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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 1964)
Class on Saturday Three years ago all freshmen were asked to schedule at least one Saturday class unless, with their advisor’s approval, their schedule did not permit this. This plan was abandoned the next year, but the Sat urday classes remained, and are still with us. Unfortunately, there are very real eco nomic reasons for scheduling weekend classes at the University. Classroom space is at a premium with all class space being used the 30 hours a week recommended by the State Board of Higher Education. Until more space is available (and at the rate the University is expanding construction may never exceed enrollment increases) stu dents will have no choice but to take Sat urday classes. We dream, however, of the day when students and professors can work the five day week enjoyed by most other occupations today. The prevailing rationale behind sched uling Saturday classes is the space limita tion. The present senior class has seen class schedules change until classes are now scheduled through the lunch hour and through the 1 p.m. Tuesday period tra ditionally set aside for University assem blies. The seniors have seen schedules mod ified until a student can very easily have classes from 8 a m. to 2 p.m. without a break plus a Saturday class and one or more evening classes per week. Apart from the economic need, however, weekend scheduling also has a philosoph ical justification; to prevent “weekend ex odus.” It is difficult to build an academic environment when large portions of the student body exit early Friday afternoon, not to be seen again until Monday morning. Weekend scheduling of cultural events or other programs necessary to an academic community may be curtailed by this ex odus. With both of these reasons considered, however, we feel that the student and in structor still have cases to build against the University’s current scheduling system. Relaxation and an opportunity for uninter rupted study are both essential for the uni versity student. For many students, a mid morning Saturday class means fewer hours for library research. The library closes at 5 p.m. on Saturday and does not open again until 2 p.m. Sunday. With current academic demands offering increasing chal lenges to students, class preparation takes longer hours and frequently requires long periods of independent research. Current studies have time and again pointed to the greater pressures placed upon students to achieve and meet the challenges of the modern university. These pressures have taken their toll in nervous breakdowns, drop outs for emotional rea sons, and the long list of psychological re actions frequently attributed to college life. Each cut into the student’s weekend means less time to reach a balance between relaxation and study. For some, it provides an excuse to play for the entire weekend. For others, the majority perhaps, college life is blurred into one long “session with the books,” broken only by vacations. The lack of classroom space is a reason with which we cannot argue. The financial limitations of the state schools are old news. We can only keep asking for better physical facilities. Until more space is avail able. we cannot hope to change the current scheduling system. We can, however, hope that when more space is available better scheduling will also be available. After all of this, however, one observer has said: The Lord only rested one day. After all He did . . . why should students need more? Letters to the Editor, Courtesy? Emerald Editor: In my two years as a member of the University Marching Band, I have had ample oppor tunity to observe the rally squad in all its glory. My observations of them have been generally favorable until this year’s Homecoming game. My obser vations were then shattered. While our alumni band was playing, our thoughtful rally squad then decided to fire up “Louie, Louie,” completely ob livious of the alumni band. In cidentally, this was the only time any selection (I hesitate to use the word music) boomed forth from the loudspeaker. Soon the sound from across the way was inundated in the screaming wave of music(?) issuing from the cavernous loud speakers situated in front of the students. Someone evident ally temporarily forgot how to turn off the record player. It’s funny, though, someone had an instant memory recall when the football team returned to the strain of “Mighty Oregon” and switched it off. I fully realize that the alumni band’s music was not as loud nor as sensuous as the rally squad’s selection, but the rally squad at least owed the alumni band the common courtesy of waiting until they were finished, to cut loose. There was a note of irony in that situation. The yell king had earlier in the game cordially welcomed the alumni band on behalf of the students. Then came ‘Louie, Louie,” which most certainly was not a cordial welcome, but rather a discour teous and rude one. This type of irony has no place at a foot ball game or any other activity at which the University is rep resented. I am not condemning the ral ly squad per se, because their contribution to school spirit is immeasurable. My only hope is, that in the future, they exhibit more courtesy and respect than was evident in this incident. Evan Mandigo Soph., English member, marching band Our Smokeless Industry This speech, delivered by Logan Wilson, president of the American Council on (ed ucation, was reported In the ACE publication, Higher Ed ucation and National Affairs, published Oct. 23. Education is becoming an in dustry which offers a product for its consumers, the students One leading educator has warn ed that, with the demands be ing placed upon colleges by bus iness and industry, communi ties, and government agencies, "there is a recurrent need to recall that colleges were cre ated primarily for students." The “seller's market" in high er education which has young people clamoring for admission to college makes it ail too easy for teachers and administrators to avoid confronting issues in volving students, President Lo gan Wilson of the American Council on Education warned recently. In an October speech, Wil son said, "because others arc standing in line to take the places of dropouts, there is a danger of our becoming indif ferent, if not callous, to the sources of discontent and the causes of failure.” Fast Expansion The rate of expansion of col lege enrollment may leave the student with less personal con tact with the faculty and col lege staff members, Wilson noted Citing the "faceless ano nymity," that programmed in struction. IBM cards and identi fication numbers represent, he declared that "the depersonal ization of the study, if allowed to go unchecked or unchal lenged, represents a grave threat to the very purposes of higher education." Among issues deserving at tention. Wilson said, are the in tellectual climate of the campus, including the student body’s view of extra curricular life and the faculty's attitude toward teaching, the personal conduct of students, and the high rate of college drop outs. Re-Examination A re-examination of the extra curricular life of our colleges is needed, he stated, adding, “it may well be that certain of the adolescent preoccupations of nineteenth-century college life are no longer fitting.” “With the rising expectations and standards demanded of stu dents and, I hope, the increas ing level of student maturity, we can afford to drop the^ener vating and time-consuming ac tivities that (on some cam puses) preoccupy the energies of students and obstruct realiza tion of the real goals of educa tion,” he observed. Wilson also decried the “low value attributed by faculty and administration to the effective and committed teaching of stu dents” with the resulting infer ence by the student body that "such activity is not considered terribly important." What About Honesty? To questions of student hon esty, integrity, and morality, Wilson said, "colleges and uni versities cannot be indifferent.” However, he pointed out that the institutions sometimes llnd themselves between parents who "do not support the restrictions which colleges have tradition ally placed on students" and other parents who "expect the colleges to police their sons and daughters in ways which they themselves did not or could not. “It is no wonder,” he added, "that the present tension exists between students and institu tions regarding rules, discipline, morals, rights, freedoms, and responsibilities ” The continuing high rate of student attrition in higher edu cation, which finds only four out of ten entering freshmen graduating from college four years later, presents a picture of "waste, inefficiency, and prob ably considerable personal un happiness,” he said Some of these students, he conceded, are outright academ ic failures, but others find “that they do not lit a preconceived mold or are repelled by the pressures and irrelevancies put upon them.” Furthermore, he said, in the collegiate "race for excellence, too many students who would have been successes a decade ago are found in the tally of casualties." Letters All letters to the editor must be typewritten and be double spaced. letters not over 300 words in length will be given preference for publication. OREGON DAILY EMERALD The Oregon Daily Emerald i« ptih li*hed five time* in September and hvc ilay* a week during the aa«lemir year, rt eept during rwmiiwtKni period*, by the Student Publication* Board of the tinivcf* »»ty of Oregon. Entered a* aecoiH dau matter at the port office, Kufrnr, Orcf'in. Sub*crtption rate* $5 per year; 12 t»cr term. Opinion* exj*re**rd on the editorial page are (bote of the Emerald and do not represent the opinion* of the ASUO or the Univervtty. Cathy Neville, Editor J. Craig Mathiesen, It untie** Manager Irma Dawn Moar, Managing Editor Kenneth R. Kappel, Advertising Manager Stephen (Irrrn, New* Editor Chuck Begg*. Editorial Page Editor Dave Jordan, A»«ociate Editor Phil Scma*, Sport* Editor Phylli* Hiving, Associate New* Editor Joe Frazier, Rich Babow. Assistant New* Editor* Bob Carl, A**i*tant Managing Editor Bob I)cnni*ton and Bruce McCurtain, Co* Photo Editor* Mary Stamp, Feature Editor Nancy Collins, Entertainment Editor Editorial Hoard: Pam Hladine, Clifford Kauffman, Pat Holt, Stephen Green, Irma Dawn Moar, Steve Goldschmidt, Chuck lieggft, Dave Jordan, Phil Scma*. in.. Jules Feiffer, 'amp mow,-the FtWAL CHAPTER IN TOJI6HT5 SHOW. Tvb Tost i&Rm? me me soue owe yew specie in oup mot BUCe -MR. BERNARD M£R6 woeieep.! peRHbfr we cm COM HIM UPHgRS TO FA'/OP OS WITH PNF OF HIS /MMORTAi- 50M6S AKJP TAP PAMCSS; * , ^ 'levs sex him up me, eoft, plav ns vmr ' OH.TM PuttiMM W, homwq krrm wty men I ‘veu, 6m &6. 6m-' "AW Af A dow SURPRte-5/r mo our frost oub6kuou)isst TO 06PWARP Yb HIS fORHBR pAMciw<3 vmuFR, Miss> meet "I WA*7 A Foot, Qti6e0," \ *We WRE BOTH FOOLS, mute! but mr voee IT HATT6R? me rose r nen A&AINf" / Sp.mr W!U min werm m/A)/ ' ii fa? 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