Friday, November 14.1975
13
History holds own. Sidman says
By MAREA LIEBERT
Although some studies have indicated that history courses have declined in popularity across the country, the history course at the University of Kansas is an exception.
"Enrollment in history courses has increased dramatically," Charles Sidman, chairman of the history department, said last week.
In response to a study done by the Organization of American Historians about a nationwide movement away from history, Sidman wrote an article, "The Kansas Plan," which was published in the October American Historical Association
Newsletter. In his article, Sidman explains why KU's history department hasn't declined in popularity like other universities' departments have.
sidman says the department offers courses that are more advantageous than courses in other departments in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and various colleges. He said the course introduced a regular series of general topical interest courses, the article says.
Sidman writes in his article that the department has contacted more than 30 other college departments and the University's 10 professional schools to develop history courses that would relate to each department or school.
About the same time state legislators began to say that higher education wasn't what it should be. That's when a group of students formed an organization called Students Concerned About Higher Education.
Once, only a few years ago, the University was the scene of rioting and march; part of the Kansas Union burned to the ground; a bomb exploded in the computer center; the ROTC building was stoned by protesters; and two students died in the steps.
Things have quieted down at KU the last two years. Legislators haven't been nearly as upset with higher education. And like the sign of the time, the Students Concerned About Higher Education's activities have come to an almost screeching halt.
Group's campaigns for education diminish
"THE SITUATION IS probably the biggest reason the organization is much less active," Nancy Archer, Anamasa, Iowa, graduate student and student body vice president in 1973-74, said yesterday. "People were really down on education in the early '70s. We wanted to show that people cared about education."
Archer said that the philosophy behind the group had been to show legislators and the general public that higher education was important. Students worked in their home communities, acting as spokesmen for the University, she said.
Ed Rolfs, student body president, who was and still is a member of the organization, said that it was an inactive group now. The scope or the purpose hamn't changed at all, he said, it's just much more seasonal now.
MARY LOU REECE, student body vice president, is in charge of the group this year. She said the organization had failed to tried to get things moving this semester.
"This is a loose-knit organization," she said. "There are 350 student names on my list and a meeting of that many people is almost impossible.
"We sent out some mailers to the students
The organization was started in 1971 by Rusty Lefell, now a partner in a Kansas City law firm and an administrative assistant to Sen. James Pearson, R-Kan. Lefell, who couldn't be reached for comment, said in a 1971 memo that the group had a goal of maintaining the high quality of higher education in Kansas.
in the group this summer. We tried having two meetings this year and not much was
THERE ARE COURSES IN THE history of science, engineering business and journalism and, as a result, these common grounds to share and cultivate, Sidman said.
Norman Saul, professor of history, said he thought the high schools had neglected teaching history and, consequently, there has been a reseruction in colleges.
Archer said the group's biggest accomplishment was a four-page ad in 1972 in the Kansas City Star, in the Lawrence Journal-World and the Wichita Eagle-Beacon. The article was entitled "Would You Abolish Higher Education?"
Other accomplishments, according to memo written by Leffel, were the sponsoring of student forums; researching the university and state budgets; organizing a forum for educators to discuss communities; and talking to alumni, editors and citizens across the state.
HE SAID THE ORGANIZATION'S members had talked to people about the state's academic needs, researched the sources and uses of funds in education and analyzed approaches to make sure the high school students were involved in the state system. They were funded by individual contributions by alumni, students and friends, he said.
ARCHER SAID THAT THE organization was outside the Student Senate. They didn't want it to become a part of the politics that goes on, she said.
The organization is now a part of the senate, Reeve said, and it insists on the government being involved in Week 1.
Both Archer and Reeve said that they doubted the organization would become as large as it has been.
University Dally Kansai
Saul said the social sciences had replaced history in high schools. There has been a lack of historical consciousness and humanities taught in general, he said.
"If the students feel the need, it may come back in some form," Archer said. "Those things aren't as formal now, but people are more supportive of higher education."
for the historian, Saul said, the decline of history as a topic has resulted in an inability to understand what happens during the past.
KU was able to maintain an interest in history because new, interesting courses were offered.
SAUL SAID KU WAS able to reach out to all students, not just to history majors. Night courses have led many students to study SAUL and focus on one area of study, such as World War II.
Saul said he liked for the student to choose whether to take history, but Bernard Gainer, associate professor of history, said he like to see it become a required subject.
HE SAID HISTORY WAS unique in its ability to relate to any field. It is a "valuable contribution one's future development of lifestyle, behind career purposes," he said.
The integration of different teaching techniques, Saul said, such as guest lectures, filmed lectures, audio-autolinks and helped increase history's popularity at the University.
"History gives society an identity,"
Gregory Bentley wrote. "the world a little bit more compromissable."
He said it was unfortunate that history was declining in popularity in schools. Gainer, who teaches at the college, told students had a smaller knowledge of history than those before.
Consumer education and psychology courses are becoming more popular as replacements for history in high schools, he said.
Gainer said it was grafting to know that U had more than kept pace in history before he left.
He said history was a crucial component of anyone's education because it was a part of his cultural heritage and his history. History can help you become more or less indifferent to his country, Gainer said.
Carey Rogers, St. Louis sophomore, said she was taking a history course because she liked stories from the past. She said that recently one of her professors explained that the modern world wars were partly a result of the Thirty Years' War.
That war lasted from 1618 to 1648 and was fought between several Protestant and Catholic armies.
Jun Schneider, Kansas City Kan., junior, said he was taking a history course as an elective. Schneider said that although he was a chemical engineering major, he liked history because he could relate current events with those of the past.
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