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Show Don't wait till crises take initiative for change "Coeducational living and 24 hour visitation in the dorms have been extremely successful," explained Van Richards, dean of students at the University of California at Davis. Davis, a medium-sized university located outside of Sacramento, began experimental programs in the dorms five years ago with the start of the Hammorskjold House. The Hammorskjold House is a small coeducational hall of 60 students and a faculty sponsor, Dr. Monti Reynolds. Faculty dinners four nights a week, visiting political celebrities, group community service projects, and in-residence poets and musicians contribute in part to the excellent moral of the students. "These young men and women have been able to establish a close working harmony which fosters both personal growth and academic achievement," stated Dr. Reynolds. The students who live in the residence halls at Davis write their own visitation policies and establish the majority of the rules. They in essence create their own environment. Some floors in the halls have 24 hour visitation, others are more restrictive, but each floor decides what the hours will be. If the hours are broken or the rights of a student are infringed upon by another student, his peers and only his peers decide the imposed sanction. The administration has almost no say. These are two of several innovative programs at Davis which have one point in common. They were actively sponsored by Dean Van Richards. It was Dean Richards who organized and spearheaded these programs. He committed to the students the resources of his office. The Dean of Students office at Davis is an example of an activist-oriented administration which initiated ideas before students demanded them. The students didn't carry the burden of changing archaic rules. The administration did. Florence Schwartz, assistant dean of students at San Francisco State, stated that the philosophy of depending solely on students to creat change, "was good enough several years ago, but hardly acceptable today. The administration must be at least as creative and progressive as students." Miss Schwartz felt events take place so rapidly that the administration must creat programs for conflicts before they become problems. "The policy of relying on students for change," explained this administrator, "is often used as a coverup for administrative inadequacy." Barring an orientation program for freshmen and scattered attempts at working with minority students, the polices of the University of Utah's Dean of Students office havfj been neither creative nor progressive. The philosophy echoed by this segment of the University's administration has been to allow students to create major changes while th'; Dean of Students office has acted as a passive observer. The Chronicle urges members of the Dean of Students Office and other administrative offices to make suggestions and to take a more active role in initiating programs. If they don't, they leave themselves little choice but to accept changes called for by students and the students' means of implementing their ideas in a University bureaucracy. |
