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By (olayne Houtz
Of the Emerald
Some 200 students quiet down as a professor
turns the microphone on to begin another
50-minute lecture in 150 Geology.
But in a small Condon Hall classroom, 30
students form a semi-circle around the professor
to exchange views on Sartre's existentialism.
These students are participants in one of eight
seminar classes, limited to 30 people and made
possible by a grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
However, the seminars are unadvertised, and
students do not know when they are registering
that the class will be different from a traditional
lecture course, says Donald Taylor, director of the
University's humanities center.
"We wanted to see how the concept of smali,
intensive classes would work with a cross
section,” Taylor says. Students have a random
chance at getting into these classes.
Taylor compared this concept to the Honors
College, where students are "selected and self
selected" for the smaller class settings.
Students generally have no tests in these
classes but are graded on four to five papers,
which "consume an enormous amount of time,”
according to Roger Chickering, a history pro
fessor who teaches a Western Civilization
seminar. He discusses every paper with each
student.
"There's been some major problems with the
writing, but I've been encouraged with the pro
gress of the papers," Chickering says.
Taylor shares his concerns about student
writing.
"The writing is not up to the level of the
discussion," he says.
Like Taylor, Arnulf Zweig, a philosophy pro
fessor who teaches a metaphysics seminar,
blames this on poor high school teaching and lack
of practice.
"It is possible to get through high school
without much practice in reading or writing,"
Zweig says. "Books aren't a normal way of life for
people, and there are nuances of language that
one can only learn from being around literature."
According to Taylor, who visited all eight
classes this term, 60 to 90 percent of students par
ticipate in class discussions.
But not all students and professors agree with
Taylor.
"There is a tendency for a fair number not to
talk, either because they are unprepared or afraid
Their wisdom or their ignorance is on parade,”
Zweig says.
He blames this in part on the subject,
metaphysics, which is difficult to teach in a small
class setting because students lack the ability to
read from original sources.
"Most people are reluctant to share their
viewpoints, and sometimes it's difficult to get the
discussion moving," says Kevin Low, a student in
Zweig's class. "Zweig makes it interesting,
though. He has a way with words."
Chickering agrees that "it is more difficult to
generate sustained discussion," but he says the
experience has been positive overall.
"Chickering leads class discussions very well,
and I think most people participate," says Greg
Leonard, a student in Chickering's class.
Though the amount of participation varies
from class to class, both students and faculty
agree that it is more demanding than a typical lec
ture class. Professors volunteer to teach the
classes as part of their regular load, Taylor says.
"You have to think of each student as an in
dividual, and I've gotten to know the students
more closely," Zweig says.
"Both the teacher and the student are on the
spot, and the students can't hide behind 50
others," he says.
"You have to concentrate and come up with
ideas of your own — it takes more preparation,"
Low says.
But Taylor sees this as an advantage.
"We have a good faculty, but they're not able
to teach this way in general. My observation is
that, yes, both faculty and students work harder
and enjoy it more," he says.
Low agrees the classes are more interesting.
"But the word that sounds bad is 'experimen
tal.' It has bad connotations," he says.
Taylor hopes someday to advertise the classes
and envisions two distinct settings — the large lec
ture hall and the small class atmosphere. He also
hopes that the classes will become part of the
University's budget when the grant runs out
"If we could afford all small classes, I think
Oregon would be giving the best education in the
Northwest," Taylor says.
Low, who says he would take another such
class if possible, quoted Zweig in his evaluation of
the class.
"It gives you an opportunity to study Harvard
or Yale-style without the fees."
Museum exhibits Northwest art
By Patrick Low
Of the Emerald
On the far left corner of the
University Museum of Natural
History, an exquisite carving
made out of walrus ivory depic
ting Eskimos, walruses and a
polar bear lies behind a display
window as part of the museum's
exhibition of traditional Nor
thwest art.
But it is more than a work of
sophisticated craftsmanship —
it also is a cribbage board.
The carving, perfectly sym
bolizes the European influence
on Northwest tribal art and sets
the tone for Raven's^ Cousins,
the exhibition's title.
Raven's Cousins offers a
remarkable spectrum of cultural
Northwest art during the last
100 years and displays items as
different as a primtive
ceremonial rattle and an Art
Deco bead bag. The pieces were
crafted by the Native American
tribes that lived from Alaska
down to Northern California.
Raven's Cousins is divided in
to three categories: traditional
art from the Northwest coast,
the coast of Alaska and the
Col u m bia-Fraser Plateau.
Although there is great diversity
between and within these
cultural areas, the cosmologies
of all the peoples revolve
around a belief in a
"transformer" — the mythical
animal hero who transformed
the world from a spiritual plane
to the earthly one through a
series of disconnected in
cidents. These incidents form
the body of all their stories and
legends.
The transformer of the Nor
thern Coast and Alaskan natives
is Raven, and the stories of how
Raven transformed the world
were shared by neighboring
peoples who duplicated them as
exploits of their own
transformers — Coyote, Mink
and Blue Jay.
They are all, therefore,
Raven's cousins.
The exhibition is a project of
the University's anthropology
department. Some of the ex
hibits are part of the museum's
collection and some on loan
from private collectors. Most
have never been displayed in
public before.
"We wanted to show the
amount of cultural diversity
within the Northwest," says
Sandy Snyder, one of the
graduate anthropology students
who put together the exhibi
tion. "You can see there are dif
ferent aspects to them (the
native cultures), but there's a
common thread of legends that
runs through and that's why
we've called it Raven's Cousins.
They tend to blend into one
another."
The exhibits cover almost all
aspects of native life. Animal
motifs abound in the arts of the
Northwest, and many of the ex
hibits portraying animals show a
remarkable degree of artistic
sophistication. One of the most
striking pieces is a Chilkat
blanket woven from goat yarn
and bark twine depicting a killer
whale. Its design is abstract but
highly mesmerizing.
According to Snyder, the
Chilkat blanket is a good exam
ple of Northwest coast art.
"Much of the Northwest coast
art forms are very sophisticated,
very stylized representations of
animals," she says. "Only so
meone very acquainted with the
art form or from that culture
could immediately recognize
the signs indicating that
something was, say, a beaver or
a killer whale."
Most fascinating of all to
visitors of Raven's Cousins must
be the European-influenced
pieces like the ivory cribbage
board and the Art-Deco bead
bag. The strangeness of this
blending of European and
American Northwest artforms is
at its most conspicuous in one
particular exhibit — a straw
woven teacup and saucer set.
Raven's Cousins was designed
by Mary Perch and prepared by
Mike Smith. It was researched
and put together by museum
director Don Dumond , curator
Theodore Stern, Lucy Hamilton,
Pamela Endzweig, Sandy
Snyder, Felicia Rounds and Mar
tha Frankel.
It has been on display since
Apr. 1 and will continue until
December at the Museum of
Natural History. The museum is
open Tuesday to Saturday every
week from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Ad
mission is free.
—£11111-.
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