University of Virginia Library

Orfield, Pratt

Teachers Explain Switch

By Jay Steer

Two Associate Professors from the
Government and Foreign Affairs Department
are resigning from the faculty for two
completely unrelated reasons.

Gary Orfield will go to Princeton next
year because he wants to pursue more
closely his interests in urban problems.

Carolyn Pratt does not have anything
definite for next year, but is leaving because
she "has an itch to see what the real world is
like."

Interesting To Teach

"The job I have at Princeton will be very
interesting to teach. And I will be much
closer to both New York and Philadelphia,"
said Mr. Orfield in a phone interview
yesterday.

"I do like the University, but the student
body should be more heterogeneous.

"One of my basic reasons for leaving
involves the administration here: they seem
unresponsive to the social problems surrounding
them. Our department is OK,
though. It is a very congenial place," Mr.
Orfield continued.

Mr. Orfield, now Assistant Professor of
Politics and Public Affairs, had some
noteworthy comments on the students that
he has been teaching in his two years at the
University.

He said that he has noticed a
"tremendous difference in energy between
the students of a year ago, and the students
today. They seem more lively now, and
more willing to answer my in-class challenges.

Dead Silence

"Last year I tried to elicit responses from
my students by taking some controversial
positions. Most of the time I got dead
silence. But things are improving pretty
rapidly," he said.

Mr. Orfield came out very enthusiastically
in favor of the student coalition: "I was
very surprised it would occur. When they
first started, I thought it would be a
temporary thing like what happened after
Martin Luther King was shot. It has
exceeded my expectations."

To conclude his remarks, Mr. Orfield said
that "the University administration and the
state government aren't recognizing some of
the problems and responsibilities that go
along with intellectual excellence."

To counter the impression that he was
storming out of the University because of
the student and administration apathy, he
also said that what he is doing is the "plight
of most associate professors, in fact all
teachers without tenure; to wander from
college to college until they find something
they like."

Miss Pratt, on the other hand, felt that
her leaving had nothing to do with the
problems of a usual Associate professor.
What she is doing, she said, has nothing to
do with either the organization of the
University, nor the department.

Distorted Reasons

Miss Pratt, an Assistant Professor of
Govt. and Foreign Affairs, said that what
disturbs her is that "the pressures of society
(the draft, parents, etc.) distort a person's
reasons for going to college. This puts an
unhealthy emphasis on grades, but this
problem is very hard to deal with," she said.

Several observations on the University
were offered by Miss Pratt:

- The whole school will function better
on a co-educational level.

- I have enjoyed the end of the honor
system that I have dealt with.

- It was enjoyable in class because a
number of students have worked hard."