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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 1966)
Interest Focused on Experimental College Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles on the Experimental College at San Francisco State College. By NOMI BORENSTEIN Emerald Associate Editor Some people call San Fran cisco State’s Experimental Col lege (EC) a “quiet revolution.” It started last fall with three student-initiated seminars with out a name. Today it has a name, 75 class es, and over 1,500 students. But essentially it is a group of students studying and work ing together, in learning groups for which they share responsi bility with 25 student organizers and 30 faculty advisors. The EC—a project run by the Associated Students at SF State —is based on the idea that stu dents ought to take responsi bility for their own education. Part of this assumption is the assertion that students can start learning anything anywhere, as long as they really care about the problem they are tackling and how well they solve it. Everyone can make an open ended contract with himself to learn and is capable of playing a major role in evaluating his own performance. The finest quality education is possible if people, students, faculty, and administrators work together in this way. The idea of freeing students to learn in their own way was only one of those that finally came into being as the Experi mental College. The student organizers want ed to build a model for the way they thought San Francisco State might grow: and their model has received nation-wide attention as a new model for innovation in American higher education. How does it work? Anyone can organize a class on anything; and anything means anything. For instance some of the classes going on now include: "French New Wave Films,” "Evaluating Organizations Photo by Drnnil Doha GERALDINE SCHMIDT and Vinette Jones discuss VISTA with a prospective volunteer. Grant for Training Marks Start of Vista Week VISTx\ Week at the University got a shot in the arm with an nouncement Monday of a $262, 400 grant to extend the Univer sity’s VISTA training program. The new grant from the Office of Economic Opportunity will provide training for 250 VISTA’s between now and next August. About 350 volunteers in the War on Poverty have already undergone training at the Uni Computer... (Continued from page 1) different phase will be tried out term by term, and when each process runs smoothly, “it will be put together piece by piece until eventually it’s all in one opera tion," Constance explained. “We don’t want the disaster that many schools have had (when they switched to computer regis tration before sufficient trial runs),” Constance said. It will take lots of testing, which in turn will take lots of time, before the committee will feel registration can safely be come wholly dependent on the computer, Constance stressed. He also emphasized the com mittee’s hope for the best com puter registration of any uni versity in the nation. “We’ve studied many systems, and we haven’t seen any as good _doing as much and as effici ently—as what we want. Most of the schools just copy each other. “Southern California copied the University of Indiana. We looked at that and decided we could do better. “To give the students maxi mum choice is our primary con cern. This isn’t the purpose of many schools’ systems. At Pur due, the first university to use computer registration, the em phasis was on space utilization,” he finished. Chairman of the committee Spenser Carlson was not avail able Monday for comment. versity since spring, 1965. During the training period, vol unteers are shown poverty and its effects and how to combat it. VISTA volunteers spend a year working and living with the poor in slum areas, migrant labor camps, Indian reservations, and elsewhere. They conduct health, education, and recreation proj ects. The University ranks first among universities in per capita recruitment for VISTA. During VISTA Week, continuing through Friday, University students who have their bachelor’s degrees or expect to by spring quarter, may learn immediately whether they are accepted for VISTA training. A VISTA information booth is set up on the Student Union ter race. A half-hour film, “A Year Toward Tomorrow,” is being shown each day at noon and at 4 Legal Abortion To Be Topic Glen Gordon, head of the Ore gon chapter of the American Medical Association, will speak at noon Wednesday before the Student Union Forum. Gordon will speak on legalized abortion and birth control, and its relation to organized medi cine. Room number for the speech will be posted. Teaching Forms Available Now All students who plan to student teach winter and/or spring terms in either elemen tary or secondary education please pick up application forms in the Student Teaching Office, 125-A Ed. no later than 5 p.m. today. p.m. “The Superfluous People” will be shown at 8 p.m. tonight. “Harvest of Shame" will be shown at the same time Wednesday, and “Year Toward Tomorrow” on Thursday. Over 50 students from the Uni versity have served in VISTA since January, 1965. Fifteen for mer Oregon students are now in service in 11 states. Books Present Midwest Design The best of modern book de sign in the midwest is repre sented in an exhibit on display for the month of October in the University Library. “Midwestern Books Competi tion. 1966” is a collection of the 23 titles which were chosen from over 200 books as distinguished examples of book design and typ ography in the midwest. The books range from Louis Untermeyer’s “The Second Christmas” to a linear algebra textbook. Nine come from com mercial publishers, 13 from uni versity presses, and one from a private press. Dolphins Sponsor 'Spirits Stomp' Dolphins—the University swim ming club—is sponsoring a dance October 29 to raise money for next year’s NCAA Champion ships. The “Spirits Stomp” will be -held from 8:30 p.m. to midnight in McArthur Court. The 15 semi-finalists for the Dolphin Court are selling tickets for $1 per person. Proceeds will go to send swim mers to the national champion ships March 23-25 at Michigan State. Working for Change,” "Explora tion in Anthropology: A Semi nar in Prehistory,” “The Mis education of the Negro," and “Gestault Therapy.” Provide Description The only requirement is that the organizer describe accurate ly what he wants to do. He then turns his course de scription into the Experimental College office. The staff running the EC is composed entirely of students. The staff then does the "dirty work” — finding a room, publicizing the start of the course, etc., and acts as an administrative unit putting po tential students in touch with the organizer. The EC stafT also informs students about credit possibili ties. Although the Experimental College does not give credit it self, it has arranged for those students desiring credit to get it individually. The EC staff, the faculty, and the course organizer don’t make the final decision about whether or not a proposal becomes a course. It is the students who do that —by signing up or not. Sets Up Course The organizer has the re sponsibility for setting up the plan for the way the course will run and for talking with any students who want to join. Entering a course means mak mg an arrangement wun an or ganizer about what each expects of the other. Organizers work with each other in different way*. Some are joined in area*. An area can be one class by itself, for ex ample, "Advising." Or it can be several subjects that somebody — the organizers, usually — de cide relate to each other. Areas Include The areas now involved with the F,C include, other than "Ad vising," the “Institute for So cial Change,” "Communications and the Arts,” “Black Culture and Arts," "Arts and Letters,” "Styles of Thought," "Interper sonal Helations," and "Independ ent Courses." These areas are not disci plines, or departments; they are the particular people asso ciated with them, the philosophy and style of working which emerges from these people Some of the areas have form ed staff organizations which have regular meetings Along with this, representatives from each area come together to pro vide over-all co-ordination, ad ministrative services, and plan ning. Anyone connected with the EC is eligible to attend "town meetings," which consider prob lems, and seek to “set a direc tion for the work of existing or proposed new areas." Life of Welsh Poet Subject of UT Play "Dylan,” a series of 29 vignettes based on the short, stormy, and uproarious life of the Welsh poet, j Dylan Thomas, opens Friday as the University Theatre’s first ma jor production of the season. Tickets for "Dylan” go on sale . to the general public today. Already a legend in his own lifetime, the legend of Dylan; Thomas continues to grow after his death. Stories filtered in from ; all the American colleges where Director Horace Robinson re fuses to reveal the identity of Miss Wonderland, the burlesque queen who puts the over-am bitious Dylan in bis place. Whomever he chose from the campus beauties who answered his call for special talent re mains his secret. - ■ ■ - . — - -- i he raised “whoppee” on his suc cessful lecture and poetry read ing tours. The filtered in also from all the other places—bars and burlesque houses—where he sought escape. A fun loving per son, he liked all people—rich and poor, dumb and smart, those lov ing poetry and those who never heard of it. Many who came in contact with him tried to capture these years in biographical studies. Two of the best are “Leftover Life to Kill” by the poet’s wife Caitlin and “Dylan Thomas in America"! by John Malcolm Brinnin. Michaels Adapts From these books Sidney Mi chaels adapted this play which captures much of the raucous hu mor, the wit and the rowdiness which surrounded the man. Mi chaels shows the women who chased him and the women he chased. The play is at moments touched with sadness and poign ancy, but most of all it is laced with the life spirit of Dylan who loved language, living and booze and who died at age 39 because of too much of each. Horace Robinson directs the University Theatre’s production of "Dylan.” Anthony Kadlec, Uni versity Theatre Technical Direc tor, designed the setting. The play, unusually cinematic in technique, has 29 scenes rang ing from a beach in Wales to an airport, from bars to mansions, and from a lecture hall to a bur lesque house. Constructed on dif ferent playing levels, Kadlec’s set thrusts out into the house. Projections of light enhance the cinematic quality. Players Cast Stan Elberson plays Dylan. Ex perienced as both actor and di rector, he has acted at the Shake spearean Festival in Ashland and was last seen at the UT in "A Long Days Journey into Night.’’ Dianne Wrocklage, Dylan’s Irish wife Caitlin who matches him out rage for outrage, appeared this summer in Carnival Theatre. David Grieve is cast as John Malcolm Brinnin, the American poet who was responsible for chaperoning the elusive Dylan and who rarely lost his sense of humor. Dave played Quentin in "After the Fall.” Chilton Cunningham plays Meg Stuart, the American woman who at first resists but ultimately suc cumbs to the persistent charm of Dylan. Miss Cunningham had leading roles in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “She Loves Me.” A large supporting cast backs up the lead characters. The iden tity of Miss Wonderland, the bur lesque queen, remains shrouded in mystery. “Dylan” runs Friday and Sat urday and October 26 through October 29. Tickets priced at $1.50 on weekdays and $2.00 on weekends are on sale at the Uni versity Theatre Box Office (342 1411, ext. 1781), open from 12 until 5 weekdays and until 9 on evenings of performances. AL'S AUTO UPHOLSTERY U OF O STUDENT SPECIAL 15% Off on all work when you present your student body card -> 344-2504 1425 Oak
