Program sought to improve freshmen writing skills
Kansan Staff Reporter
By KEN FULTON
Approximately 10 per cent of the incoming freshmen are seriously deficient in their learning skills, and the English department needs to expand its present programs to provide relief for these students, English instructors and administrators say.
However, this expansion won't occur in the near future, according to James Gowen, director of freshman and sophomore English, who says the transition will help to provide supplementary help has been denied.
Special intensive English classes aren't new to the University. There was a remedial English program several years ago, but it was stopped in 1967. Gowan said.
The program consisted of 8 to 12 small, personal sections taught by the best teachers. Despite this, 14 of every 15 students in the program flunked out anyway. Gowen said.
since they had no one better to compete with or measure themselves against.
Now, Gowen said, he would like to expand a program which began three years ago under which students receive instruction with an emphasis on position and an increased amount of tutorial help.
The program involves a special class, which is held in the spring semester for failures from the previous year. It includes 101 classes, and which is taught by an English professor with a linguistic background, Gowen said.
The students who need extra help are identified before spring enrollment and placed in the class when they select class cards, he said. There are also many students who have heard about the class and ask to enroll.
Unfortunately, there was only one class to help us in 160 of 2,500 students who were considered grade-required.
The reason for the denial of the additional funds is that other departments are growing rapidly, and we need to provide a steady state. Gowen said. Only a massive infusion would allow new programs to be produced, he said.
It is remarkable that the University hasn't exposed Mr. Gowen, who has been Gowen said, referring to the University of California at Berkeley, which has recently said that more than 50 per cent of its freshmen are seriously ill-equipped.
He also said the University was trying to make until the projected decline in enrollment in 1977.
He attributed this to the process of self-selection by prospective freshmen. Students have a conception of KU as a tough school and won't come if they aren't prepared, he said.
Students generally aren't well prepared as 10 years ago, Gowen said, but the really good students still come to KU. More people are going to college, and the number who aren't prepared has increased he said.
Melanie Lusk, assistant instructor of English, said she didn't think student abilities between KU and Berkeley differed much, but that Berkeley had higher standards.
Berkeley's standards are nearer to KU's honor
standards. Berkeley is representative of state
states, the area, the paid
In addition to the 10 per cent who are seriously
deficient, teachers and administrators estimated,
another 40 students the students are in need of
help with skills of being
The students' problems come down to a lack of experience, said Stephen Goldman, assistant director of the school.
Students don't know how to write an essay, Goldman said. The problem isn't so much grammar as they don't know how to construct paragraphs and do other types of organization, he said.
Michael Valk, assistant instructor of English who is working with Goldman, agreed, but added that he thought students were having some grammar problems besides the other deficiencies mentioned.
The teachers interviewed attributed the problems to a combination of poor teaching at the lower schools and a cultural shift from an emphasis on the written to the visual media.
Valk said the increasing influence of TV and movies had made writing skills weaker. The real problem, however, rests finally with the lower schools, particularly the high schools he said.
Lusk said that, historically, more people had learned to write well from reading than writing. He said that the practice is still prevalent.
word, she said, and the schools have followed this shift and are no longer trying to fill in the gap in the program.
Goldman said it was his impression that grade schools and high schools had gotten away from teaching, teachers think speaking leads to writing, and writing leads to writing, he said. Also, he said, students now have the option to take classes that fulfill requirements written, he said, and they are using that option.
Teachers are remarkably human, he said, and then faced with the prospect of flunking a student, the teacher said.
The teachers agreed that the need for remedial English classes was associated with the inflating of grades, especially the lower grades, such as D's or F's.
Valk said English teachers often gave D's instead
F's, and this tended to lower standards and raise
referencing.
If the present program is expanded, teachers would have a place to send students who need help and wouldn't have to fear flunking them, he said.
See English page 2
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Students appointed to inspect teaching
By JIM BATES Kansan Staff Reporter
Vol. 85—No.107 Tuesday, March 18, 1975 The University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Ed Rolfs, student body president, announce Monday the appointment of seven students to a new Student Senate committee on the Quality of Classroom Teaching.
Clayton, Mo., sophomore; and Cindi Buxon, Alton, Ill. senior.
Members of the Commission, which will meet for the first time Wednesday night, are: Chris Iliff, Prairie Village junior, commission chairman; Mike Day, Wichita junior; Kathy Donovan, Lawrence graduate student; Edith Heiberthing, Kansas City, Mo., graduate student; John Olson, Lawrence sophomore; Dave Shapiro,
Rolfs said the commission had been established because the Academic Affairs Board approved an issue of classroom teaching until mid April. He said the first two months of the Senate year would be almost totally devoted to the preparation of Senate and to compilation of a budget.
Rolfs said he was surprised at how long it had taken to organize the Senate.
"I just didn't anticipate the amount of time it takes to organize the Senate and its own agenda."
According to Rolfs, more than 100 hours
5 outstanding alumni selected for citation
Five University of Kansas alumni will receive Distinguished Service Citation ats
The clauses will be awarded to persons who have made significant lifetime control over the facility.
The 1975 recipients announced Monday by Archie R. Dykes, Chancellor, and Dwight Sutherland, national president of the University of Kansas Alumni Association, Paul R. Harrington, Clarence M. Kelley, Thomas B. Robinson and Lloyd H. Runepetal.
Docking, former governor of Kansas, is from Arkansas City.
He is chairman of the Kansas Division of
High bids hit Visual Arts
Bids received last week for construction of a new visual arts center exceeded estimates by $215,386 and could pose a threat to the center's completion, officials said Monday.
Bids received March 13 in Topeka totaled $5,965,936. The estimated cost of the building, scheduled for occupation in fall 1977, had been $5,750,000.
John McKay, associate dean for the visual arts division of the School of Fine Arts, said that he hoped additional funds would be provided to his studio in腻ature and that the delay would be short.
Keith Lawton, director of facilities planning and operations, said that the bids had been taken under advisement by the university's office and the Kansas Board of Regents.
The Mechanical Engineering Building has been razed and its site is being cleared for the new structure, which will be built around Fowler Hall.
Lawton said it was too soon to tell whether construction would be delayed or plans for the structure would be revised. Earlier this year University plans for the new law center had to be revised because of bids higher than estimated costs.
"There hasn't been time to decide what to do," he said.
The visual arts department is currently housed in 13 different buildings on the main campus.
The new building will allow flexibility of the collapsible partitions and movable walls.
the American Cancer Society, past chairman of the Interstate Oil Commission, former vice president of the Council of State Government and past member of the National Governors' Conference Executive Committee.
A life member of the University of Kansas Alumni Association, he was a member of the KU Council for Progress and will take on a leadership role in the Association's executive vice president.
In 1966 he became vice president of the Union State Bank of Arkansas City and has served in various leadership roles.
Harrington, Houston, Tex., is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in treatment of knee injuries.
He began his career as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in October 1940. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II he returned to the FBI in 1946. He continued with the FBI until 1961, when he became chief of police of Kansas City, Mo.
IN ADDITION to his practice, Harrington is a professor of orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation at the Texas Institute for Rehabilitation and Research in Houston.
Nominations for the award were solicited from alumni and faculty. The final selections, of not more than five alumni and two nonalumni, are made by a committee composed of nine alumni and two members of the KU faculty.
Kelley is the director of the Federa-
bureu of Investigation. He has worked in
Virginia.
Robinson is a partner of Black & Veatch Consulting Engineers of Kansas City, Mo., and president and chairman of the board of Black & Veatch International.
A former Kansas state senator, Ruppinell served as a member and chairman of the Republican State Committee, as a member of the Republican National Committee and as a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1966 and 1968.
Established in 1941, the Distinguished Service Citations honor the outstanding achievements of graduates and former student alumni. The University of Kansas recognized nonalumni in 1869, and it grants honorary alumnums to each.
have been spent interviewing candidates for the Senate's seven standing committees. He said the Committee on Committees would have attended the Senate meeting Thursday night.
Ruppenthal, a lawyer, has been practicing law in McPherson since 1933. He specializes in estate planning, estates and trusts.
Kelley was nominated and confirmed as director of the FBI in June 1973 and sworn in
After the committees are approved, Rofls
instantiate the new committee, and spent
initiating the new committee.
*Many of the committee members are not
the same, he said, and are essential for us to
go forward.*
Rofs said the new commission would interview award-winning faculty members to see what ideas they had on how to improve classroom teaching.
"They're the people who know what needs to done to provide excellent teaching," Rufus said.
He said the commission would also get information by interviewing department heads, distributing a questionnaire to members and doing research in the library.
Rufus campaigned on a platform that made improved classroom teaching his first priority.
Rolfs said that although organization has taken up the bulk of his and the Senate's time, the new commission wasn't the only thing that had been accomplished.
Another accomplishment, Rolfs said, was the increased student representation on the KUAC board. He went from three to four students. This brings the KUAC in line with Senate rules and regulations, which provide for 20 per cent student representation on policy-making boards.
Rolfs said he had to do something about the low student representation on search committees. He said that although some people would argue that search committees were not policy-making boards, many of them could affect students come from the committees.
Rufis also said he hoped to make some changes in the advising system by the fall season.
Spring practice
By Staff Photographer ROD MIKINSKI
Local preparations for Spring's coming on Friday include relaxation practice and a place in the sun is helpful for this activity. A week ago the winter's heaviest move fell but no traces remain as Bruce Schneider, Phillipsburg junior, does his laxiness exercises.
Dorm brawl may prompt new charges
By BILL GRAY
Kansan Staff Reporter
Additional charges might be filed in connection with a Feb. 24 disturbance at Lewis Hall, David Berkowitz, Douglas county attorney, said Monday.
"We need to get together with some of the people we met in Kowitz said, "and give the possibilities.
Molly Lafflin, resident director at Lewis,
said, "I know that someone wants to
prosecute but I don't know whether any
charges have been filed."
An inquisition March 12 in Division two of the Douglas County District Court allowed the county attorney's office to obtain information from the University dean of women's office about the incident, Berkowitz said.
Seven women residents of Lewis have been charged with misdemeanor battery in complaints signed by two sisters living in Lewis.
The complaints allegue that the two women were attacked in a scuffle in the basement
A preliminary hearing in Douglas County Court is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. March 26 for the women charged in connection with the incident.
Hertzel Whyte, Kansas City, Kan., at
belzel could be charged,
charged, be reached for payment.
Richard Jones, Topeka, attorney for three of the women charged, said he didn't know who was shooting her.
Kayla Stroup, dean of women, said the investigation into the incident by the dean's office was finished. She said she couldn't believe it, but thought the investigation was adequate.
"The investigation was prompted in part by complaints from students and parents," Stroup said. "We usually investigate things as such that occur in residence halls."
Stroup, Caryl Smith, assistant dean of
women, William Balfour vice chancellor
See BRAWL page 7
Saricks resigns post. will teach
By YAEL ABOUHALKAH Kancon Staff Reporter
Kansan Staff Reporter
Shankel praised Saricks' contributions as vice chancellor.
Ambrose Saricks said he always knew he would return to full-time teaching at the University of Kansas. He'll get his chance starting next fall.
Saricks resigned last week as vice chancellor for academic affairs effective June 30. But he's not leaving the University. He said he will be returning to his first love, teaching.
"I expect to be pretty busy, naturally," he said. "But I'll be doing things that, as I admitted, I obviously enjoy more. As a result, rather than something other than, affair or business."
Saricks is no stranger to the classroom. He served for 20 years in KU's department of history, until he was appointed dean of graduate studies at Wichita State University in 1970. He returned to KU in 1972 to assume his current position.
A search committee to find a replacement for Saricks should be formed by the end of this week. Del Shankel, executive vice chancellor, said. The search will be nationwide, he said, with a replacement probably found by late April.
"I think be came into the office in a difficult time and has done a good job under
somewhat difficult circumstances," Shankel said.
Saricks said that a prime goal of his remaining days as vice chancellor would be to fill as many administrative positions as possible and to find an exist at the University, including his own.
Work of the search committee is nearing completion and will be released stage 1, stage 2, and, when specific individuals
would be brought to the campus for interviews.
A May 1 deadline for finding replacements for the administrative positions is tentative. Saricks said, but he expects that the job will not all, openings will be filled by them.
Positions to be filled include the dean of libraries, a dean for the School of Social
Welfare, a dean for the School of Journalism and a dean for the School of Fine
Saricks stressed that he hadn't been dissatisfied with his post. In the end, though, he said, his decision came down to choosing between the alternatives of remaining as vice chancellor or returning to the classroom.
See Saricks page 3
★ ★ ★
New assistant has work cut out
By YAEL ABOUHALKAH
BY PATEL NOUCHALA
Kansas Staff Renorter
William "Max" Lucas has been on the job for just one week. But he's had plenty of time to think about what he wants from his new position as an assistant to the chan-
Licas was appointed by Chancellor Archie Dykes last week. He replaced John Conard, who left in January to become assistant to Kansas Gov. Robert Berger.
But Lucas said Monday that he was a stranger to what his new job would entail.
for a position that would provide assistance to the enclanceur in decision making about
construction programs, both in Lawrence and the Kansas University Medical Center.
"I thought that after supporting such a position for such a long time, it would be inconsistent of me not to take the position when it was offered," Lucas said.
His advocacy of such a position came when he served as associate dean of the School of Architecture and Urban Design and chairman of the Senate Executive Committee and since his membership in the University Senate.
"The challenge is something I'd like to attempt at this time, he said. "I think it is going to be difficult."
have this chance to make an impact at the University."
The office where Lucas will work is just a few steps from the chancellor's office. There are few books there and the shelves haven't been filled. But that doesn't mean Lucas is waiting for some work to be tossed his way.
"The main thrust of the job is to provide the chancellor with coordination of all construction projects at the University on both campuses," Lucas said.
"What the chancellor needs is somebody to stay on top of the problem and assist him in doing it."
See LUCAS page 3