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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
01.07.2019 18:30
Wednesday, October 11, 1967
kansan column
On grading the teachers
By Hamilton J. Salsich
Editor's note: Hamilton J. Salsich, graduate student and English instructor, will contribute a column to the Daily Kansan periodically this semester. His views do not necessarily represent those of the Kansan or its staff.
It has always been taken for granted that professors have the right to judge their students' qualifications as learners. Perhaps the time has come to balance things cut; there is no reason why students should not now assume the right to judge their professors' qualifications as teachers.
Interestingly enough, this would not be an innovation in the history of higher education. The earliest medieval universities, particularly those at Bolegna and Padua, were managed almost entirely by students, and the professors were fully aware that their students could fire them, at any time, for giving a wearisome lecture or offering a disorganized course. The students imposed upon their teachers a long set of minute rules and regulations, and very often the smallest violation meant the loss of a job. Apparently the students were determined to get their money's worth; they wanted to learn, and they hired, fired, and hired until they found someone from whom they could learn.
It would not be at all impractical to suggest that students—who, after all, form the largest bloc in the university community—should be given the authority to constructively criticize their teachers, with the definite assurance that their criticisms would be listened to
and acted upon. Unfortunately, many of our professors need to be reprimanded for their slovenly teaching methods, and the students, who have to suffer with these professors day after day, should be among the first to offer the reprimand. Far from being immature and destructive, such an exercise of student power would be responsible and creative. It would lead not only to an improvement in the quality of teachers, but also to a growth of understanding and cooperation in the university as a whole.
The criticism from student to teacher, however, should be—and could be—just as organized and authoritative as the criticism from teacher to student. At the end of each semester, when the teachers turn in the grades of all their students, the students could likewise turn in their evaluations of all their teachers. This process, as complex as it sounds, could easily be handled through the combined efforts of IBM machines and, say, the College Intermediary Board. The student evaluations could be sorted and analyzed, then referred to the various department heads for inspection, discussion, and, if need be, action.
If we must have systems of judgment in our community, then it seems to me that the judgments should come equally from every interested member of the community. Only then will education become what it should be—a 50-50 democratic interchange between students and teachers. And only then will students become what they should be—responsible human beings, men capable of farsighted vision and honest, critical judgment.
"Sir, The Chinese Ambassador Is Here To Present His Credentials"
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Letters to the editor
Reviewer, housing
To the Editor:
I am seriously beginning to doubt the sanity of Scott Nunley and, moreover, that of the University Daily Kansan, for allowing that immature and pretentious "critic" to print such erroneous garbage as his movie review of "The Family Way" on Oct. 6.
Mr. Nunley begins by accusing the Boulting brains of capitalizing on the characters of "Virginia Wooll" in the form of John Mills, who happens to be one of the most actors from England today. I find it difficult to believe that anyone could be so naive as to make such an analogy.
Even more outrageous was his statement that the movie "attempts to chart the warming innocence of the child-bride." This was neither the purpose nor the result. "The Family Way" is love . . . not as it is usually depicted, but as it usually is.
It shouldn't be necessary to defend the innocence and immaturity of Hayley Mills, as she was portraying a character with those exact qualities. Perhaps the most obvious display of Mr. Nunley's ignorance was his downgrading of Paul McCartney's musical score, but I suppose it was necessary in order to complete the demonstration of his total absence of taste and education in the line arts.
Yes, once again, Scott Numley has tried to prove that, in order to be a film critic, one must be able to think of an endless list of trite clichés and, even more importantly, never give a good review.
Oh, by the way, Mr. Nunley, you really should learn how to spell "Beatles."
Philp Silverglat
Prairie Village junior
To the Editor:
The recent article in the Kansan about the problem of foreign student housing was of great interest and concern to me. I have helped a few foreign students to find housing, a service which Dean Coan's office offers to incoming foreign students. I have also seen a study made by Dr. Coan which bears out such points as the foreign student's general dislike of residence halls.
I spoke last spring to my friend Emmanual Akuchu about this problem.
We of the People-to-People board offer a channel for possible solutions. We have established, under the project area of Steve Rodd, chairman of special projects, a housing committee. This committee is designed to study and act on the problem of foreign student housing.
I would suggest that someone as concerned, involved and vocal as Gabra Pokar or Emmanual Akuchu be chairman of this committee. Any other interested persons should contact Steve Rodd at VI 3-6866.
People-to-People chairman
John Garvey
An ounce of whiskey worth a pound of prohibition tracts
By Joan Hanauer
NEW YORK —(UPI)—A government financed study has concluded that an ounce of prevention—or whisky—is worth a pound of prohibition tracts in handling drinking difficulties.
The report, released today and endorsed by the National Council of Churches, proposes that Americans accentuate the positive aspects of drinking within a social situation and eliminate the negative lures of boozing as a forbidden delight or pleasure to be indulged in for its own sake.
It also makes such startling proposals as:
- Liberalizing the method in which alcoholic beverages are advertised in mass media, allowing alcohol consumption to be shown in family settings, letting people in ads, including women, be portrayed actually drinking and generally portraying drinking as a family, rather than barroom occupation.
... quotes...
- Lowering the drinking age to 18 as a transition step toward eliminating legal age barriers in the sale of alcoholic beverages.
- Making alcoholic beverages available to young people at adult-supervised activities such as church functions.
Louis Adamic (1829-1902) in "A Study in Courage": "There is a certain blend of courage, integrity, character and principle which has no satisfactory dictionary name but has been called different things at different times in different countries. Our American name for it is 'guts.'"
Adolph Hiler: "I am insulted by the persistent assertion that I
want war. Am I a fool? War! It would settle nothing."
"Christ said, 'Love thy neighbor.' That means stop killing. It means stop hating. It means stop the hypocrisy of saying our hearts bleed for the poor people of Vietnam while we bomb their homes and bridges, burn their fields and kill and maim their children. They have done nothing to us to deserve this barbaric cruelty."
These and other specific suggestions were made in the report, "Alcohol Problems: A Report to the Nation," prepared by a panel of experts forming the Cooperative Commission on the Study of Alcoholism. If they seem surprising, it is because attitudes toward drinking in the United States have been shrouded by hypocrisy, guilt feelings and the emotional hangover of the 50-year-old battle between "wets" and "drys."
The report—and the position taken by the National Council of Churches and an increasing number of religious groups in the United States—cites sobering statistics on alcohol problems here. It calls for cooperation of "wets" and "drys" to solve the American "drinking problem."
The statistics note that 70 per cent of all Americans drink—a figure that includes Canadians as well as U.S. citizens. The majority do so without becoming problem drinkers or alcoholies.
But the report also notes that in 1935, slightly less than one-third of arrests in the United States were for public drunkenness. There also were more than 250,-600 arrests for drunken driving, plus hundreds of thousands of arrests for alcohol-based crimes such as disorderly conduct.
Poverty, Alcohol Related
The report estimates that from 10 to 25 per cent of all welfare families have a drinking problem although which came first, the poverty or the alecol, is impossible to define.
More shocking to some—and one reason why the "prevention" suggestions of the report receive top priority—are the figures that outline teenage drinking. They leave no doubt that drinking and attitudes toward alcohol consumption, begin early.
The study states that more than
75 per cent of high school students report they have had alcoholic beverages more than once before graduation, and one-third saw they drink with some regularity. And this despite the fact that the legal drinking age is 21 in most states and 18 in the rest.
If "wets" and "drys" can agree that there is an immediate problem of excessive drinking—leaving the matter of moderate social use or abstention to individual consciences—then definitions are needed.
The report defines problem drinking as a "repetitive use of beverage alcohol causing physical, psychological, or social harm to the drinker or to others."
Limits not defineable
No specific limits are involved because individual situations include the man who can function effectively at his job despite drinking which could muddle a man with a more exacting task.
The report's definition of alcoholism is a "condition in which an individual has lost control over his alcohol intake in the sense that he is consistently unable to refrain from drinking or to stop drinking before getting intoxicated."
The method of handling problem drinking and alcoholism is prevention, not cure, the report states, saying:
"Prevention should be a major objective of a national alcohol policy. While treatment may alleviate suffering and help maintain or restore social functioning, only through preventive approaches can rates of alcoholism and other types of problem drinking be substantially lowered."
The major goal of the report writers is to change the pattern of American drinking so that cultural restrictions on drinking are built into the mode of life.