MSU Faculty News Vol. 2,No.5 Michigan State University Oct. 27, 1970 .. Insurance programs are open Faculty and staff open enrollment for University insurance benefits is now underway and will continue through Nov. 6. This year's open enrollment marks the first time that all salaried employees are eligible for TIAA Major Medical insurance. Clerical - technical staff were previously ineligible for this coverage. in Also effective during the enrollment is increased coverage, without increased premium, the Aetna Long Term Disability plan. The monthly maximum benefit has been raised from $1 ,000 to $2,000, and a 4 per cent cost of living rider has been added for both the monthly cash benefit and the TIAA - CREF payments. Other programs open the American Plan, Mutual of Omaha's those for insurance accident eligible, Blue Cross/Blue Shield. include and, Coverage IS effective Dec. 1 for all insurance benefits or changes applied for during the enrollment. Premiums will be deducted beginning with the Nov. 30 paycheck. Gary J. Posner, director of staff benefits, pointed out that persons already enrolled in group programs and who plan no coverage changes don't need the open to participate enrollment or contact his office. in AMERICAN PLAN coverage has been improved in six areas (Faculty News, Oct. 20), and provides total hospital protection for semiprivate service and unlimited hospital extras up to 365 days. Posner emphasized that this is only the third open enrollment in nine years for the TIAA Major Medical program. Yearly open enrollments are not expected in the future, he added. for faculty He noted that the enrollment is an opportunity and staff already under a group hospitalization for any include coverage plan children who were not added within 31 days of birth or for spouses who were not added at the time of marriage. to Posner also pointed out that if both husband and wife are employed full - time by MSU, they may be eligible for "married couples" contribution toward hospitalization Further information is available from the Staff Benefits Divison, 353 - 4434. insurance. general ALTHOUGH open a enrollment for group life insurance is not being conducted, Posner said, any full ~ time employee who has not reached age 53 may enroll for coverage under either schedule or may increase his coverage. Persons can enroll at any time by submitting appropriate evidence of insurability, he said. • Where to enroll Representatives of the Staff Benefits Division will be on hand to help faculty and staff participate in the open enrollrnent this week and next at the following locations: * Wednesday, Oct. 28, Room 111, Brody, 3 -4:30p.m. * Thursday, 102B Wells Hall,S -8 p.m. * Friday, Physical Plant, lunchroom, 3:30-5 p.m. * Monday, (Nov. 2), East Akers, conference room, 3 - 4:30 p.m. * Tuesday, West Shaw, small dining room, 3 - 4:30 p.m. * Wednesday, Union, Captain's Room, 374:30p.m. The Staff Benefits office will also be 344, Room in daily open Administration Building. The high energy physics group: From left, R. J. Sprafka, Gerald A. Smith, Z. Ming Ma, Maris A. Abolins, K. Wendell CQen. - Photo by Dick Wesley Physics group preparing to use national accelerator By GENE RIETFORS Editor, Faculty News When the world's most powerful proton accelerator throws off its first beam of nuclear particles sometime in 1972, scientists from Michigan State will be among the first in line to use it for experiments. Five professors from MSU's high energy physics group - Maris A. Abolins, K. Wendell Chen, Z. Ming Ma, Gerald A. Smith and R. J. Sprafka - have learned that· projects they proposed have been approved for use at the new National Accelerator Laboratory at Batavia, Ill. Indications are that a project proposed by Chen will be the first to make use of the NAL's 200 billion electron volt (GeV) synchrotron. The facility is scheduled to be ready by July of 1972, quite possibly sooner. The NAL, located about 30 miles west of Chicago, is being built at a cost of some $250 million. Its powerful synchrotron, Is there a science crisis? "Is There a Crisis in Science?" is the topic for a public meeting scheduled tonight at 8 in Room 138 of the Chemistry Building. The main speaker will be George S. Hammona. chairman of chemistry and chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology. The meeting is part of a scien tist series oeg'..ll1 by the chemistry department the and by supported Science in chemistry , Developmen t Program physics and mathematics. distinguished which will eventually reach an energy level of 500 GeV, features an accelerator ring of 1 1/4 miles in diameter. The currently most powerful accelerator (76 Ge V) is located in the Soviet Union. * * * THE FIVE MSU physicists represent three research teams. Chen's group is collaborating with a team from Cornell University, and Abolins is working with scientists from Ohio State University. Smith, Sprafka and Ma are cooperating with other physicists from the Argonne National Laboratory (also near Chicago), Iowa State University and the University of Maryland. Collaboration that involves a large n umber of scientists is almost mandatory, Smith says, because a single group "usually cannot handle a whole problem at such a large installation" as NAL. By 1975, it isestimated,NALwillhave about 1,700 scientists and supporting staff, plus an average of 350 visiting researchers. "Competition is very high just to get use of the machine," points out Frank J. Blatt, MSU chairman of physics. Nearly 90 proposals have been submitted so far to the NAL, from researchers throughout the U. S. and from around the world. Only about 20 have so far received firni or tentative approval. (Continued on page 3) AA UP will seek amendments again The MSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which originated the two bylaw amendment rejected this month by the Board of Trustees, is asking the Academic Council to reaffirm its support of the proposals so they can be reconsidered by the Trustees. proposals "We feel that the trustees probably misunderstood the intent of -the proposals," said Sigmund Nosow, professor oflabor and industrial relations and president of the AAUP Chapter. "The essential thing is that these are advisory functions and nobody is taking away anyone's power," he said. He was referring to Trustee Stephen Nisbet's concern over "continued diminution of the Board's authority ... " Trustees also expressed concern over the phrase which said that decisions of the faculty tenure committee would be binding on the administration. Nosow pointed out that "the Board of Trustees always has the final say," and that the term "binding" refers to administrative officers of the University. * * * . PROVOST John Cantlon, who presented and argued for the proposals, disagreed with the contention that the trustees miSinterpreted the intent of the proposals. "Binding in a legal sense and endorsement are two different things," (Continued on page 2) MSU Faculty News, Oct. 27,1970 Nolen Ellison: 'Bringing about needed changes' ByBEVERLY~CHELL Associate Editor, Faculty News Nolen M. Ellison, new assistant to the as president, "nondescript." His duties, he says, are to assist the presiden t ... describes job his Beyond the obvious, however, are the perceptions, concerns and experiences of the man, which gives the position a more definite shape. "I'm conscious of the fact that the President's Office is obviously a very key office," Ellison says, "and I'm interested in how one best works in this framework to bring about changes that need to come about." Day to day, Ellison says, "my job will to the kinds of problems and relate concerns the the president has at moment, across a vast number of areas," from representing the president at a Varsity Club meeting to making notes which might be used in a speech to urban center directors. But beyond day to day are the broader concerns. issue is how Ellison says he believes that "the critical the today University addresses itself to the kinds of problems that have developed in urban America. There is a challenge to redirect its resources, to develop it body of knowledge to seek solutions to those problems." H.e recogn1zes this as a major function of the Center for Urban Affairs (of which he had been associate director), the but President's Office," he says. just as critical ':it to is And urban affairs are not necessarily Tuesday, Oct. 27: 1 p.m • . . • (AM) .. Advocacy and Objectivity in Urban Journalism," Paul Gapp and Don Holt of Newsweek. Wednesday, Oct. 28 : 10:30 a.m .... -(AM) " Radio Smithsonian," music with instruments from Smithsonian collection. Thursday, Oct. 29: 11:30 a.m •••. (AM) "Keyboard Technique: Jazz and the Blues" with James Drew, composer and professor at Yale. Sunday, Nov. 1: 9· p.m. • . • "Ernest Hemingway," a 2-hour documentary on Hemingway's life and literature. Wednesday, Oct. 28: 7 p.m •..• "If I Am Elected ••• " State House candidates Jim Brown and George Griffiths meet. Thursday, Oct. 29 : 7 p.m ••. State Senate hopefuls Philip Pittenger and Len Stuttman are featured. Sunday, Nov. 1: 2:30p.m •••. Candidatesfor MSU Board of Trustees answer questions and discuss issues. 4 :30 p.m. • • • Sixth Congressional district candidates featured. "10 p.m •••• "Georgia Brown Sings Kurt Weill" features Miss Brown (from "Oliver") doing the music of the composer of several musicals. 11 p.rn: ••. Playhouse production is "A Scent of Flowers," Emmy Awardwinning play of young girl driven to suicide by illicit love affair •. . , .. ' ~ ( \ only minority people's affairs, he says. , (Defming exactly what is meant by is' ' 3, project ' for his urban affairs, higher in doctoral education and administration.) dissertation So, asked if he was hired to be the Black assistant to the president or to specifically work as the assistant in charge of urban affairs, his answer was no. It's more complex than that. * * * ELLISON said he considers his new position a great opportunity "to work with a man like Cliff Wharton," plus - with his personal interests in a career in higher education administration - he now has the opportunity to "see how a university in fact operates. "You must be familair with as many facets as you can be to know how a university can best effect necessary change." Because the president holds such a key position in helping to create change in the University, Ellison sees as "very critical" his own task of helping the president apply all the best information in decision - making. He also refers to the "different kind of potential" he can provide for the president. * * * "DIFFERENT THE kind of potential" relates to the experiences Ellison has had not only with the Center for Urban Affairs at MSU, but as former member of Kansas City's Human relations commission, as a former member of the Board of Trustees at Kansas City Junior College,and as chief Nolen Ellison: The job is "nondescript." planner for the Kansas City Planning Department. Teaching for six years in the only all - black high school in Kansas City, seeing "victims of the urbaJ). setting," plus being a victim himself of urban renewal or relocation, also had an impact on him, Ellison says. "It impressed on me the need for blacks - and for whites - to develop a new kind of framework for action, for professional posture - new kinds of professional posture for needs I know exist in urban communities. "I saw the University as a defmite plateau to effect change back in the community, and at this point, not just in Kansas City." * * * ELLISON, 29, came to MSU in 1968, intending to get his doctorate and leave - Photo by Dick Wesley. "the normal pattern of problem - - solving," he says. . He became assistant to Robert Green, director of the CUA, and decided to stay "for awhile." Now he's staying, he says, "because I find this University and the land - grant philosophy as really part of the kind of philosophy needed to speak to problems of America today." He's committed to a philosophy, he says, (which is more than urban) , but Which is simply about people. "I the think challenge facing Preside~t Wharton is a unique challenge as a black person heading one of - America's giant institutions," Ellison "That represents a Jand of says. potential that the larger community really needs benefit of. "I saw the chance in assisting him ... " Bylaw amendments . • • (Concluded from page 1) he said. "They (the trustees) know the meaning of 'recommend.' " But, he said, "they felt we were already doing many of the things being asked." Cantlon said the mood of the trustees at the meeting affected the fate of the proposals: A student request at the previous evening's meeting for student seats on the Board helped cause negative trustee reactions ito the faculty proposals . Resubmitting the proposals now may have little effeet in changing current members' minds ~ Cantlon said. THE AAUP also considers Trustee Clair White's reaction a misinterpretation of its intent. White said the proposed committee on faculty compensation and academic budget was "obviously a well - studied effort to have governance and collective bargaining simultaneously." Nosow said collective bargaining is completely out of context with the proposal - it was not intended as a substitute for · or an alternative to collective bargaining, nor was it to relate in any way to the concept of collective bargaining. The AAUP has had a long - standing policy to recognize common goals within the academic community, Nosow said, and it rejects the notion of an adversary relationship between the administration and the faculty. The AAUP perceives the University "as a cQ!1lJllunity of scholars all working toward: ihe same end," he said. "And we as faculty have something to offer in the crucial areas that affect the University." Erwin Bettinghaus, professor of is chairman of the communication, faculty affairs committee,- which now is b~dget, he sai~, .and d~es have the s~e responsible for some of the areas the new committee would have assumed. He said kmd of aSSOCIatIons WIth the Provost s that faculty input has already existed, Office as recommended by the by.1aw but that the new committee's charges would have been somehwat more speCific. amendments. With the defeat of the amen.dment to have created the new commIttee, the faculty affairs committee will continue as it has in the past, Bettirighaus said. The faculty affairs committee does make budget recommendations on the • The rejected amendments Two proposals for faculty bylaw amendments were rejected by the Board of Trustees at its October meeting. The amendments that proposed the Univer s ity Committee on Faculty Compensation and Academic Budget included these bylaw changes to outline the committee's responsibilities' (prefIx numbers refer to bylaw sections) : . "5.4 . 3.2.1. Studying and makmg recommendati:ms with respect to the alloca tion of financial resources to the various -academic functions and activities of the University. "5.4 . 3.2.2. Studying and making recommendations with respect to the level and structure of faculty salaries and other forms of compensation. , "5.4.3.2.3. Making annual recommendations for adjustments in salaries and other economic benefits, with a view toward improving the economic status of the MSU facility. "5.4.3.2.4. Studying and making recommendations with respect to personnel policies relating to faculty (excluding tenure). Illustrative areas are pn;)motion, leaves, outside work for pay, military service, participation in partisan politics, physical examinations, health services faculty publications, faculty evaluatio~ retirement and faculty housing. "5.4.3.2:5. Developing and recommending procedures for equita~le adjudication, of individual faculty gnevances concerrung salaries, benefits and personnel policies. "5.4.3.3. The University administration shall consult with the Committee during the process of formulating the University's annual budget request to the State of MiS~' d4H~13Jhe, process of allocating appropriated and other funds of the University, and during the process of decision - making on other subjects within the responsibilities of the Committee. ConSUltation shall be understood to mean providing an adequate and timely opportunity the expression of the views of the for Committee, consideration of those views by the provision of the administration and information to the Committee on any actions taken on matters which have been discussed with the committee. "5.4.3.4. The Committee shall report and make recommendations to special meetings of the elected Faculty Council, to be convened each year on dates which will allow sufficient time to influence' decisions affecting the allocation of the Uni~ersity academic budget and adjustments in salaries and other economic and fringe benefits. These reports will be in addition to the reports required of all standing committees (5.2.3 - 5 .2.3.1)." * * * THE SECOND set of proposed bylaw the the charge amendments involved University Faculty Tenure Committee: to "5.4.4.6. Decisions ofthe University Faculty Tenure Committee on matters involving in terpreta tion of tenure rules and in cases involving deviation from tenure rules shall be binding on the adnpnistration and the faculty member concerned. "5.4.4.7. The Urtiversity Faculty Tenure to the Committee shall report promptly Academic Council any case in which the administration acts contrary to the Committee's decision on a question involving tenure." MSU Faculty News, Oct. 27, 1970 National survey shows sala-r:~ levels Deans of:. the professional coll~ges earn higher median salaries than other university administrators - including preSidents - according to a biemlial National Education Associat~on survey. -~ ~: In the portion of the-suivey devoted to four - year institutions, deans of medicine ranked highest with a median 1969-70 salary of $37,333. Deans of dentistry ($30,800), veterinary medicine ($28,500), l~w· ($28,063) and engineering ($26,750) than preSidents also were higher ($25,979) in median salary. Numbers in the sample varied Widely, however, since 969 presidents were surveyed, compared with only 54 deans of medicine, 36 dentistry deans, 18 veterinary medicine deans, 97 deans of law and 142 engineering deans. Three university preSidents reported salaries of $60,000 or more, and 72 others reported earning $40,000 or more. The median salary for preSidents was. up 16.5 per cent over two years ago. More than 22,000 administrators and some 270,000 teachers at 1,791 colleges and universities were polled. The survey included schools both public and private, four - year and two - year. Results were reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education. * * * Twenty - five of the 53 types of administrators surveyed had median salaries higher than $20,000 for 1969-7.0. At the low end of the scale among administrators at four - year schools were directors of student fmancial aid ($10,409), directors of alumni· services ($10,750), directors of information ($11,158), deans of women ($11,406) and registrars ($11,743). Other administrative areas rt:porting median salaries over $20,000 included (all for 12months): Deans offorestry; $25) 750; de~ of agric~lt ure , $:2 5,3 7_? ·pro.v9;sts, $24,412; deans of arts and sciences, $24,071; deans of business, $23.938; deans of education, $23,625; vice presidents for research $23,500; deans of graduate school, $23,361; executive vice preSidents, $23,250; deans of extension, $23,000; vice presidents for planning, $21,536; deans of home economics, $21,500; deans of nursing, $20,600. * * * AMONG FACULTY at four - year universities, the median salaries were (nine months' rate): Professors, $17,418 ; associate professors, $13,316; assistant professors, $10,980; instructors, $8,459. Those salaries represent nearly 160,000 faculty at four - year universities. Extremes in the university faculty salary brackets range from 25 professors who report salaries of $35,000 or more to 78 full professors earning less than $10,000. Overall faculty salaries included: All four - ·year institutions, $11,745; public four - year institutions, $12,078; nonpublic four - year institutions, $10,908; all two - year institutions, $10,626; public two - year institutions, $10,850; nonpublic two - year institutions, $8,190. The complete report, "Salaries in Higher Education, 1969-1970," was prepared for .the National Education Association in Washington, D.C., under the direction of William S. Graybeal, assistant research director. Letters Retirement raise too low? Physics group • • • To the Editor: May I comment upon your report-in the Faculty News of Oct. 20 concerning the raise of retirement (noncontributory plan) from the maximum $3,000 set in 1958 to a maximum of $3,300. A financial speCialist informs me that in terms of current prices as compared with the price index of 1957-58, $3,000 in the 1957-58 days would be fairly represented today by an increase to $4,500, ~t the very IJlinimum, It would seem that faculty "who would have been disadvantaged in 1958 by changing over to TIAA (and) who were • the relying upon (Editor's note: Professor Hawkins has raised some concerns that may be shared by others who will be their participation University's in noncontributory retirement plan. The Academic Council last December endorsed recommendations from the faculty affairs committee that included a request tlitat MSU "investigate the actuarial soundness; of the old retirement system with regard ito either the maximum compensation and/or' allowing the benefits! to increase at a more rapid rate." increase an in . Based in -part on that recommendation, the University increased the maximum retirem~nt salary under the noncontributory plan fr6m $3,000 to $3,300. in salary A series of factors had to be considered in increasing the retirement benefits. For o~e, the retirement increas~g the noncontributory plan involves administrative - professional, clerical - technical and service as well as faculty. employe participants Faculty now constItutes a minority in the University program. The increased benefits must be drawn from a special retirement fund that is separate from the University's annual state appropriation. The retirement fund, accord,ing to Stephen Terry, assistant vice president for business and [mance, works something like this: Each payday i the University puts into the fund 5 per cent of the salary of each person not in the TIAA-CREF retirement program; Money in this fund is· then invested for the University by the Ann Arbor Trust Company. Theoretically, University· payments made now will support f1,lture retirement benefits for persons still working. In order for the plan to provide for prospective retirees, it must remain "actuarially sow;td" ~ its investments insure a:cturarial must perform well. soundness, the University reviews the fund every two years to verify that existing funds can provide CQntinued retiremement benefits. The itlvestment performance of the fund allowed an increase in JUly in retirement benefits. But Terry emphasized that the· amount of that increasew;lS limited by the amount in the fund. An increase beyond the $3,300 the University to take money from the general fund, he said, and this would have meant either higher student fees, or lower faculty • -, .. staff salary in.creases. figure would- ,have required ,To allowed to remain exclusively under the noncontributory plan" are now being increasingly disadvantaged - even when • the University makes a gesture of generosity. I cannot help feeling that to the promptings of the c0nscience of the Powers that Be that asked for justice, the reply was a pittance of charity. Carroll Hawkins Associate professor, political science (Concluded from page 1) THE TERM "high energy" physics generally refers to work deaijng with accelerators that· operate above 1,000 million electron volts (MeV). MSU's own Cyclotron, for example, reaches an energy level of about 55 MeV. The physicists here agree that the NAL will be the c~nter for world high energy - physics - "the mecca for our business." In fact, it is the University's proximity to the NAL and to Argonne that helped attract members of the high energy group here. COGS meeting The Council of Graduate Students will hold an open hearing. on the proposed document on graduate student rights and responsibilities in the Owen Hall small cafeteria Thursday, October 29, at 9:30 p.m. Members of COGS will be available for small group discussions of the document, including explanation of the proposal or any suggestions for changes. The document must be approved by both COGS and the Graduate Council before being presented to the Academic Council and Senate, and to the Board of Trustees. A limited number of copies of the document is available in the Office of Advanced Graduate Studies, Room 246, Hannah Adminstration Building. Abolins and Sprafka (both from the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley), Ma (from Duke UniverSity) and Smith (from the University- of California, Berkeley) arrived about three years ago. Chen came this fall from Princeton University. "The University made a strong effort to get this group here;" Smith says. "Those of us who came felt that a strong group could be built, and we liked the idea of tastes and to our own building it interests." The high energy group was organized u nder former phYSics chairman Sherwood K. Haynes, now professor of physics. Says current chairman Blatt: "When you set out to build a program in this field, you need to be sure that the people you bring here are going to be in the forefront of the field." Acceptance' of MSU projects for the Beethoven program opens with concert next Monday The orchestra will present two concerts with Miss du Pre as soloist. Wednesday at 8:15 p.m., the Chicago Symphony will perform Beethoven's "Symphony No.3 in E Flat" (Eroica) and Dvorak's "Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B Minor." Friday (Nov. 6), Beethoven's "Symphorty No.2 in D Major" and Saint - Saen's "Concerto for Cello and Orchestra" will be heard. Michigan State's Beethoven Festival begins next Monday (Nov. 2) with a concert by pianist Daniel Barenboim and cellist Jacqueline du Pre. Miss du Pre, Barenboim, violinist Pinchas Zukerman and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will participate in the week of concerts presented by MSU's Lecture-Concert Series. Barenboim, whorecorded the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas, will be heard in concert Tuesday, Nov. 3, at 8:15 p.m. performing four of the sonatas. The Chicago Symphony will be r conducted by Barenboirn. An open rehearsal where faculty, staff and students can watch the orchestra prepare for the concert will be at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday (Nov:4). NAL is evidence of the group's standing na tionally and internationally, Blatt emphasizes. The five scientists agree that they wouldn't be here if it weren't for the teaching opportunities, students and atmosphere of a university campus. They acknowledge financial support from both MSU and from the National Science Foundation. * * * ALL THE RESEARCH involves a study of the structure of matter in its smallest regions. Chen will investigate the smashing interactions of mu - mesons with protons, in order to test a fundamental concept of scale at these regions. While the region of study is extremely small, the physical scale of the experiment is so large that its recording and analysis equipment alone require a 40 ft. by 120 ft. building at MSU. Much of his equipment will come from Princeton and from federal resources. The Abolins group, concerned with neutron - proton interactions - bouncing particles off each other like billiard balls - will continue work they have begun at Argonne. Abolins and his colleagues have been given two years to prepare for their NAL project, and, he says, the work is so complex that the lead time is not an overestimate. The Smith - Sprafka - Ma team is involved in bubble chamber research. They are studying what are called "catastrophic" collisions among nuclear particles in a bubble chamber, where the results of such collisions can be recorded and analyzed. To gear up, they'll have to move a 120 - ton piece of equipment from Argonne to the NAL. Smith says such experiments are seen as "fundamental to our understanding of the forces responsible for the structure of matter," because they involve collisions within distances that are the smallest yet studied by man: less than one - millionth the size of a hydrogen atom. M§U Faculty Ne~ Zukerman, in his recital at 8:15 p.m. Thursday, will include Beethoven's "Romance in G Major, Op. 40';' imd "Romance in F Major, Op. 50," plus works by Brahms, Bartok and Chausson. in the Auditorium. Tickets are available at the Union:]:'i~e~ Office. All performances will be Editor: Gene Rietfors A~ciate Editor: Beverly Twitchell Editorial Offices: Rooms 323 and 324, Linton Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48823. Phone: 355-2285. Published weekly during the September - June academic year by the Department of Information Services. Second - class postage paid at East Lansing, Mich. 48823. MSU FacultY News, Oct. 27,1970 Toward 'flexible rigidity' on the campus (Editor's Note: Following are excerpts from a s?eech - "Toward an Era of Flexible Rigidity for Crisis Sake" - delivered recently by Paul L. Dressel, assistant provost and director of institutional research at MSU. He made his remarks during the "Share-In" conference that commemorated the 25th anniversay of. the University's Counseling Center, of which he was the illSt director. Dressel is also the current president of the American Association of Higher Education.) For nearly three centuries, much o f what has occurred 'in American higher education was based on the Protestant ethic and done for Christ's sake ... Today , much of what we do is based on the protest ethic and is done for crisis sake ... There is more here than an amusing similarity in the sounds of the phrases. Actions taken either for Christ's sake or crisis sake are alike in other respects. Administrators have been brought to their knees in prayerful attitude for both sakes - and for the same reason, They have sensed a power which they do not understand and with which they are unable to cope effectively . .. It may be cogently argued that the earlier rigidity of colleges based on a classical curriculum sanctioned by religious considerations gradually shifted to a rigidity ~nforced by a priesthood designated as Ph.D's. I am convinced that this latter - day rigidity has led in part to the crises of the day in higher education. My concern is that in trying to avoid one rigidity, we do not simply invoke another . My thesis is that extreme flexibility is as undesirable as extreme rigidity. And hence I assert that what we should seek in higher education is flexible rigidity. * * * FLEXIBIUTY, whether in a woman's girdle or a college curriculum, is not a virtue when it permits an individual to emerge unchanged in shape or character. Rigidity, whether in the structure of a bridge or in the standards and policies of an educational institution, is not a vice when it permits an individual to attain a desired goal or acquire a new capability. A c,ollege exists to educate individuals, and it serves both individuals and society in so doing. Equally, it has obligations to both the individuals and to society. If every individual were truly capable of educating himself, we would need no schools or colleges. Obviously, most individuals do not have this capability or society would not have found it desirable to establish colleges. But' colleges have erred in becoming too prescriptive in regard to all aspects of in unnecessary and unrealistic curricular student behavior, and especially requirements. Some structure is essential to avoid complete chaos, out over - concern about the bias and convenience of faculty and structure, often based upon administrators, destroys flexibility and individuality. (What) emerges (is) the concept of a flexible rigidity - a dynamic structure which adjusts to stress but continues to perform its essential functions and attains its specified goals. * * * THE PLANNING of university programs is and always has been a search for structure. We started with a completely required curriculum, based on mental r discipline by exposure to a classical education. This mental discipline view ot learning, aptly designated as faculty psychology, is still in modified form, the learning psychology of the faculty today. The psychology of the faculty insists that the diet of students be balanced, and balance is equated to control. And so a new structure is sought, based on faculty conceptions and convenience more than on a considered conception of what an education should be. The structure which emerged and which is still largely found in our universities is based on: 1. The organization of knowledge type of requirement which enforces student contact with various groups of disciplines. The emphasis is on the student knowing something about the disciplines rather than acquiring any significant and useful competency; into diSCiplines and some 2. Requirements which purport to insure breadth and depth but interpreted as unrelated experiences with disciplines rather than as qualities of an educated individual; 3. Course and credit requirements - a deceitful packaging conception of set of experiences education rather than a flexible but planned and cumulative productive of meaningfUl competency; . 4. Grades, honor points, and simplistiC arithmetical computation~ based on them, which are used to measure progress, eliminate students, and award honors and degrees; 5. Rules in the operation of residence halls, registration , transfer of credits, fee payments which are based on fmancial concerns and administrative or faculty convenience rather than on educational considerations; 6. A calendar which demands completion of preSCribed units of work in specific periods of time, and places more emphasis on attainment of some minimum knowledge in these inflexible units than on the attainment of mastery: 7; An organi<::ation of courses which in content, timing and placement is based Canadian studies group formed the United States, An Association for Canadian Studies representing in colleges and universities across the country, was established at a meeting here last week. According to Victor Hoar, associate professor of English and chairman of the Committee of Canadian - American Studies at MSU, the association will "seek to recognize and encourage scholarly research and publication and to advise in curricula, research and library developments involving the study of Canadian history and culture in American schools." Also planned is a series of biennial conferences of interested scholars and private citizens. MSU's Canadian studies program was formed in 1956 and has worked in both student curricula exchanges with Canadian universities. faculty and on faculty interests and convenience rather than on the demands of student learning; 8. An organization of the university into a maze of departments and colleges with artificial distinctions, contrived entry requirements, and meaningless degree standards which force student choice among these units rather than in reference to personal interests and goals; 9. An administrative pattern which separates the management of structured learning experiences from the extracurricular, the financial and the living experiences of the students ; 10. A conception of learning in which the student gets three credits when the Professor lectures three hours per week but is given credit only after great hesitation when he does work on his own. Of course we impose all of these rigidities in the name of efficiency and of standards, and view them as in some manner related to the outcomes of college education . .. * * * WE TALK occasionally about learning, but we spend most of our time, so far as undergraduate teaching loads, instruction is concerned, in arguing about evaluation of teaching, and improvement of teaching. We concentrate on what the professor does almost to the exclusion of what the impact is. We forget that what a professor does has significance only in terms of what it encourages students to do, and no matter how good the performance of the professor and how strong the evaluation made by his students, that professor who has not modified their insights, viewpoints or behavior has not really taught anything to anybody. Our trouble is that the structures that we would impose have little to do with the results that we seek. We are much more adept at imposing classifications, categories and rules on our students thim we are in educating them. A~ CO~BINA'!I0N o~ courses into a curriculum developed by faculty commIttees IS contnved. It IS based largely on existing college and departmental structures which have a historical rationale but little relevance to the future. Individuals must have freedom with advice to develop a curriculum of their own which may turn out to be far more significant for their own interests and their future roles than rigid curricula which fill the many pages of the typical university catalog. ' But these individual programs must be justified by their relevance to the development of useful competencies and a prospeotive field in which they will be used. Such programs will cut across departments and even COlleges. A significant element in the structure (the flexible rigi<41y) which emerges is that o~e of the educational experiences of the student is Jhat of deiming his own education and taking I esponsibility for it. Another element ... would require appraisal of the students progress toward tJle com?etencies and planning of experiences appropriate to further progress. In this pattern I should not care whether the educational experiences which produced progress were in scheduled credit courses, in community services on ilie job, in the counseling cel.lter, in extracurricular activities or in social activities. One inspired to learn can do so in many coritexts, and learning which takes place in realistic contexts is more likely to inspire application and continued learning than is the traditional classroom. WE SHALL, from time to time, continue to have crises, and so long as the crises are in part generated out of the rigidity which presently exists in American higher education, we shall always be on the defensive in dealing with them. For a college education to have meaning, there must be structure and hence a certain amount of rigidity. But the structure and the rigidity should be related to the competencies to be achieved by attending college. Hence rigidity should be imposed not in terms of requirements and courses and house, but by insisting that .the individual recognize that certain competencies are required to get a degree from an institution and that certain progress must be evidenced at various stages, else the individual and the institution are both wasting their time and resources. Within this framework there can be a great deal of variation in what individuals do, and so the structure can provide for flexibility, but always flexibility in terms of a choice of experiences selected with regard to their probable significance in producing growth toward the agreed upon goals ... - Photo by Dick Wesley