March I,’ 1913

Eheéjdrlrt and minds

s» ~38 QEhttoriaI

Educational Unity:
The Best Sharing

The demise of liberal education is upon us. We are warned
that for the first time a majority of Americans do not see
the value of most higher education and hence refuse to support
it, either mentally or financially.

Fred Hechinger, Education Editor of the New York Times
who visited Grinnell last week, commented that he sees the
solution in a return or perhaps a new venturing to a “shared
experience”. Departmental biases must be overcome in order
to come to agreement on issues which should be important
to all, accepting the fact that conflicting opinions will arise
as to their proper resolutions.

But Hechinger’s call for “integration in all senses of the word”
must be extended beyond the confines of the campus, even
though slight academic integration seems hard enough. The
‘bring the campus into the community’ movement and the de—
mand for relevancy to present needs are not the best solutions,
however.

What is needed is a much more comprehensive integration
of the entire educational system. The complexity of education,
half-public, half-private, reactionary, revolutionary and all
shades of opinion between, make an organizational restruc—
turing nearly impossible, however. What is not impossible is
the creation of a feeling of continuity from secondary to col-
lege education.

Elementary and secondary education is very much a shared
experience. There is a large body of issues deemed important
to all by those in charge, although all may not agree on the
value of those chosen. With college education there is a basic
change. Specialization and fragmentation are expected.

This is essentially a difference in the self-image of the in»
structors concerned. Secondary teachers see themselves
primarily as teachers, as members of the educational struc—
ture. College and graduate school instruction comes generally
from those who consider themselves first as scholars in their
own field and second as teachers. Thus departmental isolation
is_,not only accepted, but actually quite necessary.

To overcome this fragmentation and isolation and attempt
a reassertion of its importance in the future of the nation,
higher education must go far beyond movements toward inter—
disciplinary studies, beyond major issues symposiums,beyond
special topics seminars, although these are helpful. it must
be aware of its special position as the ultimate educator,
not researcher, not vocational trainer, not testing—ground,
not haven for wayward authors, but educator in the fullest
sense of the word.

Colleges are populated by those who, for the most part,
have shared the experience of public education for twelve
years. Unless serious attempts are made to bridge the gap,
to connect with what went on before, a student is left ques»
tioning the validity of either the education of his childhood,
or his college experience. Despite attacks on public education,
the vote more often goes to the former. Those observing from
the outside, seeing the lack of connection, line up against the
colleges.

This integration, a reawakening of the link between all levels
of education, could only lead to benefits for all. increased
scholarship among secondary teachers can help give intellec—
tual satisfaction to themselves and their students. Increased
concern with pedagogic methods among college instructors
can not only increase the quality of instruction but also the
awareness of an active role in the entire system.

And the student gains the greatest benefit, His education he
comes an unbroken, ceaseless process to be continued far
longer than the 12, 16, or 19 years he devotes to it at the
beginning of life. The total integration of education and life

can perhaps be the ultimate result.
-mew

Scoon: Brands 0i Humor

To the Editors: vin that there are different brands
l hasten to acknowledge the voice 0; humor; not everybody makes
of calm Reason, heard throughBrad a joke out of the same material.
Furst and the Sir}! editor who point Ira Amnih’s “joke" was not funny,
but that lra Aronin had every right it was unfortunate, l'm very glad
to hold and express publicly whatv that it didn’t elicit general laughter
ever opinions he did. and that itwas from the Grinnell student body.
the son's duty to protect these There is hope for us yet.
rights by printing his letter. Perhaps the most suitable renc~
My statement that the SAB 5hr tion to the infamous Aronin letter
ouldn’t have “done Mr. Month the would have been to ignore it » it
honor of printing his letter" should wasn't worth either laughing or
be attributed to an unchecked flight crying about But that didn't happen
Oi rhetoric rather than to a he- so perhaps we should thank lrzl for
lie! in censorship of the press, and his letter Since it certainly stimu-
I stand duly warned against future latetl an interesting series of let»
such lndulgences. ters for the Son

BUT, I hasten to remlnd Ron Merle Jenny scoop

Voerlman: Clarifies View Of Communications

To the Editors.

My remarks at the Faculty Meet—
ing of February 19 concerning my
own substantive iudgment about the
nature of the field of communica»
trons were substantially misrepre-
sented in the Ser's editorial ofMa—

rch 2. I wish to correct this mis» '

representation. The editorial's lan-
guage puts the position as follows,
“, .the Council considers the de-
partment worth eliminating becau-
se the study of communion ions is
more ‘Vocational’ than ‘academic’
and thus should be purged from the
school as were such departmentsds
Business Administration many ye—
ars ago.”

Now what I said was that Commr
unicatlons is an applied field which

Johnson, Green:

To the Editors:

Your previous correspondent, a
Mr. Rosen, regrettably seems to be
suffering from a common, though
grievious, misconception concern»
ing the institutional goals of orin»
nell College. His premise, if we
understand it correctly, is that Gr-
inneli College exists to produce a
body of graduates who are capable
of performing some useful function-
of performing some useful function
in society. We submit that such is
not the case.

The function of a liberal arts colr
lege, hallowed by historic tradir
tion, is the creation of a coterie
of gentlemen 0f cutlure and breed
of gentlemen of Culture and breed
ing from the raw materials supplied
the college by the public high»
school system of any convenient
megalopolis (Regrettahly, it must
be confessed, financial exigencies
of the last few years have forced
this college to deemphaslze to the
point of nonentity the components
point of nonentity the component
factor of breeding, as evidenced by
the present freshman through jun-
ior classes).

Must we then also sacrifice our
thin claims to a veneer of culture
upon that same Cross of Gold? We,
loyal guardians of Grinnell College's
sacred tradition of dedication to the
useless as an art form in itself,
shall ever decry any attempt to pol»
lute that most enlightened of poli»
cies.

Mr. Rosen’s suggestion that the
courses of instruction of the Col-
lege be commensurate with its or»
ganizational goals, however, we ap-
plaud, taking exception only to his

i did not think a small liberal arts
college could do well. The editor‘s
language is clearly intended to have
me judging that “academic" studies
are superior to ”vocational” studies
on some scale of values. I do not
hold that view, and did not express
it, even though the editor believed
that such was in my mind.

i believe that medicine, law, engin-
eering, business administration, 3r-
chltecture and, yes, communica-
tions, are applied and “vocatlonal”
fields which are properly housed in
the system of higher education and
are not inferior, or unclean, or 59»
cond»rate, and “THUS should be
purged.”

My View is that excellence in com»
munications, as in a number of im-

Breeding Culture

lamentable bourgeois orientation to
the true essentials Of life. He has
advanced for our consideration the
ideals of the Great American Un-
washed--the ability to tinker suc-
cessfully with mundane mechanical
devices. This is the laudable goal
of a shopkeeper or lishwblnan.

Rather, the gentlemen scholars
of Grinnell College should dedicate
whatever moments we care to do
cupy with intellectual endeavors to
cupy with intellectual endeavors to
the pursuit ofthe proper attainments
of a parasitic elite.

We must restore, or, ifnecessary,
initiate, mandatory instruction in the
martial arts: horsemanship, fenc»
ing, military strategy, and, ofcnur»
Se, the etiquette of subordination.

Further, the humanistic aspects of
our education must be no longer
neglected: theology, rhetoric. logic,
forensics, music, poetry, astron-
omy, graceful calligraphy, and, of
course, grammar, must resumethe»
ir rightful place in the classrooms
of Grinnell College.

Moreover, the most recent disas-
trous innovation in the sorry his-
tory of the decline of Western ed—
ucation must be reversed—-Grinnell
College must recant the infinity that
young men and women should pur»
sue (or, in fact, are capable of the
pursuit of) intellectual refinement
under the same roof.

To secure the above enumerated
blessings of true education to the
generations of Grinnellians as yet
unborn, we mutually pledge our Li»
ves, our Fortunes. and our Sacred
Honor.

Douglas E. Johnson
Alan ’1‘, Green

g &
letters

portant applied fields, rests upon
an excellence of the special proper»
ties of the applications experiences,
and is very specialized, "multi»
disciplinary” expertise. This Style
of excellence cannot be expected
from a modest staff, and modest
resources. What I said about the
college’s decision to disestablish
the Business Administration pro»
gram was that we were doing it
badly in comparison to other large
institutions. Note, the Business Ade
ministration program had, in the
1940'5750’5, the largest enrollment
of majors at the college.

Ms Kent’s view, echoed by the ed-
itorial, that 1 ”should be reprimar
nded for not havmg done my home»
work,” ie,, that I am mistaken
about the nature of that field of
study, does not seem to me to be
supportable with reference to eit»
her the curricula or the staffs of
the extant programs presented in—
beled "communications” in the un-
iversities. Moreover, it is not even
sustainable by close scrutiny of the
sketch of a possible program offered
by the Concerned Communications
Students.

These curricula are an eclectic
assortment of special applications
to the mass media phenomena of
theory and method drawn from Such
disciplines as psychology, physio»
logy, linguistics, sociology, and an»
thropology, economics, law and pny»
sics, Faculty backgrounds include
people trained in all of the above
fields along with a generous sprink-
ling of ex media practitioners, Eng-
lish Lit and Language Ph.D.s, and
the like.

This is not to denegrate the sub
ject area, but to explain my judg»

.ment that this college would be, and

has been, doing this field of study
poorly, I also think we would do
many other applied fields badly and
that we should not try to do them
at all.

Robert Voertman

Nixon’s Ecological Program

by Fran Cutler

in gauging the Nixon adminis-
tration’s attitude towards the en—
vironmental crisis, it is useful to
examine the 1974 federal budget.
One should note, however, that the
budget is subject to change both by
Congress and second thoughts in the
President's Office Of Management
and Budget (OMB).

Some of the programs slated for
extinction have strong support in
Congress or from constituencies our
tside government, And what the
president seems now to be giving
with one hand he may later take
away by having the OMB impound
the funds that Congress has appro»
priated, as has happened to the
Water Pollution Control Bill of1972.

The sector of the federal budget
loosely described as “natural re»
sources and environment" appears
to have fared relatively well in a
year when the watchword is clearly
inflationary control, However, the
appropriations for this sector oithe
budget are misleading in two re»
spects.

For one, while the White House
has increased its appropriations for
environmental research and devel-
opment (Rap) to a figure of 1.012
billion, it has also stretched its des
flnition of R&D to include such
government functions as mnintsn»
ance of a weather satellite system
and topographic mnpping by the
Geological Survey. Moreover, a
close reading of the budget reveals
several significant reductions in ar»
eas classically defined as RitD.

The effect of these reductions is
seen most dramatically in the mar
jor redirection ofrhe Environmental
protection Agency's (EPA) research

program This redirection tends to
shift the agency away from the dev-
elopment of pollution controldevices
toward a narrower mission of sup
porting the agency’s regulatory fun—
ctions

7&6 ace—M

Thus, in fiscal 1974, the EPA’s
obligations for non would drop by
$25 million to a level of $1413 mil—
lion. The single greatest cut, and po-
tentiallv the most controversial, is
an 88% or $15 million reduction in
era’s support of solid waste
processing technology. At the same
time, the White House budget office
proposes to cut 30% or $3 million
from EPA's work on cleaner, alter»
native automobile engines and toter»
minate the agency’s s5»million pro»
grain to develop devices for scrub-
bing sulfur oxides from industrial
stack gases.

The Administrator ofthe EPA, Wil»

Elie brlllllfll
ﬁndrlrt alrh iﬁlntk

in. Crlnnrll sum. had run u in: mount hair

low of chum cum. punllhhld mu, .nne
In: college u n. senihn by the Grlmrell Collqe
Commlllee u. sud-m Publluliens inn Radio on.
Iorlal ohm" do Not necnsully lenlrl u. rim
of in. midi-n! body. lac-Ally. or admlnlslnllun of
Erlnnlll College Mlierlzl from in: Surlei inn
Black urinal be "produced for uublltailnn .nunur
lhe "in.” rum... or the ram"

Serum! l‘llsx unturr rum, Crinnell luv. srnz

EDITOR , . . , , .Don Digenlls
MANAGING EDITDR . . .Mul‘ywiesner
COPY canon, . . . .Jnhn Wylie
nusmrss MANAGER. , Tomclendemng
ADVERTiSlNG MANAGER. . Roxane arbwn
cincubATloN MANAGER ,,paf$hirhida
sponrs eon-on, . , .mve Czluri

liam Ruckelshaus, said that the EPA
has fulfilled its responsibility of
nurturing this technology to a point
where “only engineering problems
remain.”

other EPA research programs in
radiation, pesticides, noise, water
quality, and the social effects of
pollution would remain static orrise
slightly in the new budget. Else»
where, the interior Department cut
$24 million from its Office ofSaline
Water, marking the end of a desal»
lnation demonstration program. The
$2 million that remains will be ap-
plied to “basic research" in de-
Salinatlon.

Thus, it appears that by balancing
out a few selective Increases with a
few selective cuts, President NixV
On’s budget has left the overall fund-
ing picture essentially static, How-
ever in Viewotthe increasing sever-
ity of the ecological crisis an en»
vironmentnl budget which remains
static is not farsighted or progress-
ive. Clearly, the President’s ecu»
conscience has not taken a signi»
licant leap forward.

coLuMle'rs ...... ,iim All, run
Cu|ler, Gregg partner, .lxrk Doppelt. Scotl
Mason. John Pntls

rirorocRArurRs . ,JohnBehEcki,
Ron Bummer, Sen 2 Dreen, Julie nunn.
bill Glaser, Craig lfugisxxi, Jay Manatee,
Julie hivlin, Bob spxrks. Keir Winnkiir
Almsr , . Mimm Bursteln
TYPIST ..... , .Nany Oswald
REPORTER: , ,bnh Arnold, Mixe
Breed, Elaine cirrv. Ann Cassel, Michelle
Casey, David Crow, Jefl Dick, nlil Glaser,
Curl Gorrell, Bruce Johnson, Bonnie Kell-
ney, Shenlyn Lev, Lynn Lichtenberger,
Maxine Lowy. Ron Medvln, Cmg Murphy,
Dave Nicolai, my NiEhlingale. Sieve Nunn,
Bonnie Hoswig, Tom Rowar, arenisamn»
deimeyer, Paul Siemers, Mirth: Wicker,
Ken Winnkul, Terry wblr

 

