University of Virginia Library

Dialogue Needed For Education

By E.J. Wilhelm

Mr. Wilhelm is a staff member of the
Geography Department of the University.
Previously he taught at McGill University,
Montreal, and at St. Louis University.

Unless "blessed" by administrative
duties, or undertaking a research project
financed by some wealthy government
agency, it is becoming increasingly difficult
for the "average" university instructor to
know more than a handful of the students
he teaches in anyone academic year. This is
unfortunate, for never before in the history
of the educational process has there been a
greater need for more dialogue, not less,
between student and teacher than the
present. In making the following comments,
I want to make it clear that I claim only to
be a teacher, and not in any way an
authority on students.

Why should there be more dialogue
between student and teacher? Because the
university and the society it draws upon are
undergoing a number of radical changes.
Perhaps these changes are inevitable and
may be ultimately for the good, but the
process of adjusting to them is always
difficult, and sometimes quite harmful.

Let us mention in the space allowed at
least two changes evident here at Virginia.
The first has to do with the increasing size
and complexity of the University, an institution
that is growing into a multi-university
and will attain this goal in the very near
future.

Not so long ago the University was a
comparatively small and rather "local" institution.
It had some national prominence,
particularly for its Medical and Law School
and perhaps for one or two departments in
the college, but it was not widely known. Its
modest size did not mean that the education
it provided was inadequate; on the contrary,
it was very good even in those early days,
and followed more or less the Jeffersonian
tradition of a "personal" education. This
concept, for all practical purposes, has been
sacrificed to make way for the new
multi-university. As a vivid example of
change, none of the present student residents
have the opportunity to seek the
advice of a particular faculty member any
time as did former students living next to
their professors on the lawn. Nowadays, a
student must make an advance appointment
to even see his instructor or adviser. But as
any undergrad will tell you, certain things
cannot wait.

True, there are dorm councilors, student
guides, faculty advisers, and so on, but this
is just the point; all these wonderful characters
are found at any multi-university. What
made Virginia different from other universities
was its consistent, nearly total emphasis
on a tutorial atmosphere. It is in such an
atmosphere, I contend, that ideas are born,
issues of the day are discussed, and, perhaps,
even solved.

For the optimum tutorial atmosphere,
student and teacher should be totally
relaxed with all inhibitions tossed aside, My
most cherished moments with university
undergraduates have not been in my formal
lectures (heaven forbid) or in the sanctuary
of my office, but on all day field trips in the
Blue Ridge, at fraternity parties, or at
Tony's.

Unfortunately, the multi-university soon
creates two dangers for faculty and students
alike: the process of isolation and the
process of numbers. Each seems to depend
on the other, in a symbiotic relationship.

The process of isolation engenders an
atomized faculty. Each small staff element
goes its own way as the university grows
without a chance to interact with any of the
others. If it used to be true that a university
was a community of scholars, it is now
becoming a disunity of scholars - a disunity
because no scholar in anyone academic area
has an easy and obvious way to know his
colleagues in other areas. But what then is
the effect of this process on students,
especially the undergraduate?

A dreadful thing is taking place. It is
now possible at the university with the profs
pursuing their own affairs, for most students
to earn a degree without ever getting to
know in a personal way, anyone of their
instructors. Only the few doctoral students
may fall outside this statement. It isn't a
tragic circumstance; knowing a faculty
member isn't that important. After all,
professors are no better people to know
than janitors or traffic cops. But situations
do arise during a four-year academic stay
when knowing an instructor well enough
may have considerable long-range value (e.g.
recommendations).

As U.Va. grows in size and academic
diversity, we can easily forget the simple
virtue of a free and open trial between
student and instructor. That trail seems to
be blacked. It doesn't exist any more
because the professors are too busy with
research, and the undergrads are too timid
to approach them.