Berkeley report
The California Senate Subcommittee on Un-American Activities decided last week that the University of California at Berkeley was in bad shape.
Both Communism and vice were present, in alarming quantities, and the university administration wasn't actively combating it, the subcommittee's 153 page report said.
AMONG THE EVIDENCE the report cited the case of Professor Eli Katz, who had left the university in 1964 after he had refused to deny that he was a communist in House Un-American Activities hearings. Katz, now teaching at Western Reserve, has signed a loyalty oath and has been rehired.
The report, in addition to charging that the administration was hiring disloyal faculty members, blamed the administration for alleged student homosexuality, drunkenness, use of narcotics and illegal political activity. "The abdication of responsibility for maintaining order and discipline at Berkeley appears to be the confession of a weak administration."
story in the student newspaper there which estimated, based on the Kinsey reports that there were over 2,000 homosexuals in the student body.
Among the evidence the report cited was a
THE REPORT CALLED the newspaper language in the article "nauseating and inexcusable" and said, "Under normal circumstances there would have been quick and decisive discipline. But there was only silence from (President Clark) Kerr, (Chancellor Rodger) Heyns, and (Vice-Chancellor Earl) Cheit."
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS
The report was little more than half-truths, designed largely as a personal attack on Kerr and his assistants, with a fine touch of red-baiting straight out of the 1950's. Both Kerr and Heyns issued quick denials of the charges.
The outstanding lesson from the episode is that legislatures might be wise to leave the running of state universities to those capable of the job. Administrators may not be perfect, but even with their occasional faults, they are usually quite a bit better than the best state legislature.
Justin Beck
"DAY ISN'T THAT THE SAME GROUP OF BOYS THE DEAN OF
MEN HAD SO MUCH TROUBLE WITH LAST FALL?"
Pud may become student Waterloo
Continued from page 1
be found to explain why it is possible to attain a satisfactory grade easily.
First, it must be determined how a given course became known as a pud. Second, if it is in fact a pud, why and for whom is it so?
Donald K. Alderson, dean of men, said that "peer group advisors" create these attitudes about courses.
"I think you have to trace the source," Dean Alderson said. "Suppose a student who scored in the 85th percentile in math tells another student, with a score in the 45th percentile, that Math number so-and-so is an easy course. Undoubtedly it is easy for the first student, but the second is being misled."
IN AGREEMENT is Emily Taylor, dean of women, who said that "what constitutes a pud for one person may be entirely different for another.
"So as far as specific 'pud courses' are concerned, I really doubt if they exist."
"Once I heard a chemistry major complaining about the pud courses some friends of his were taking," Dean Taylor said, "and when he was asked what the courses were, he said 'a lot of language courses.' On the other hand, language is next to impossible for many people.
From another viewpoint, Frances Grinstead, associate professor of journalism, feels that many pud courses are status symbols.
"SUPPOSE YOU take a course because you hear it's easy," said Prof. Grinstead. "I think a lot of kids want to say they've taken a
course because it's easy, for approval by their peers. It seems to be the thing to do."
If there are any genuinely pu courses, then, they are very few in number and are more than likely introductory or elements courses. Moreover, if they exist, they are not indicative of a department or school of the same nature.
"The first courses in jewelry and sculpture are very easy," said a junior art student. "I don't know anyone who couldn't get an A out of them if they go to class and do the assignments. As for the rest of the art department, you really don't have much business there if you don't have some talent."
BUT THERE are definitely some courses which may be passed satisfactorily by part of the students enrolled in them without full participation in the requirements. For that portion of the students, those courses will be labeled genuinely pud.
The student, naturally, is part of the reason for this. Herman Jujan, assistant professor of political science, also feels that this occurs mostly at the lower, or introductory, levels.
"The introductory social sciences courses," said Prof. Lujan, "are puids partially because some students have had good early training in the field, and some haven't. The answer, I think, would be a more extensive testing program for freshmen. Proficiency tests in many areas of the social sciences would be very helpful."
"I think high school training is a problem for the students who don't do well, too. They're so dependent on a text book and doing
the problems at the end of the chapter, and if they don't feed back to us with questions and discussion, we run dry."
On the other hand, however,
many courses only seem to be
easy until the semester is well
under way.
"THE FEWER general, incontrovertible principles there are in a course," said Dean Taylor, "the more difficult it really is for the student, but the easier it seems before he is tested. Everything makes so much common sense to him, he thinks nothing's happening."
And, indeed, the student may fully recognize and assay the difficulty of a course, find it very pud, and still not receive a "good" grade.
"I don't like pud courses," said a junior woman. "I always make my worst grades in them. I don't bother to study as hard for them as I do for more difficult courses, and I get bored because I'm neither challenged nor motivated."
The latter statement illustrates the basic evil attributed to pud courses, and points to the cause voted "most likely to be the cause" of pud courses.
“THERE'S NO such thing as a pud course—it’s all in the teacher.”
The instructor of a pud is considered, at best, to be the major cause of the nature of such a course. (To reiterate, a pud course being one in which a good part of the students enrolled may receive satisfactory grades in return for little or no effort.)
kansan
The basic assumption here is that if a student puts nothing into a course he should receive nothing in return. Therefore, if he does in fact receive a return (i.e., credit hours and grade points toward graduation) the instructor has given credit for nothing, and no longer functions as an educator.
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"The way you teach the course, what you demand of the students and how they are graded are the criteria," Prof. Stouse said. "These can change a course from a pud to a non-pud. The instructor should go beyond the facts and make them think a little."
PIERRE STOUSE, assistant professor of geography and instructor of Geography 6, also a pud in years past, feels similarly about the instructor's role in the course.
Prof. Lujan, who insists he teaches no puds and whose students readily agree, is in favor of "teaching as a two-way communication process between students and instructor" as a step toward solution of many of education's problems, including pud courses. He would like to see abolition of the unit system in favor of a program system, and the abolition of grades in favor of a "pass-fail" system.
"I think the answer is total responsibility of education with the student," said Prof. Lujan, "and total responsibility of the pass or fail with the instructor. Sure, it would wash out some students, and a lot of professors, too."
THE STUDENT who enrolls in the pud with the intention of accepting no responsibility and receiving full credit, however, feels no pain from his transaction and hence is not directly injured. Nor is the instructor. The pud-poor junior miss continues:
"I'm sure there are such courses," said Elliot Gillerman, associate professor of geology and instructor of Geology 1, considered a pud before he took it over last fall, "and I can't really see much point to them. The student is not going to learn much, and it would seem to defeat the whole purpose of education."
2
"Quite often the instructor knows he's teaching a pud, so he'll make attendance mandatory and require a lot of homework. The homework tends toward a lot of buswork instead of creative, thought-provoking study."
Daily Kansan
L
editorial page Wednesday, May 11, 1966
"Many courses are real puds, but lots of others have vascillated back and forth in and out of the pud category," said Prof. Beer. "It depends on the instructor, and on the students' reactions and analyses.
"I FIGURE the GPA of Insects and Man every semester, and it deviates from other course averages—usually around a 1.5 or so. Now, if it's a lot higher than that, I have to decide if I have above-average students, or if I'm changing my level of expectation.
Such is the plight of the conscientious student stuck in a pud course. Not that it upgrades bad students, because their day will come anyway, but that it down-grades good students, because their day might not come.
He frequently announces on the first day of class that "My name is Beer, and this is a pud course," meaning that you'll get a lot out of this course, including a good grade, if you pay attention.
One distinction which must not be lost in the confusion is that between an "easy" or "pud" course and a "good" course. A good course is not at all necessarily easy (most of them are rough, involving quite a bit of work) except for the fact that the instructor is interesting, interested, inspiring and sometimes fascinating, and most students want to work to the limit for him.
SUCH COURSES are taught by William Bass, professor of anthropology; Robert Beer, professor of
"In order not to unduly penalize any of the students due to their different ages, majors, etc., I upgrade the whole business rather than talk down to part of them, and the grade spread is wider."
entomology; Prof. Lujan; Clifford Ketzel, associate professor of political science; Franklyn Nelik, professor of English, and Calder M. Pickett, professor of journalism, to name but a very few, and are known far and wide as "damn good courses."
Prof. Beer's Entomology 5 course, Insects and Man (perhaps better known as Bugs and Boys), is considered by the unlearned as one of the hill's roaring pugs, but is, in real life, a good course.
On the whole, the old-line roaring pud course seems to be losing much of its notoriety.
Geology and geography, the snap "ten hours of B" have given way to modern, up-to-date earth sciences. The School of Business, to which students used to be directed "if you can't do anything else," is one of the best (and least pud-oriented in the country). Aspirants who come to the School of Journalism in search of assured graduation walk away muttering "busywork," but others know better.
"Teaching," said Prof. Frances Grinstead, "is not for making it rough on people, but for transmitting material. You can go through a lot of hard material and have a lot of fun with it."
"If the pattern of education continues as it is now," Dean Taylor predicted, "it may be almost impossible for students to keep up the load, and relief may be needed, not through lessening the courses' demands, but perhaps the number of hours required."