The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 55, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 19, 1967 Page: 1 of 16
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tie
thresfief
newspaper
for
52 years
New committee to promote
excellence in Rice teaching
vol. 55, no. 6
Houston, texas
thursday, oct. 19, 19(57
By DENNIS BAHLER
Thresher Editorial Staff
A Faculty Committee on Undergradu-
ate Teaching has been created and
charged with "promoting excellence in
undergraduate teaching by any appropri-
ate means," President Kenneth S. Pitzer
announced last week.
Chairman of the committee is Ronald
Sass, Master of Hanszen College. The
committee was formed to fulfill the con-
ditions of a gift of $500,000 to Rice bv
George R. Brown, former Chairman of
the Board of Trustees.
Part of the income of this endowment
will be used for annual awards for
mmmmm
Shanor, student leaders to debate
points in NSA 'student power' plan
Books! 'Tis a dull and endless strife;
Come, hear the rvoodland linnet,
Ho TV sweet his music! on my life.
There's more of wisdom in it.
Wordsworth, "The Tables Turned"
Jim Hokanson
Masters broach
faculty council's
By JACK MI R RAY
Th resher K e p o r t e r
The faculty council met this
morning to consider several pro-
posals from the college masters
and presidents concerning next
year's schedule.
Among the recommendations
of the masters were that the
first day of classes be moved
back a day, to Friday, Septem-
ber 6, to give the freshman a
longer period of orientation.
Freshman week will begin the
previous Saturday, and will in-
clude the Labor Day weekends.
Julius Sensat, Hanszen presi-
dent, revealed that the presi-
dents-masters meeting was es-
sentially a formality; the fac-
ulty council was expected to
implement the recommendations
at today's conference.
The masters also proposed
that the registrar set up a
procedure whereby freshman
students will be able to register
up to 24 hours before classes
start. It was felt that the pre-
registration period of previous
Boyd cancels
Malcolm Boyd, the con-
troversial "espresso priest'"
who was to speak in the
Grand Hall tonight, has been
stricken with a disc syndrone
attack and will not be able
to appear, the Chapel Com-
mittee has been notified. It
is not expected that Boyd
will come to Rice at any time
this year, due to an extreme-
ly busy schedule.
frosh week shift;
approval forseen
adequate counseling to the
years was insufficient to give
a d e q u a t e counseling to the
freshmen.
Dr. Ronald Sass, Hanszen
master, was to represent the
masters at the meeting today.
The decision was reached too
late for publication in this
week's issue.
By LEE HORSTMAN
rJ hresher Reporter
Three student leaders will
moderate an open discussion of
NSA's s t. u d e n t power cam-
paign, and how it relates to
Rice University and the Univer-
sity of Houston. The meeting is
in the Wiess College commons
at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, October
2-1.
The main speakers will be
Charlie Shanor, Student Asso-
ciation president at Rice; Jim
Evans, student president at the
University of Houston; and
Teddy O'Toole, education af-
fairs vice-president for the Na-
tional Student Association.
Tom Bertram!, Wiess College
president, will moderate. Also
invited are the student presi-
dents of the University of St.
Thomas, Texas Southeran Uni-
versity, Sacred Heart College
and Houston Baptist College.
These officials will represent
student governments involving
all of Houston's thirty thousand
college students.
Three Goals
The student joower concept
developed during NSA's last
annual congress. Delegates from
its 334 member governments
comprised from about 1.5 mil-
lion U.S. college students,
evolved the strong program.
Life magazine quoted O'Toole
as saying, ''The quest for stu-
dent power will end only when
students feel they, as members
of the academic community, are
significant in shaping their own
lives and the future of their
universities."
NSA's suggested goals are as
follows: 1 ) students ought, to be
recognized as having some valu-
able ideas about what they
should be studying, 2) students
have the best judgment about
who they are learning most ef-
ficiently from and so should
partly control faculty, and (3)
students have the right to de-
velop their own standards ol*
conduct.
The time to develop personal
initiative is during* college, but
NSA considers many current
power structures in college edu-
cation as restricting this deve-
lopment (e.g., they rlo not con-
cede the three points mention-
ed above), and showing no in-
tention to change things at an
adequate rate.
Five Steps
T h e NSA -for m u 1 a te < I
step plan for speeding
change to more student power
is as follows: 1) a student sym-
posium is called to express
grievances and prepare a slate
of desired reforms; 2) these
proposed reforms are publiciz-
ed to the college community
and to the administration; .3)
if the reforms are not actively
considered by the administra-
tion yet receive student support,
a protest movement is develop-
ed; 4) if no adequate progress
is made at all, actual demon-
strations and head-on confront-
ations are staged.
The University is functional-
ly disrupted and publicly em-
bar a s s e d. As Life quoted
NSA president Ed Schwartz,
"nothing infuriates even com-
placent students more than the
sight of their friends being
dragged from picket lines to
jail by the cops."
Rice University and the Uni-
versity of Houston will be ex-
amined in view of this student
power concept, to see whether
peaceable, negotiated progress
is proceeding at these two uni-
versities at an adequate speed.
teaching excellence, one of $4,000 and six
of $'1,000. Sass was the first recipient
of the larger award earlier this year.
Quality Teaching
The remainder of the income will be
available upon request of the committee
to meet the cost of its activities, which,
according to the comnd&tee's charter,
shall include "advice to Tidministrative
officers and the Faculty Council con-
cerning the teaching qualifications of
candidates for promotion in rank or for
extension of term of appointment as as-
sistant professor; seminars or other pro-
grams aimed to improve the quality of
teaching; and studies and ex-
perimental tests of new instruc-
tional methods or programs."
At present the individual de-
partments are responsible for
the selection of their members
for promotion. According to Sass,
the first area of the commit-
tee's responsibility will be to
offer to all departments guide-
lines by which to judge the
"teaching performance of its fac-
ulty, as well as to suggest to a
department specific ways in
which its teaching of under-
graduates might be improved.
Reserve the Right
However, the committee re-
serves the right to intervene in
an individual case, for example
when a seemingly worthy can-
didate for promotion is over-
looked by bis department. As to
possible criteria of the excellent
teacher, Sass responded,
tainly his concern and res
for his students, the time
gives to his students, and
novelty and freshness in
approach to the subject matter
are important things to con-
sider."
The committee is also consid-
ering the possibility of holding
seminars or discussions on
teaching*, which wuulcl, lu Sa.:..'
words, "try to teach teachers
how to teach." But this idea has
ben tried in the past and, Sass
remarked, "the only people who
attended were those who already
l^ew how to teach."
Outside Funds
Another area the committee
will concern itself with is the
investigation, promotion, and
financing of new and experi-
mental educational programs.
"We already have before us the
■iones Plan, a proposal to e>
pand the Hanszen curriculum,
and a modification of the pro-
posal for interdisciplinary cours-
es for freshmen and sopho-
mores," Sass said.
"In addition to the money
! i ve-
il p a
'Cer-
qiect
he
the
Inv!
COMMITTKK on pay
Peace Corps applications at Rice increase
Although only about eight Rice students
joined the Peace Corps last year, according
to Joanne Phillips, .a recruiter for the or-
ganization, as many as 15-20 are expected
this year.
Miss Phillips, who served two years in
a Moroccan community development proj-
ect, is one of five former volunteers here
this week as part of a Peace Corps recruit-
ing tour of southern campuses.
She pointed out in a recent interview,
however, that despite rising interest in the
Peace Corps, the South lags behind all
other areas of the nation in the number of
volunteers going into service.
The University of Texas has provided
more volunteers than any other southern
school although it only ranks^ twelfth na-
tionally.
Southern students "tend not to get in-
volved," she said. "They just don't think
about the important issues."
Soldier Boy
Galen Hull, a 26-year-old former volun-
teer secondary teacher in Malawi, added
that the Southern male is traditionally
primed for military service and is more
often committed to it at the time he would
be most likely to consider Peace Corps
work.
What sort of people apply most often
to become volunteers, they were asked.
"Generally Peace Corps workers are peo-
ple who are involved," Miss Phillips res-
ponded. "We call them 'activists', and 1
think one reason we have such a small
percentage from the South is that you
don't find any draft card burners here, any
demonstrators. It's unheard of."
Alternative
Hull, a TCU history graduate, pointed
out that the present high draft rate is in-
creasing interest in Peace Corps work as a
kind of temporary alternative to military
service.
Hull, himself, joined, he said, because
"I was listening to what Jack Kennedy
said when he was inaugurated." At the
same time, he added, I reversed the. fa-
mous "ask not" injunction and asked what
my country could do to further my own
interest in international relations.
"I felt that this would be an outlet for
doing something purposeful," he added.
Miss Phillips joined, she said, because
"I had this idea that once I was overseas,
I would really see myself and find out ex-
actly what I wanted to do."
Fair Trade
"I learned far more than I was able to
give," she pointed out.
Miss Phillips was one of a group of wo-
men assigned to work on community de-
velopment projects in Morocco to teach the
village women and children basic health
and hygiene, improved domestic skills and
child care.
Hull taught in a British-styled secondary
school in Malawi on the east coast of Africa.
He recently learned that 58 of 62 boys he
taught have passed the Cambridge overseas
exam.
Change?
Did the Peace Corps experience change
them ? %
Miss Phillips claims that her entire con-
servative middle-class orientation was
changed and that she even changed her
mind about her field. The experience of
living in another culture made her more
sensitive and more skeptical of her own,
she reported.
Hull claims that one of the greatest
values of the Peace Corps is that return-
ing volunteers make an impact on Ameri-
can society through their influence on
their own family and friends.
Although the main thrust of the re-
cruiting at Rice will have ended by today,
at least one member of the group will
remain on campus through Friday to dis-
cuss specifics of the Peace Corps with in-
terested students.
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Hancock, Darrell. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 55, No. 6, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 19, 1967, newspaper, October 19, 1967; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245010/m1/1/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.