Western Front - 1973 January 30

              the 0 western front uuestern Washington state college
^. .. -
Vol. 65
No. 2^/^f
TUESDAY
January 30,1973
Ten Cents
Bellingham, Washington
>
A.S. candidates
speak out
see page 9
Self-study
proposed
by JANICE PERRY
Guidelines for all courses numbered
300, 400, and 500 will be recommended
to the Academic Council a week from
today by the Arts and Sciences
subcommittee. The recommendation
directly concerns the self-study
program, which currently enrolls less
than 200 students in courses numbered
soc/anth 300, 400, and 500.
The three guidelines to be
recommended are:
1) The student's project must be
individual and done under direct
supervision of the instructor;
2) The projects must be supervised
by a faculty member?
3) The Academic Council will be
consulted about disagreements if there
is question concerning the legitimacy of
the subject studied.
The Arts and Sciences subcommittee
was appointed at a Dec. 1 meeting to do
the investigation. It arrived at these
guidelines by investigating current use
of the 300, 400 and 500 courses, and
limitations of the courses stated in the
college catalogue.
Subcommittee chairman George S.
Kriz Jr. of the chemistry department
said that if the guidelines were adhered
to strictly, self-study could not use the
300, 400 and 500 numbered courses.
Harvey Stone, director of self-study,
called the guidelines "really restrictive,
and I question whether the faculty will
accept them."
The first and second guidelines bring
up the basic problem: conflict between
traditional cognitive instruction and
innovative learning experiences.
Referring to self-study projects,
Christopher Taylor of the psychology
department and member of the
Academic Council said, "The previous
apparent uses really hurt the system. It's
the student's potential for losing that
scares me," he said. "He doesn't have
the opportunity to work in some kind
of a Socrates relationship, where the
faculty member is a supposed expert."
Stone denied that classes in his
program have no direction. "I'm not
promoting a non-directive educational
program as I've been accused," he said.
"They think that with the
non-authoritative approach, we have no
control-I wonder if anyone else has
control."
Stone admitted that some students
do take self-study just for credit, but
guidelines
to council
"we're not playing games with
students." Each student must submit a
written or verbal contract to the
resident aid facilitating the study group.
"Credit isn't important," Stone said.
"The only thing that is important is
what the experience means to you."
That some students do face out the
self-study system, Ray Romine,
associate dean of students, said, is "a
number one signal that whatever we're
doing in education now is inadequate."
"If the Academic Council were as
investigative of the educational program
as they are of self-study," Romine said,
"we would have a far better educational
system."
Romine said that the difficulty
students have in handling self-study
does not mean that it should be
stopped. "We need to do more of this
kind of thing, so that students get more
practice." He added that we won't have
faculty members all our lives.
The third guideline deals with the
subject matter studied.
Underlying this problem is the
question posed by Stone, "What is
'legitimate?"
Romine answers, "Success witn
aspirations, goals, sex, and the notion of
death make life either pleasant or
unpleasant. Education does not deal
with these things. We're not trying to
replace cognitive learning, just augment
it. Why this proposes such a threat
escapes me."
Stone said that college deals with its
immediate intentions, such as
promoting technology, which promotes
an imperialistic society, which promotes
war. The survival of the universe is
studied academically in college, without
changing one's life style. "Kids want to
get into something they can really dig,"
he said.
Kriz disagrees. "I quit smoking
without getting credit for it," he said.
"Maybe it's a function of the institution
to get kids interested in things to keep
them from drugs, but credit shouldn't
be given. You don't get credit for tying
your shoelaces."
Taylor said that it is unfair for a
student who has worked hard on a
project, to get the same three credits as
some guy who's off somewhere
contemplating his navel.
(continued on page 3)
SELF-STUDY DEBATE—Harvey Stone, self-study director, defends the program
against accusations of committee members.
Faculty Council trying
to improve its position
by STEPHANIE SMITH
The Faculty Council's ad hoc
committee on faculty representation has
been enlarged to include assessment of
faculty support for the All-College
Senate.
The committee, headed by Eunice
Faber, was originally instructed to
develop a poll to determine what group
the faculty feels would represent them
best in the future.
The committee will now deal with
faculty representation both within the
campus and off campus. This would
include matters of collective .collective
bargaining and welfare, and the new
discussion of internal representation,
specifically the effectiveness of the
senate.
The committee could recommend
that the Faculty Council call a faculty
forum to discuss representation as well
as developing a poll to determine the
opinion of faculty members on either or
both kinds of representation.
The Faculty Council also voted to
allow the Sauer committee, which is
evaluating administrative structure and
personnel, to informally brief a recently
formed committee of the All-College
Senate before the formal report is
presented to the Faculty Council
Executive Committee and College
President Charles J. Flora.
The Sauer committee, appointed by
the Faculty Council, is involved in a
one-time project, while the senate
proposal calls for continuing evaluation
of administrators.
The briefing will allow the senate
committee to formulate its proposals
sooner. The senate has asked Flora to
hold his proposal for administrative
reorganization until it can review the
Sauer report.
The Sauer committee will brief the
senate committee on its findings about
the structure and distribution of
responsibility in the administrative
branch of the college. It will not discuss
its findings on personnel matters until
after the formal report is presented to
the Faculty Council Executive
Committee and President Flora.
In other action the council:
—reactivated a committee to study
and establish new norms to be used in
evaluating the results of student
evaluations of faculty.
—received a report from Welfare
Committee Chairman Willard Brown on
insurance negotiations predicting
another month of work before
proposals can be evaluated and
presented to the entire faculty.
—recommended that the Welfare
Committee investigate reduced or zero
fees for members of the families of
faculty and staff who attend Western.
fnsfde...
Mission Possible reviving alcoholics
Lighthouse Mission works with the social reject, the alcoholic. See
pgs. 6-7.
Workshop explores women's bills
Women and the law, YWCA scene of forum. See pg. 2.
an
)
Local woman kidnapped, held for eight hours. See pg. 4.
RAIN DANCE IN CARVER GYM? (see page 8)