Inscape, Vol. XXXI, Issue 5

              Inscape— Nov. 10, 1967— Page 6
Educators Discuss Issues At
ACE Conference, CSR There
Educators and administrators congrega­ted
in Washington, D.C. last month to discuss
problems and development in higher education
at the 50th annual meeting ot the American
Council on Education. Sister Clarence Paul,
Sister Therese, and Mr. Robert O’Neill, rep­represented
CSR at the assembly, estimated
at some 1,700 persons. Dr. Samuel B. Gould,
chancellor at the State University of New
York, gave the keynote address. He stated
that the “power of student activism cannot
be minimized nor can its potential for crea­ting
and maintaining unrest be taken lightly.
Unrest and tension on a campus can and
should be dynamic factors for university good,
but there are certain elements of the current
student movement which openly advocate
such unrest as means toward total disruption
and destruction." Here is an assessment of
the meeting by a CPS correspondent.
BY PHIL SEMAS
WASHINGTON (CPS) - Most students, many
faculty members, and even some administrators
have never heard of the American Council on
Education.
Yet the ACE is the most powerful and influ­ential
higher education organization in the United
States. It is a super-association, counting among
its membership 189 national and regional educa­tion
associations and 1,261 colleges and univer-
^Most of its power is wielded by a staff of 100
people, working out of a staid-looking building on
Massachusetts Avenue in Washington. Most signi­ficant
federal legislation about higher education
originates or is influenced by the ACE staff. And
they deal with a number of o ther broad p ro b lem s ,
of importance to the nation's college adminis­tra
to r s .
When ACE holds its national conference, as it
did for the 50th time la s t month, it is indeed a
meeting of the American Educational Establish­ment,
Tall, gray-haired presidents of big uni-,
v e rs itie s, pipe-puffing deans, shuffling presidents
of small colleges, and even a good complement,
of nuns and p rie sts moved about the spacious halls ^
and numerous meeting rooms of Washington’s plush
Shoreham Hotel, listening to panels discuss every­thing
from the university as c ritic of society to the
university as servant of society.
Yet what was said—either on the panels or in
the co rrid o rs—was perhaps le ss important than
who was saying it and the way the administrators
listened.
It was obvious that the demands for student
power and student rights have gotten through to
the men who run the nation's colleges. They a re
aware of students as more than numbers in an
enrollment list, another source of funds, and one
group involved in the almost secondary university
function of teaching and learning.
At la s t y e a r 's ACE meeting there was one student
on an entire program that dealt with teacher
evaluation and improvement. Two years ago, when
students themselves were the topic of the ACE
conference, four out of nine panels lacked a student
representative.
But this year there were students or «student-types”
on every panel. And the administrators
clearly enjoyed the whole thing.
They all grinned as Paul Danish, student body
vice president at the University of Colorado,
skillfully cut them down, telling them that they
were the cause of students’ troubles, no matter
how they tried to shift the focus of student anger
to the faculty.
He also cut apart the nation with which they
confront themselves in the face of student upheaval;
that student unrest Is caused mostly by 's tu den t
s t r e s s ” and can be solved by more personal
•Student revolts a re usually caused by what is
purported to cause them,” he said, "and too much
of what you attribute to Oedipus and Elec tra is
actually caused by LBJ and the dean of men,"
As for more personal attention, Danish opinioned
that he would ra th e r administrators left him alone.
Only one administrator became angry of what the
students said. John Millett, chancellor of the Ohio
board of regents, attacked as “outrageous” a paper
by former University of Michigan student body
president Ed Robinson which said that the products
of American education who now run the United States
a re failures. This, Robinson added, demonstrates
the failure of higher education.
Yet, while increased p re s su re from students is
apparently making college administrators listen to
them and talk about teaching and learning as impor­tant
functions, one had the feeling that the people
a t the ACE meeting would have p re fe rred to get
back to things closer to th e ir hearts, like the slowing
of the federal flow of re s e ra c h flinds described by
ACE staffer John Morse Wednesday night or the
question of how to get more money out of the public,
the government, and the alumni, which Ford Foun­dation
President McGeorge Bundy discussed In his
closing speech Friday morning.
That was never stated, but it came out subtly
in several ways:
—T h o u ^ a panel on teaching and learning
Thursday drew the la rg e st turnover of any of the
three that morning, 90 per cent of the people
present were from colleges of le ss than 4,000 stu-
■ dents, according to a show of hands taken by Wer- •
dell.—
The most significant contribution to the central
theme of the conference, goals for higher education,
■ was probably made by Yale Professor Kenneth
Kennlston. He argued that critic ism of the society
ought to join teaching, re sea rch , and serv ice s as
one of the major functions of a university. He said
' that“this meant that the university should make su re
that its students and faculty members were free to
. ex ercise their c ritic a l roles.
Yet few people were a t the panel that discussed
his paper (it had competed with a session on who
ought to run colleges, in which students were
relegated to a footnote in the background paper)
and the next morning the wrap-up panel on p rio r­itie
s was back to talking about the oldtrlumverate.
That bore out one of Kennlston’s main points:
teaching, research, and service a re pretty easy to
explain to tru ste e s, legislators, and the public,
but students demonstrating against the war a re not.
Thiis administrators prefer to keep that s o rt of
thing In the background.
__Though he acknowledged ‘ that student ro le s
will change,” ACE President Logan Wilson In his ■
re p o rt to the conference expressed concern over
“widespread attempts to deride authority in a ll
fields* and the Idea that problems of higher educa­tion
can be solved «by assuming that everybody
concerned has equal competence to grapple with
them o r by trying to conduct these institutions like
perpetual debating socie tie s.”
He emphasized leadership by administrators and
hardly mentioned students at all in a five point lis t
of “c riticual problems” facing higher education.
Nor did he mention the c ritic a l role of the univer­sity
o r making education relevant to societal prob­lems,
two major problems articulated by students
at the conference. Instead, he talked about “support
and control, educational organization, institutional
patterns, educational planning, and administration
and leadership.
When McGeorge Bundy talked about the “immi­nent
bankruptcy” and consequent destruction facing
higher education, he added that administrators
will find It hard to convince people of the c r is is
they face because of higher education's great
successes.
The delegates to the ACE conference knew he
spoke the truth. Many will find It hard to believe
that financial and administrative problems a re the
key ones fiiclng higher education today.
Marine Returns
i in k l« ’g In v i ta t io n
Central Avenue would not be
the same If you didn’t have “Your
Jeweler,” HAROLD FINKLB,217
Central Avenue, with his com­plete
line of diamonds, watches,
charms, hollow ware, and many
more gift items. Special ra te s
to all students. Service cannot
be beat at HAROLD FINKLE
JEWELERS. Free gift wrapping
and free engraving on all pur­chases,
and never a charge tor
c r e d i t . Come in and browse
around. Open every evening to
9 p,m. Mr. Flnkle gladly gives
discounts to students. HO 3-8220.
AGAINST THE TIDES - An Infantryman pushes his combat gear-loaded
a ir m attress before him as he swims a cro ss a monsoon-flooded
s tre am in a Vietnam mission. _______________
STUDENT DISCOUNT
KNIT ’N* TIME YARN SHOP
212 Western Ave, ot Quail
Mention St. Rose
Get discount
and
Free Lessons
OPEN DAILY
10 to 5:30
Wed. t il o
Phone
434-«339
GARDEN
F 1 1 ^ Uftahingtfln A\/
L Al b a t i q
0 V _ m , l - 5 S 6 ^
R
1
S
(cont. from p. 5)
people,” Joe claims that the r e ­p
orts of apathy a re false. “There
is no draft, the whole army is
volunteer. Iliey definitely care.
They’r e in there because they
want to be th e re .” In his personal
experience, there were no inci­dents
of desertion.
The civilians in South Viet Nam
a re “very suspicious of the United
States. They have been under for­eign
rule for so long . . . They
.don’t really re a lize what’s going
on. There’s poor communication.
They don'tknow what communism
is. They want us to be there.
I can’t say why. They want the
American buck. They're becom­ing
accustomed to the Western
way. They’re s tarting to wear
Western clothing and Western
ha irs tyle s.” Do they like their
own government? “They must
like It—they elected It.”
Joe Is 100% In favor of the war
In Viet Nam. “The people In South
Viet Nam a re helpless . . . The
Communists a re trying to take
over. If they succeed, they proba­bly
won’t stop there. If we settle
for a compromise, we’ll have
another Korea . . . If the United
States did pull out, the financial
status of the free world would
be In a bind. Prosperity would
come to a halt In the United
States. The U.S. gives financial
support to the free world.” Joe
continued on a personal leveL
“/ was homesick as hell. I
wanted to come home, but I
wanted to stay too. It was
wierd. It was something I bad
to do-a sense of accomplish­ment,
things like that."
He also approves of bombing
North Viet Nam. “The sooner
the war’s over, the sooner the
465,000 men over there can come
home to their wives and feimll-le
s .”
The effect of the protestors
on the men fighting in Viet Nam
Is “very, very, very demorali­zing.
The guys get ticked off.
They’d like these p rotestors to
come over and see what’s really
going on . . . There’s not a hell
of a lot you can do about it
though . . . You just take it in
s tr id e ,”
He feels that the American
public is very gullible. News­paper
and TV coverage do not
give a true picture. “They don’t
really know what’s going on over
there and don’t have enough in­formation
to criticize . . . There
a re more Americans killed in
Viet Nam than a re reported to the
public in the United States.” Why
don’t they tell us the truth? It
would be “demoralizing to a lot
of parents. They’d wonder if it’s
th e ir son.”
Joe felt ‘'no remorse what­soever
in killing. You watch a
marine die and you want to
kill . . . Besides, if you don't
kill him (the enemy), he'U kill
you."
VN Poll
(cont. from p. 4)
It doesn't do any gooa to educate
a person to be a doctor or a
teacher and then have him a s s a s -
inated by the Viet Cong. This Is
what was happening before we
committed ourselves there and
that is why we must stay there
until this threat to the educated
people of South Viet Nam is des­troyed.
CALLIE GARGIULO: When the
future of the South Vietnamese
becomes more Important than
the lives and future of our people.
It Is time to withdraw. Although
our original position may have
been honorable, the prospect of
continual economic and political
exploitation of our men, the dom­ino
theory, the cry of “save face”,
and the image of the U.S. as the
saviour of the democratic world
disintegrate.
ROBERT KLEIN (Siena): I am
for the war In Viet Nam. The
fact that these people In South
Viet Nam need hospitals and
schools is very evident However
th a t's all we can do about i t To
Withdraw now would be suicide
and to escalate would be murder.
However, there is a cause, and
a good cause—FREEDOM—being
fought for and the price of freed­om
is dear, very dear.
SUE SHIELDS: I am opposed to
the war in Viet Nam. I think it is
time we seriously re-evaluate
our “commitment” there and de­cided
just why we are involved in
-th e war. Are we putting whole­hearted
effort into attempts for
a negotiated peace? The demon­s
tra to rs , draft card b urners, etc.
have a message but it’s falling
on closed minds. The Insanity
and inhumanity represented by
the war a re not the only courses
of action.
LORRAINE DOWLING: I am
against the war in Viet Nam—
with reservations. While Ib^lieve
we should halt bombing and press
harder for negotiations, I think
an unconditional pull-out is com­pletely
impractical and unrealis­tic.
The war has been dragged
out, and I do mean dragged, for
too long, the re sult being that the
purpose of our presence in Viet
Nam has been obscured.