food were allowed
Press meeting text
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source of support and loans and the like to make up for the difference
Press: What can the university do for disadvantaged students?
Chalmers: Well, of course, one area is the area we've just mentioned. Financial status is not relevant and has no hearing on whether a student should attend a college. Another relates to students who come from an educationally disadvantaged background, for a variety of reasons, who have the motivation and the potential to successfully complete a four-year college program, but require remedial help in some areas. Perhaps it's the area of speech, perhaps it's remedial help in mathematics or wherever else the secondary school environment was deficient. He may even require special assistance from faculty members in order to overcome the differential disadvantages that he or she may experience in the University situation.
Press: Pending a decision by the Kansas Legislature, KU may receive an Upward Bound program, but it may not be funded completely. What are your feelings about the priority of this program, and diverting extra funds to this program.
Chalmers: I would give it a very high priority, sufficiently high that if its not possible to do this through state and federal participation, which I believe is the present hope, then I think it would be important to seek other ways to accomplish this within the resources of the University. I believe we have several important purposes here. One of course is the obligation to make the public university serve the public, and not just the elite. The second obligation is that of determining in the years ahead of us what educational efforts are optimal, in resolving this disadvantage that we're all concerned about, and keenly aware of.
Press: Critics of university regulations often say that the administration often acts as the parent of the student. Should the university administration be a parent away from home?
Chalmers: I have enough trouble being a parent to two teenage boys, let alone 17,000 sons and daughters. No, I think this is by and large an era of the past, when there were many small, private, special purpose institutions and an extraordinarily homogeneous student population, and there was a possibility at that time that a sensitive administrator could become a surrogate parent, if you wish. All of his sons and daughters were very much alike in their goals and objectives. When you speak of a large, multi-purpose university such as the University of Kansas, this gets to be an almost meaningless role concept.
Press: The ex-chancellor of the University of Nebraska, Clifford Hardin, was named to Mr. Nixon's cabinet. Does the next Chancellor of the University of Kansas have any political ambitions?
Chalmers: (Chuckle) Absolutely none! I was asked, as a matter of fact, (I'm not going to name the states) about two positions in education that would remove me from the campus. In both instances my reply was most sincerely that all my life I've enjoyed being where the action is and I can't see myself in the state capitol.
Press: I was wondering whether you'd comment on a bill which has been passed by the Kansas Senate and is currently pending in the House of Representatives, which would make possession of marijuana a first-offense felony punishable by 20 years imprisonment?
Chalmers: Frankly, I'm not familiar with the research that you cite. I recognize that for the most part, correlational evidence is cited that there is a high relationship between users of narcotics, heroin and the like, and earlier use of marijuana.
Press: I am saying, do you personally condone the possession of marijuana as a felony punishable by 20 years imprisonment?
Chalmers: This would depend, wouldn't it, if we were able to determine empirically that the early use of marijuana is related in a high proportion of cases to heroin and the like, then we have a very serious societal problem on our hands. If it were to be determined that it does not bear any relationship to this, and that the effects per se, relative to hard narcotics, were not terribly severe, then one would expect.
Press: Do you think undergraduates should be employed to teach in the University?
(Chalm3: I believe that becoming a University teacher is a continuous process from the freshman year to the award of the doctorate. Undergraduates—particularly those from a university such as this one, where there is a high probability that many, many undergraduates are going to go to graduate school and become part of the University community—probably should enjoy the opportunity to interact in the educational process. I also happen to believe that undergraduates learn a great deal from other undergraduates. I can still remember that from my own undergraduate years.
Press: How do you feel about controversial speakers on the campus, particularly known agitators?
Chalmers: Obviously in the area of controversial ideas, there has to be the broadest of interpretations of this. My own feeling is that unless a proposed speaker has demonstrated on recent campuses that his principal purpose is to disrupt or encourage others to disrupt the educational process, that academic
freedom calls for exposure to the entire gamut of opinions and beliefs.
Press: What do you see as the role of athletics in the large university?
Chalmers: The football coach back at Florida State University likes to respond to that question by noting that the stadium is the only place where all the students and faculty can assemble. There's a germ of something important to that observation. I believe that intercollegiate athletics plays an important role in the university community. I suppose my only concern is those rare instances today where the financial support of athletics has made inroads on the educational budgets, which I view with some disfavor.
Press: What are your intentions as far as communication and cooperation with certain highly vocal and sometimes vehement groups, such as SDS and Black Students Union?
Chalmers: I hope that there will be frequent opportunities to meet with such groups, opportunities for them to make their concerns known, and some tolerance on their part for the fact that it sometimes takes more than 24 hours to improvise or innovate on the University campus—particularly if you expect that innovation to be lasting, it has to be built into the structure, and if you wish, built into the system. I'm not a stranger to change in higher education. I enjoy it. We have to be critical. We have to be open to change in our organization, in our approach to higher education, as we are open to new ideas in our disciplines. But I also happen to believe that for change to be effective, it has to be implemented well, for example the University Code, which took two years all told.
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