University of Virginia Library

Dean Williams Promises
'Open Lines' To Students

By Jay Steer
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

D. Alan Williams, the new
Dean of Student Affairs, said
yesterday that he will try to
"keep open the lines of student administration
communication"
when he assumes his post in August.

Mr. Williams was chosen last
week as new Dean of Student
Affairs to replace B. F. D. Runk
who will retire after the Summer
Session.

Mr. Williams said that the end
of his first year in office he will
review his entire organization to
determine what changes need be
made.

Until he does make this review
however, he will study "the functions
of his office: its goals and
its directions."

Liaison

In the past Mr. Williams has
served as academic liaison at
Clinch Valley College and
George Mason colleges. He has
been instrumental in turning
Clinch Valley into a degree-granting,
four year institution.

Although not an alumnus of
the University, Mr. Williams said
that he will "keep intact the essential
elements of our educational
system."

"But the rules developed
through the years for particular
situations need not be institutionalized,"
he said.

As a faculty member for a
number of years, Mr. Williams
felt he has developed a "full understanding
of the educational
system expressed here."

Fraternities

On fraternities he said that
"fraternities should be fraternal
brotherly organizations, and
should cease to be eating and
social clubs."

"Unless fraternities make themselves
an active and viable part
of the University community,
they will atrophy and full," he
said.

Mr. Williams emphasized that
"their role must be constantly
re-examined."

Although Mr. Williams was
not entirely familiar with the
New Car Plan approved by the
student council and pending approval
by the Board of Visitors,
he said that he would be opposed
to the plan "if the punishments
for violations of the
rules would be made inflexible."

Upward Bound

Mr. Williams has worked and
"is still working" for various
programs such as Upward
Bound, designed to increase the
enrollment of Negro students in
the University.

He felt that more good could
be done by students to make the
University an environment more
comfortable to Negro students.

"Nothing is more effective in
recruiting students than the
testimony of Negro students enrolled
now." It is in the hands
of the students to determine
whether the atmosphere here is
acceptable to the Negro student."

Residential College

Mr. Williams has done much
work on the Residential College
plan at Clinch Valley College
and at the University of California
at Santa Cruz.

He felt that this type of system
was "very attractive, very
expensive and highly experimental."
He was in favor of
"some sort of selective aggregation
of students with common
educational goals."

Mr. Williams wrote last January
a report on the residential
college plan under consideration
at Clinch Valley College.

In this report he said "the
fundamental concern in contemporary
collegiate education is
how one can teach students while
retaining and stimulating individual
intellectual initiative central
to creative scholarship."

"New public institutions must
be controlled to take advantage
of their size without losing individual
identities for students,
faculty and institutions," the report
said.