (and) . . . whereas, the private consumption of alcoholic beverages by students at other Texas State supported institutions has been shown to be manageable . . . BE IT RESOLVED, that . . . alcoholic beverages (be) permitted in all campus housing facilities so long as the person in possession is of legal age (eighteen years) . . The resolution continues asking that students be pro hibited from buying liquor or beer on campus and be subject to University discipline and possible civil charges in the event of disruption of hall life. Opponents of the bill say that since the rule is not being enforced, there is no need to change it. Why beg the Board to enforce it? Other opponents (so Hackney says) say it would be detrimental to Corps life and cause more injuries and problems at yell practices. Students endorsing the change agree that it would put an end to possible selective enforcement for revenge pur poses. This could happen with dorm advisors and comman ders, they say. However, Dr. Williams has indicated that this type of enforcement will result in removal from these positions. Others have looked at the existence of the current liquor policy and say the rule shouldn’t exist if TAMU officials choose not to enforce it. Although students like to think their rooms are private (their contents are), it seems hard to believe the rooms are really private if students share showers, walls, and hall ways. This is the way the administration views it. There are two areas with which the Board has no quarrel: married student housing and the on-campus homes of Dr. Williams and Executive Vice President Gen. A. R. Luedecke. Alcohol in these are exceptions. Not being very specific, Williams has said that the apartment areas are “just different,” since they are operated on a landlord basis. We don’t fault the administration for hesitancy at al lowing full drinking rights in exchange for a regulation that was passed a little over 10 years ago. The administration should be praised for its move to selective enforcement, as it is a cautious step in a more liberal direction. We believe the Senate resolution should be approved by the Senate and forwarded to the Board, not with pressure in mind, but in the interest of keeping the Board informed of student opinion. Students meanwhile, should prove to administrators they can be treated like adults with alcohol. Cbe Battalion single file lines past tables where pre measured and uniform amounts of vegetable matter were dropped into each. They were passed through tanks of shallow, steaming water which forced out any lingering bubbles. Next they passed through a capper that swiftly clamped a lid on each and stamped it with symbols for contents and the grade thereof. Finally, the cans rolled into a boiler tank and after being completely steril ized, they were labeled and boxed for ship- ping. Literally thousands of cans could be processed in a short time by such methods and only a few workers were needed. Only an expert could tell the difference between the contents of one can and another. Of course, in a canning factory it was difficult for the workers to be personally concerned about each individual can. Some times a bit of “foreign matter” got into a can of food and occasionally one burst at the seams in the boiler, but considering how difficult it was then for individuals to grow their own food, no doubt much time and money was saved by this process. This explains why the student-teacher re lationship in the factory-university was quite different from both the Socratic dialogue and the parent-child relationship of the elitist universities. It was a professor-raw material relationship; the ideal professor was required to be impersonal, efficient and single-minded while the ideal raw material was passive, receptive, and simple-minded. The teachers were first to resent their roles in this relationship and did so for eco nomic reasons. They saw the educational managers receiving much larger salaries without having to endure long, monotonous hours on the production line. They threat ened tounionize and some suggested taking over the factory; but management calmed most of the rebellious teachers by employing rather admirable tactics. They began to promote to management posts from the ranks of the teachers them selves, beginning with the leaders of potential revolt and promised the rest that they could earn relief from the production line if they would present, in publishable form, accept able proposals for making the educational process more efficient. Management realized, of course, that very few teachers would have the energy or in clination to engage in such research in their off hours, so they proclaimed the inactive majority to be “professionals,” in all respects the same as the physicians and lawyers. The teachers embraced this title, which served American education well when the students in the mid-20th century began to protest that they were not the products of the factory, but the consumers. The teachers were able now to that the students were clients consumers. No client would presume a physician what treatment to prescrj no student should presume to tell how to educate. The students, plea* elevation from raw material to clieii mained tranquil for almost a generatij Then came a troubled period in tit 1960’s, stimulated to a large extent I student belief that the professional relationship was nothing but a faneyEp for a master-slave relationship. This® grew out of the involvement of the '!,|L in what was called civil rights. This® ' ful form of activity had to do with 1 by DR. and apparently many students though;Bb'ersi were being treated like “blacks" :;K- Of “mega-versities” of California and Gi York. The fact that their consequet;® 1 ? s t° risings were met by conscription, jail oi®' 8 - I served to confirm this belief for suclfcp 8 - F' been the responses to earlier “blad'K 633 *^ risings. Buld dc Some sympathetic teachers late® 8 tak sponded to the charge that they weresfeae pe like slavemasters by attempting to es»ing a “buddy-buddy” relationship. ItisnctBkon prising that this resulted in students®- W1 Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the editor or of the writer of the article and are not necessarily those of the University administration or the Board of Directors. The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting enterprise operated by students as a University and Community newspaper. LETTERS POLICY Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and are subject to being cut to that length or less if longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit such letters and does not guarantee to publish any letter. Each letter must be signed and show the address of the writer. Address correspondence to Listen Up, The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. Members of the Student Publications Board are: Jim Lindsey, chairman; Dr. Tom Adair, Dr. R. A. Albanese, Dr. H. E. Hierth, W. C. Harrison, J. W. Griffith, L. E. Kruse and B. B. Sears. Represented nationally by National Educational Advertising Services. Inc, New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. The Battalion, a student newspaper at Texas A&M, is published in College Station, Texas, daily except Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and holiday periods, September through May, and once a week during summer school. MEMBER The Associated Press, Texas Press Association Mail subscriptions are $3.50 per semester; $6 per school year; $6.50 per full year. All subscriptions subject to 5% sales tax. Advertising rate furnished on request. Address: The Battalion, Room 217, Services Building, College Station, Texas 77843. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in the paper and local news of spontaneous origin published herein. Right of reproduction of all other matter herein are also reserved. Second-Class postage paid at College Station, Texas. EDITOR MIKE RICE Managing Editor Rod Speer News Editor T. C. Gallueci Photo Editor Rodger Mallison Sports Editor Kevin Coffey Ass’t. Sports Editor Ted Boriskie zzix/ar ing to determine curricula and crib ul side the promotion and tenure of teachej A. Th suspect that educational management a!Imping and even encouraged this, but this conU the teachers that equality with studens| impossible and undesirable. I have found no records with recent than 1984, and these suggest! after rejecting the “buddy-buddy” relf ship, most teachers reverted to one oil of the earlier modes of relation. ThisL gests a classic loss of nerve which is® r ' reason for the disappearance of mos;® esso civilizations in this particular galaiyff been You will be extremely skeptical ing these conclusions, but in this raiip stranger things have happened. B nced Megig, Btnienj Trop Novad av ,’Ustand Dr. Manuel Davenport (Trop Novibn con professor and head of the TAMU Phiiosfte, 19' Dept, since 1967. He received his AJ philosophy at Bethany Nazarene Cti Listen Up— Let’s Keep M.A. in philosophy and religion frond rado College; and Ph.D. in philosophy! the University of Illinois. eonomet agar ms let wor Our Cool Under Control n sugar. Editor: With the shortage of energy prevalent in our times, conser vation wherever possible is im portant. Therefore, there is no need for the Krueger-Dunn Com mons to be freezing cold. One’s blood practically freezes in his veins when passing through the commons. By raising the control a few notches and leaving it there constantly, the temperature would still be comfortable all the time. In addition, the energy conser ved could be saved for the ener gy-demanding winter months. The shortage that prevails during the winter could be helped con siderably if better conservation practices were performed. Although raising the tempera ture in the Commons a few de grees would not solve some of our now precious energy.. Let’s all keep our cool—but keep it under control. Debbie Marek, ’76 Editor: I would like to congratulate the Food Services Dept, for its exceptional and efficient handl ing of the steak at Sbisa Dining Hall on October 10, 1973, since they have not had many oppor tunities this year for serving steak. A bonus in pay is entitled to the innovator of the new sys tem of checking IDs. The rate of checking IDs has increased be cause only the last four numbers of your ID are copied down in stead of all six as in the past. I assume the recording of ID num bers is to keep students from re turning through the line to get the steak they did not get the week before. And when Sbisa checks out the recorded ID numbers and finds two or more the same, what will be the policy on apprehending the criminals since there are at least two other students with the same four last numbers. Keep up the good work, Old Army Sbisa and someday you will get a compliment. Bob Barker ’74 ★ ★ ★ Editor: It’s high time something is said about the management of the married students apartments of TAMU.j I’ve been living in the “barracks” since December of 1972. Since that time my wife and I have been walked in on by workers, almost kicked out for having a cat in our apartment, got a ticket on a vehicle I drive that belongs to the Bryan Eagle for not having a parking sticker on it, not to mention numerous other incidents we’ve experienced. It’s bad enough having to put up with the condition of the apart ment itself but all the other hassle we get is really too much. The thing that really bugged me was the time my wife and I almost got kicked out for having a cat. It seems that somewhere in the contract, in the fine print, it says no pets allowed, i S| recer see maybe not allowing Wiforfn Bernards in the apartepe in 1 there’s hardly enough roo[ftl969 two people, but a small i»e same cat, what’s the harm in: They (the management) nice enough to give us whole days to get rid of oi Even if we had been kicltei we would have had to pay de-fleaing fee. The bad about it is that they’re goi: tear down the College apartments in a few ye what possible harm could tin in having pets now? My question is why can! management allow people have pets to pay a pet deposi other apartments in College tion a fee is paid to cove: damage which is madebytl and is then returned at the the person moves out, age is done. Something be done. 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