Friday, Ocotber 25, 1974
University Dally Kansan
5R
KU academic garbage can full, prof says
By KENN LOUDEN
Entertainment Editor
"African Music," "Psychology of Sport," "Hollywood on Asia," "The Horror Film," "Man's Oppression of Animals," "Supernatural Fiction," "Demonology in Religious Thought," "Science Fiction and the Popular Media."
But, these are titles of courses students can take at the University of Kansas.
Some people think these are titles of courses one would find on the back of a comic book advertising a BGNS (Bachelor of General Non-Studies) at Pud University.
Because of differing trends at the University two kinds of instructors have developed. Some, who regard the University as a place of learning, lean toward the traditional liberal arts education.
Others, who consider themselves to be progressive or innovative, think the best way to teach them is to want. Many think more relevant courses should be offered to help students deal with modern society. They think that much can be learned because it can't be applied to modern Asia.
SOME HAVE GONE as far as stating that all the requirements for a Bachelor of Arts, such as Western Civilization and foreign language could be dropped and only electives taken.
more traditional educators accuse the innovative courses of being too easy and bad for students.
Calder M. Pickett, professor of journalism, has referred to the developing innovative courses as turning the University into an "academic garbage can."
In his article "The University . . . As Garbage Car." published in the Spring 1974 "Jayhawk Journalist," Pickett said, "The way things are going on our campus we'll
in favor of the western civilization requirement.
"Both students and faculty are doing a great deal of rethinking and recognize many of the errors of our recent ways and returning to a reasonable focus." Laird said.
Charles F. Sidman, chairman of the history department, said that the problem was just as great as ever but that students had become more serious and more directed toward academics and a career. Pud courses still are hard to regulate, but the student grapevine is helping to weed out the bad courses, he said.
HE SAID THE HISTORY department tried to teach the interest of the student without perving on it.
"We are concerned that what we do has genuine academic content, he said. "We don't try to offer courses just to increase enrolment."
Sidman said that both the survey courses, such as "Ancient History" and "Modern European History", and the newer, general topical courses were doing well.
Questionable courses should be publicized so that students will be able to know what they are getting into, he said. Sidman said that he doubted that anyone would have thought about the relevance of innovative courses three or four years ago.
Sidman said a greater variety of courses were being offered that allowed students to learn more about specific topics. Among these courses are "History of the Depression," "History of World War II" and "Inside Hitler's Germany."
THE COURSES THAT are offered depend on the competence and seriousness of faculty members, he said. Some teach how and what they want to teach.
Sidman said that he thought the different grading policies and the amount of work
issues," Quinn said. "Students have a hunger for great knowledge that many of contemporary courses don't offer. The university's faculty and the students were offered more chances."
WHILE FOR THE most part the English department has followed a traditional curriculum, it came under some sharp criticism. It was also the course entitled "Literature of Baseball."
George J. Worth, chairman of the English department at University of Oxford, was a good one and his research was well received.
Worth said the department tried to offer courses that would interest the students and that this was one of them. The course didn't toward a requirement in English, he said.
The English department also has been criticized for failing to require classic courses such as Milton and Chaucer and specific grammar courses.
Although students aren't required to take either Chaucer or Milton anymore, Worth will have an opportunity to take Shakespeare course. There also are required survey courses in which students learn about the other important names in literature as well as other major authors are offered.
COURSES IN GRAMMAR are offered in the department, he said, but they aren't required. Students who plan to teach, or need to take some grammar course course.
"We regard grammar as a tool to write
noticeably, not as end in itself," Worth
wrote.
Perhaps the department that has been the most criticized is the speech and communications department, especially the communications program within the department.
be graduating people in a few years who have been enrolled in so many trash courses and involved in so much "relevance" that their education will be little more than a knowledge of rock music, comic books and a few skin flies."
Many LA&S courses have been described as being pud and as failing to be useful to a student . . . Many offer only a limited . . . practical knowledge.
Paul Friedman, assistant professor of human relations, said most of these complaints dealt with the way the courses were taught.
PICKETT SAID THAT the changes began in the late 1980s and early 1970s, when he and other instructors ran scared for four years. He referred to the period as a time when a screening mob could invade a lair "when we were trying to find the rostrum, when all of us could bravely arise in democratic conviction and vote to cancel term papers and final examinations so that we could listen to rock groups and meditate on the war in Vietnam, when soldiers from coast to coast could be terrorized by demands of a few noisy students."
Many people think that majors in the speech and language department be said they don't realize that the courses include required readings, use of optional readings and an emphasis on
Roy D. Laird, professor of political science, said recently that much garbage had passed as courses since the upheavals in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The term relevancy is grossly misused, he said. He said he was proud that the political science department didn't offer courses that had a questionable content.
Instructors had to tell students that the courses they were teaching were relevant and useful. They created courses with 1970th titles and 1970th content, and I'm afraid that in the process we taught things in 1971 or 1972 that were not relevant and quite irrelevant two years later."
THE BIGGEST MISTAKE, Laired said, was the adoption of the Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) degree, which allows students to forgo many of the basic requirements. A student who studies toward a BGS is cheating himself, he said.
FRIEDMAN SAID the program instructors didn't believe in exams because testing a person on a particular day at a school was an representative of what a person had learned.
Laird said that he was in favor of a traditional education if it included courses in science, math, humanities and foreign language. Laird said he was 1,041 per cent
"Human relations classes deal with an area of life that is essential," he said. "They have a domain of life that people have dealt with and are curious to pursue and will use for the rest of their lives."
students had to take in different departments too often influenced the courses that
"Work for three credits in one department should be the same as in another department," he said. "Someone should have to take at least a quarter of what it takes to get good grades."
"A person learns what his basic patterns are, what he avoids doing and isn't aware of, what his strengths and abilities are and what his weaknesses are."
Dennis B. Quinn, director of the Pearson Integrated Humanities program, said the problem of declining educational standards was very serious.
Friedman said human relations had to be learned deeply. He admitted that the course had been criticized for being too easy, but he said that the kind of knowledge offered
"I think that the University doesn't require enough knowledge of most of the world's important books, especially at the freshman and sophomore levels," Quinn said. "Too many students graduate with little direct knowledge of the classics. I
who graduated after 1969, only 47 per cent were satisfied. This follows a downward trend of popularity in foreign language. In 2015 there was a similar downward trend in popularity.
the BA degree but he said it depended upon the interest and willingness of the faculty to accept.
However, Baumgartel said, there is a need to concentrate on many of the traditional courses. He said there was a revival of interest in English.
IN ADDITION, he said, there isn't anywhere else a student can go if he wants to get this kind of education. The University is the only place where he has an access to a database of human relations. If he can't learn here, he may never learn, Friedman said.
"Many people consider the state of English to be a national disaster," he said. "Colleges graduate people who can neither read, write nor speak English."
said. They are useful in business, psychology and almost all others.
BRYANT C. FREEMAN, chairman of the department of French, said the language requirement had been reaffirmed one and a half years age by the College Assembly with consist of all the one. The College Assembly consists of all the faculty and 30 per cent of the students.
Freeman said he thought it wasn't appropriate to vote again on the language requirement so soon. The main problem with the language requirement, he said, is that some students have a learning problem in the area of foreign languages.
Many students who have taken a human relations course admitted they did so because they were offered a chance for an "easy A" without doing any or little homework. They said the course really taught them nothing.
James E. Seaver, chairman of the Western Civilization program, said that if students had any complaints with the program they didn't bring them to him. Negative comments should be taken to the teacher involved, he said.
Students have various reactions to the human relations courses. Those who don't take them tend to think that the courses are nothing but bull sessions, and that it isn't fair that some students should get credit for their work for many students have to work hard for good grades in science, math or English courses that give the same amount of credit.
He suggested that graduating seniors be required to take a comprehensive examination so that the University could inform feedback concerning how well it was being assessed. He also emphasized some means by which they can measure student needs and interests, he said.
HOWEVER, STUDENTS who majored in the courses said they were prepared to deal
THE WESTERN CIV PROGRAM has gone through a change in the past few
ONE OF THE major criticisms of the courses has been the subjective grading system.
Friedman said the instructor usually has had a great deal of experience in how to compare students. This is called a quality factor—judging by the reactions of the student during the class whether he is learning.
UNFORTNATELY, he said, many of the departments are preoccupied with their own affairs and care only about how many students they can enroll.
The Pearson Integrated Humane
Program offers an introduction to the great
books, Quinn said, which satisfies a growing
hunger that many students are developing.
These students don't want digests or
sheets; they want shady and merely contemporary books.
There also is an energy factor involved, he said. The more someone puts into the course the more he gets out of it. Anyone who learns from this instructor will recognize it, Freiman said.
by human relations courses was personal and subjective.
The biggest mistake . . . was the adoption of the Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) degree, which allows students to forgo many basic requirements.
know many English graduate students who have never read Homer and Virel."
Most students who were asked about the Pearson program said they didn't know what to do with the data.
There is a widespread feeling among faculty members, Quinn said, that the great books can't be taught any more. Many instructor think that the classics are too hard there isn't enough interest in them, especially at the freshman and sophomore levels.
"The trend is away from contemporary
Speech communications and human relations are useful for people because they can be understood by everyone.
Work for three credits in one department should be the same as in another . . .
Someone should look into the disparity of what it takes to get good grades.
Human relations, as well as film courses, women's movement courses and political activism courses have been offered by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The college has many years tried to be at the front of the progressive educational movement.
with society after taking the courses. They said the courses prepared them for a career in many professional fields such as business, public relations and law.
Donald K. Alderson, Dean of men, who graduated from the University, said that students were becoming more concerned about getting good instructors than about having them. One can tell who the good teachers are by the enrollment in their classes, he said.
HOWARD BAUMGARTEL, associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, defended the courses as being necessary in the search to find new and better courses. The College provides instructors a chance to experiment with what sometimes become important and relevant courses.
Often the courses are picked up by a
offenment and become an important part of
a curriculum, he said. Many of the
courses have become important parts of the
English, speech and American studies
programs.
The courses also give outstanding graduate and undergraduate students a
HE NOTED A drop in enrollment in LA&S courses but said that this was because of a lack of funds rather than a lack of interest on the part of students. Baumgartel said it was important to offer what the students wanted to take.
The College is concerned with courses becoming outmoded as well as with funding needs in areas where the college does not.
RESPONDENTS WERE asked to indicate when they had received their undergraduate major, area of postgraduate education and current occupation. The relationships were determined by a study of students with background factor and the specific questionnaires.
In an attempt to discover exactly what most students thought were valuable classes, the College sent out questionnaires to 6,951 of its alumni, all of the living graduates of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The response was 36 per cent.
Years of graduation had little relationship to alumni views regarding the math, lab science and distribution and major requirements. Over 60 per cent of all alumni thought that these requirements should stay the same.
Concerning the foreign language requirement, of those who graduated before 1965, the following requirements apply:
years, Seaver said, but it hasn't been watered down, as some people charge.
Seaver said that most of the bad or pad courses were being weeded out of the curriculum and that he thought they would be eliminated.
Baugarntje said that while the survey was important, he didn't think that either the foreign language requirement or the Western Civilization requirement would be eliminated from the LA&S curriculum because they were too valuable. Instead of
However, he said, too many people are trying for the easy way out and they are
ALDERSON SAID THAT he supported the foreign language and Western Civilization requirements and that he recommended the BA rather than the BGS—especially for people planning to go into a graduate or a professional school.
"Students should have a liberal education that consists of courses that will help them in the future," he said. "By taking dit courses they may be introduced something new that may become career."
changing the requirement for a BA degree, the college is offering a BGS degree.
... two kinds of instructors have developed. Some ... lean toward the liberal arts education. Others think KU should offer courses the students want.
Baumgartner said the BGS request should not move changes in the requirements for FY2024.
HE SAID THAT more educationally exciting options should be included within
Adlerson said that while the University should retain its traditional curriculum it must also change with the times. He said success in educational trends depended on faculty's willingness to work with the student rather than on imposing their own norms.
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