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Show A summer well used Summer is traditionally a time when the University slows down, evaluates its performance during the pre-ceeding pre-ceeding year and attempts to solve old problems before facing the year ahead. This summer has been put to excellent ex-cellent use for these purposes by several of Provost Thomas King's task forces. Already a number of exciting proposals have been formulated. Task forces have faced squarely the issue of a practical vs. a liberal education, and have concluded that the University should provide both. At the same time one Task Force is developing a program of academically academ-ically related jobs both for credit and pay, another task force is suggesting creation of general University degree in liberal subjects. A general theme in all task force efforts has been the view that even though the University is large, methods must be found to make each individual feel an important impor-tant part of it. The suggestion that small seminar groups for freshmen be established is an example of a head on attack on "big University alienation." We were excited to hear that someone is now suggesting suggest-ing that professors be rewarded not according to how many professional journals they publish in or even how they are rated on student evaluations. Instead, objective evaluations of what a professor's students are learning would be conducted. At the same time, the task forces are searching out ways to change college teaching methods so students will learn to tap resources and solve practical problems, rather than simply memorize and regurgitate. And on top of that, there is a task force formulating a plan for an Experimental College which could temporarily house classes which depart either from the traditional curriculum curricu-lum or from traditional teaching methods. With an administration in flux and an increasingly open-minded attitude on the parts of students and faculty, facul-ty, the campus is ripe for revolutionary change. It is quite possible that the work clone this summer by several of the task forces will be the turning point in the road toward change. |