Want more effective communication
Sensitivity groups popular at KU
By LINDA WRIGHT Kansan Staff Writer
Sensitivity training and T-group exercises have recently captured the interest of young people across the nation. Students at KU are no exception. Hundreds enroll each semester in Speech 141, Human Relations in Group Interaction.
Dean Kerkman, clinical psychologist at Watkins Hospital, attributes the interest to students' desire to be more effective in social and interpersonal communications. Speech 141 tackles the growing problem of overt conflict in inter-group relations.
The course, said Kerkman, also allows the student to be more actively involved in the educational process rather than just being a passive recipient.
There are about 260 students enrolled in 15 sections of Speech 141. Two sections were added
during enrollment to meet student demand. The maximum class size is 18.
Format for the class varies with the instructor. There are lectures and discussions of assigned reading material. The instructor, called a trainer, may suggest and implement activities to illustrate problems the group faces. He is mainly interested in the group process and its facilitation.
During the semester exercises in verbal and non verbal communications are conducted to stimulate interaction among students and increase self-aware-ness.
Most students think participation in a T-group is rewarding.
Regi Markillie, Jacksonville, Ill., senior who is enrolled this semester in Speech 141, said "The course has good possibilities. Everyday you are in class with people, but you never really get to know them. By the time you get to be a senior, you figure there has got to be more to being a student that just going to class.
"I began to think about all the people I never really got to know and I thought maybe this human relations course would give me a chance to get to know my classmates better."
Miss Markillie said she hoped the class would give her a better idea of how people felt about her. This knowledge would enable her to approach people in an unstilted manner and to put them at ease.
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Gayle Burrow, Beaver Falls, Ark., senior, took the course last semester. "It can be a rewarding experience if the class can react freely and express themselves," she said, "but my class was really up-tight and it prohibited total interaction.
"Also, the T-group situation provides an excellent opportunity to throw off inhibitions and act without repercussions from society. However, when you try to act freely in society, you sometimes find the communication techniques learned in the T-group are not always accepted or viable."
By the end of the semester, it is hoped the student will have an increased understanding of the communications process and the potential for individual, group, and organizational change and growth. Kerkman said.
human relations at KU is still experimental. Special sections have been enrolled, such as counselors and dormitory officers or black-white groups.
Various departments require, or strongly recommend, Speech 141 as part of their curriculum. These include the School of Social Work, School of Education, nursing education, music therapy, occupational therapy and personnel management.
The undergraduate program in
A large per cent of the course enrollment is elective. Students enrolled one semester represented 47 majors, with many from the social sciences.
Although it has just been recently that national interest focused on human relations interpersonal communications, study and research in this area has been conducted since the 1930s when behavioral scientists first questioned many traditional assumptions and policies in the management of human affairs.
A department of human relations was established at KU in 1949, and existed as a separate department until spring, 1967.
The department's primary goal during this period was to provide training to graduate students as professionals in the field, to develop innovative educational methods and to conduct field research.
partment was merged with the speech communication division, which placed human relations in the doctoral program.
In 1967 the human relations de-
KU is one of the few universities which offers a doctoral program with emphasis on training, research and consultation in this aspect of communications, Kerkman said.
Plans for the program include continued research into laboratory methods and structure.
"To rely on the fact that people like it or demand it does not answer the question of the validity or reliability of the methods," Kerkman said.