Thursday, November 28. 1975
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Book's educational worth is moot
A book whose title suggests greasing down a motorcycle could be expected to aid higher learning at an educational institution.
However, a panel of four educators and a group of about 15 people decided last night that Robert M. Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Reason" its tenance! "had some educational value."
A discussion last night in the Kansas Union was one of a series of forums on the book sponsored by the KU Religious Adoption Society to Dick Orr, a member of the group.
Jim Woolfeel, professor of philosophy and religion and moderator of the discussion, said that KURA started a "Book of the Myths" with students focused on a book of current interest.
PIRSIG'S BOOK WAS chosen this semester because it touches on many areas that are basic to university life, Woelfel said. The book appears to a wide audience, and its content would be applied to philosophy, educational theory, scientific thought and literature.
The book is an account of a man motorcycling with his son to visit his ex-wife. Riding the motorcycle, the man perceives many conflicts, including a father-son conflict. He also sees man's infinite search for truth.
But the major conflict between classical and romantic thinking, or acting by reason or emotion, drives the man insane as he searches for "Truth" and "Quality". A conflict between unifying factor between the conflicting classical and romantic schools of thought.
THE MEMBERS OF THE panel who represented the fields of philosophy, religion and education all recognized the form, but differed on its educational value.
Vicki Asbury, graduate student and
Professors may get OK for unit
Faculty members of the University of Kansas may find out today whether they have the right to organize into a collective bargaining unit.
The state Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) will meet at 1 p.m. to consider two questions involving the University: whether a collective bargaining unit is appropriate, such as KU and, if it is appropriate, what the makeup of such a unit should be.
PERB had been expected to answer those questions at its Oct. 16 meeting. After that meeting, though, executive director Jerry Powell said the board hadn't had enough time to study the briefs submitted by all the parties.
The board is expected to approve the unit proposed by the KU administration, a unit that excludes library and academic department heads as supervisory personnel.
The Kansas Public Employer-Employee Relations Act (PEER) specifically excludes anyone with supervisory capacities from membership in a bargaining unit.
An alternate proposal by the KU chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) excludes research associates from the bargaining unit.
The schools of law and engineering have requested separate units.
Should the board approve a specific unit, the members of that unit would have to select a representative through a petition and voting process.
Were no representative organization to collect 30 per cent of the members' signatures on a petition, no representative and, hence, no unit would result.
There is some doubt whether the KU members want to organize into a burglary team.
The PEER act calls for a "meet and confer" process, rather than collective bargaining as such. The rights to binding arbitration and to strike aren't included.
Proposals sent by Gov. Robert F. Bennett's administration to an interim legislative committee would revise the PEER act, restricting the number of items about which the unit could "meet and confer."
assistant instructor in philosophy, said that after reading the book several times, she hadn't decided on Pirsig's stand on reasoning and the intellect.
There is a need to distinguish between the book's literary value and its philosophical value, according to Arthur Skidmore, assistant professor of philosophy.
Claudia Ternchil, graduate student and teaching assistant in foundations in education, said the book questioned, but didn't provide answers.
He said that the book's literary value was enormous, "the philosophical and intellectual importance of this book, appropriately sized, is tremendous."
812 Mass. Lawrence, Ks.
at the truth, Termin said, the question was whether educators should evaluate on the basis of their own experience.
Woolfel raised the issue that the book should be viewed as no more than an art form.
"As an aesthetic thing in itself, it's a very impressive piece of work," he said.
Since Pirsig says education fails to arrive
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