University of Virginia Library

Administration 1971: The Crisis Upon Them

Commentary

By ROBIN LIND

Ed.)

As surely as the students have
had impressed upon them the
uncomfortable nature of expansion
the Administration that brought it
about must now feel the crunch.
Expansion to cope with
introduction of blacks and women
may be necessary (may we do not
concede that point) but without
adequate facilities it cannot go on.
It will be sad to refuse more white
male students next year than we
have in the past but while we are
desegregating this institution we
cannot expand without regard for
the limit of our facilities.
Expansion at the present time can
only further decrease our standard
of education.

Every argument in favour of
expansion has ultimately been
based on financial considerations: if
we are going to get top quality
professors we are going to have to
pay top prices; if we are going to
pay top prices we are going to have
to get top monies from the State
Legislature; and if we are going to
get top monies from the State
Legislature we are going to have to
have the top number of students.
Simple, see? Well,...

Quality Education?

Misguided administrators in
their zeal for our educational
well-being have now brought us
expansion. The question is do we
now have that elusive, much sought
after, supposed concomitant,
"top quality" education? Methinks
not. Are we in effect the State's
largest diploma mill and proud of
it?

Students may not enroll except
in degree programmes. All efforts
are directed towards the degree
rather than the education. Faculty
are hired on the basis of degrees
and publications rather than
teaching ability and some of the
best teachers remain Associate or
Assistant Professors after twenty
years because they lack
post-graduate degrees and
publications.

It is all very well for the
Administration to point out the
higher national standings of
individual departments such as
English and History and attribute
this standing to the expanded
student and faculty enrollment.
Indeed, since 1962, chiefly through
the efforts of Fredson Bowers and
Edward Younger, these two
departments have risen in national
standings dramatically and it must
be admitted that their faculties
once again include men of national
prominence. But has the quality of
education increased when these
departments are on longer cohesive
units and when the faculty
members and students no longer
know each other on a person basis?
What is to be made of the fact that
fewer and fewer students are able
to claim that their education has
been a personal experience with the
teachers under whom they have
studied? And what is to be made of
the fact that students and faculty
alike pass each other on the
grounds with eyes averted, in mute
testimony to the demise of the
sense of community?

Misleading Statistics

The Office of Institutional
Analysis, grandly occupying rooms
designed for students on the
Monroe Hill Range, proudly
presents the University
Administration with statistics
showing that 70 per cent of the
entering class of 1965 succeeded in
obtaining degrees by the end of five
academic years and a summer.
Considering that the national
average is supposed to be about 50
per cent this is a resounding victory
for those who advocated expansion
as the panacea for education. Right?
The Administration thinks it is.
Well, it sounds good at Board
meetings anyway. The fact is that
only 53.3 per cent of that same
entering class graduated in the
Spring of 1969 as it was supposed
to, and if I had the Draft breathing
down my neck at the height of the
American involvement in
Indochina I would have made
damn sure that I stayed in school
with my 2-S deferment as long as
possible too. So much for statistics
that purport to show the benefits
of the Administration's most recent
five year plan.

Anxiety Devices

A reform in the educational
outlook of this institution has been
long overdue but now it is
imperative. As the tutorial and
semantical teaching methods go by
the board the University must rely
more and more on quizzes and
examinations which can be little
more than anxiety testing devices
instead of learning experiences.
And when the administration turns
the screws who is to blame if the
students turn to concentration
stimulants like 'speed'? Who is to
blame if a student's only assets on
graduation are cramming skills and
'pre-think strategies'? And ultimately
who is to blame when almost 50
per cent of the students cannot
complete their academic
requirements on time? What was it
that R.D. Laing said about a sane
response to an insane situation?

Declined Standards

As the students and faculty are
closeted off in their own separate
areas how can one expect them to
act responsibly to one another? As
the individual entering classes are
weaned on the Jeffersonian
concepts of a community of
scholars and then roughly ejected
from that community at the close
of their first session who can expect
them to believe in the precepts of
higher education? As the individual
student is thwarted more and more
by off-grounds housing, parking
impossibilities, inadequate dining
facilities, the crush of pedestrian
traffic, and the impersonal nature
of large overcrowded classes can
there be any doubt as to whether
the standard of education has
declined? Then how can the
administration have the gall to
pursue this mad gambit?

Demand Action!

The crisis of expansion with it's
effect on our quality of education
is certainly upon us. The solution is
to place this crisis squarely where it
belongs— in the lap of the
Administration.

If you want something done
you must do it yourself. Or
Student Council meets tonight at
7:00. If you think something
sensible should be done about the
appalling quality of your
education: demand it! If you think
something sensible should be done
about the appalling traffic
situation: demand it! If you think
something sensible should be done
about the appalling housing
situation: demand it!

In May 1970 the students in this
country thought the national
situation was appalling and they
shut down the Universities across
the nation. In Charlottesville it may
be time to do it again!