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Show Student-teacher relations goal of exDeriment relations area," said Mr. Grund-fosscn. Grund-fosscn. "The toughest part to overcome is the assumption that students arc here to learn subjects; teachers are experts in subjects; therefore, teachers should practice in becoming becom-ing more expert. The expertise of a teacher is usually judged by his peers on the basis of how much research he has published. "We need to change the structure to reward teachers for teaching so that they will have some incentive for helping students to grow. In the present structure, the classroom class-room is a place where teachers feed their egos, showing students how much they know. "Changing the structure will be difficult. We have developed a student who is highly obedient, system oriented and authority oriented. "Fortunately, this structure is breaking down, that is, people with degrees have an increasingly difficult time getting a job. The diploma is thus becoming less and less of a reward," noted Mr. Grundfosscn. traditional concept that the primary pri-mary function of a university is to expand knowledge and to transmit trans-mit it to the next generation. Many of the task force members believe that this role is too limited and that the University should "The University operates from the traditional concept that the primary function of a university is to expand knowledge and to transmit it to the next generation. Many of the task force members believe this role is too limited. lim-ited. . . " take greater responsibility for the personal growth of its students, of which intellectual growth is only a part. Many of us believe that the University failed even at its own stated task," said Mr. Grundfossen. Grundfos-sen. "The present educational system is producing a one-sided individual; indivi-dual; one who has learned to memorize books and lectures and to regurgitate the memorized information in-formation at the appropriate time, i.e. during tests. The student concentrates con-centrates so much on grades, credit hours and degrees that he has no time to assimilate knowledge," know-ledge," noted Mr. Grundfossen. i B The University should teach students stu-dents how to tap information resources instead of how to take notes, memorize, and regurgitate. "We need to teach students how to utilize resources which help solve problems and how to make decisions. We need to help students stu-dents increase their self aware-ness-who they are in relation to their peers and to experienced adults in the community. "We need to teach leadership skills, how to make decisions in a cooperative process. We need to teach basic skills of verbal and nonverbal communication. We need to give the students a greater sense of community and community commun-ity responsibility. " "We need to focus heavily on increasing integrity, integ-rity, on ascertaining that values and attitudes and behavior are "We need to focus heavily on increasing integrity, on ascertaining as-certaining that values and attitudes at-titudes and behavior are integrated. We need to increase in-crease the students' esthetic sense. " integrated. We need to increase the students' esthetic sense. "In short, we need to concentrate a great deal more on the human ByLIDlAWASOWICZ 1 Chronicle Staff (Fditor's note: This is the second t of a story begun Tuesday on jgtces organized by Provost lTtmas King to evaluate several yUctions of the University.) The emphasis in all experimental Ceges would be on ways of !SCning as well as on subject ") matter The experimental nature of the colleges would vary widely, vLt all would shape their efforts , 'J round a community of learning land would aim to get away from i-' faculty prescription programs, it course and credit counting, lectures lec-tures academic assignments, etc. Iffie colleges would strive to eliminate eli-minate all conventional methods ejand structures which might limit ' learning. t'i Faculty and students would shape specific programs, courses and experiences, ex-periences, perhaps filling out general gen-eral designs created by the group establishing the colleges' identity. . A relatively small part of a student's stu-dent's program would be taken exclusively in one of these col-f. col-f. leges, 30 to 50 hour equivalent. j Students accepted to the program t,f (the presently planned number is i-:1 200 to 500 students) would be R selected at random, not by G.P.A. J:.1 Depending on the nature of the Etj college, students could meet its requirements and still take con- 'i j "The problem is that we have V:i members with biases on ev-ery ev-ery side of the issue, and the people with biases would like to have their point of view adopted as policy." "i.: ' ventional majors or, if they so desired, they might work for a j "University degree" in a particular college. ( "Cooperation with departments j should make it possible to use relevant experiences in an experi- I mental college to meet require- merits for the "University de-;- gree," said Dr. Lori Clarke. ; Another experimental program is ?: being planned by the Task Force '; on Freshman Year, under the J chairmanship of Lowell Bennion, 'j associate dean of students. The I purpose of the program will be to - provide freshmen with "the op- portunity of making his initial ,: experience at the University edu-.' edu-.' cationally and humanly rewarding," reward-ing," according to Dr. Bennion. The present freshman year has l( numerous inadequacies. The fresh- man can go through his first year i: without building a close relation-'', relation-'', ship with a single teacher or with his peers in a classroom setting. J often experiences the Univer-; Univer-; Sltv as a stranger in a big city. :j e freshman is typically either ij channeled into a set curriculum ' (as in nursing or engineering) or is Siven a potpourri of classes. He "lay be intellectually turned off .! oy the large, impersonal classes. ents have some freedom in ; f0smg classes, but thereafter I re g,ven only minimal opportun- y t0 exPlore individual interests. I 5" of freshKut-of-high-T'oolers are confused and lost as y encounter the freedom and omPlexity characteristic of their roe as University students. The final prob)em wjth whjch tf)e Task Force on Freshman Year is concerned is the freshman's lack of understanding of the resources of the University and of his own capacity to function effectively in the University environment. To overcome these limitations in the freshman's learning process, the task force is proposing an experimental program, which will include two types of one-year seminars. An academic seminar, attended by freshmen in groups of 12, will provide the students with in-depth intellectual experiences in some aspect of his field. The academic seminar professor will choose his own subject and project his own course. He will strive to build a relationship with each student in his class and to assist the 1 2 in interacting with each other in an informal group. The teacher will be assisted by an advanced student, who will help in teaching, tutoring and advising the students. The assistant will receive five hours credit for individual indi-vidual study in his major or in education. The students will meet weekly for one and a half hours and will receive five hours General Education Edu-cation credit. They will read, make frequent reports and receive individual guidance and evaluation. evalua-tion. Companion to the academic seminar, sem-inar, the practical seminar will help students in three major areas: University resources and the learning learn-ing process; personal development : and career and life planning. The practical seminar will carry two hours General Education credit and will meet weekly for one and a half hours with reading and other assignments to carry out between classes. "We had hoped to start the program pro-gram this fall. However, we have not yet gotten the curriculum together. The Freshman Year Program Pro-gram will go into effect fall quarter, quar-ter, 1972, for certain," said Virginia Frobes, committee member mem-ber and new vice president of student affairs. The Task Force on Teacher-Learner Relationships is dealing with the most difficult question facing the future of the University, according ac-cording to Pete Grundfossen, committee member and assistant to the dean of students. "The fact that we can't agree on any concrete con-crete recommendations is symptomatic sympto-matic of how difficult the problem is," said Mr. Grundfossen. Grundfos-sen. The task force, under the chairmanship chair-manship of Mitch Schorow, is concerned with defining the existing exist-ing teacher-student relationships and how they should be changed. "The problem is that we have members with biases on every side of the issue, and the people with biases would like to have their point of view adopted as policy," said Mr. Grundfossen. Yet, the biases cannot be helped since the existence of the committee commit-tee is based on an assertion that the present teacher- learner relationships rela-tionships are inadequate and need to be changed, he said. The following are the ideas of Mr. Grundfossen, also held by many, but not all, task force members. "The University operates from the |
