~Wtt&1 - - Hoover Library

"WMC Curriculum: Overstructured and Underinspired"above all, the opportunity for a challengingeducation, the freedom to inquire, to discuss,to be unrestful, to rebel. For them,"bored" is not the descriptive termThey are tortured with the lack of comprehensiveexperimentation on the part ofcurriculum planners aod with the cutenessof professors, both old and young, who haveno other concept of the classroom than oflecture-three-d a y s_n_week_with_tests_exams_and-oblivion. They have discovered no painkillerfor the Virtually sacrosanct 100, 200,300, 400 levels, which you can enter "when"or "after" but rarely "before." This torturecomes, too, from the students who havefound blessed assurance in the security ofno experimentation and a limiting conceptof education and who quake at the suggesbyWilliam L. Tribby, '56The title is stolen from a poster-onewhich, with the aid of Magic Markers,Elmer's, and a few ragtag staples, dangledin the breeze from either the Volkswagenor Valiant that, somehow, appeared. Theoccasion: May Day, 1966-time of traditionalWMC Hoats, personages, and entertainment.As befits such upsettings of ceremonies,this and the other attached signs wereimmediately thrust to the limbo of "ha" bythe majority of student spectators, termed"Beatnik" and "inane" by the faculty, and"unofficial" by the administration. Withthese epitaphs, crowns could be safelyworn, bats be swung, dances be frugged,and kisses be whatevered.Sunday dawned as planned.But the awakening did not come. Backof the posters, however, in those two cars,and standing sporadically and silentlyamongst the spectators, were those for whomneither the "ha" nor the "beat" nor the"unofficial" titles cut through. We had metthem in our classes. We had hesitantlylonged for them to return to our classesagain because they had dared 10 disturb,to challenge, to disagree.Their complaint was and remains a realone-for them, and for the future of WesternMaryland. They are not a majority. Themajority-except for a few eternal gripessuch as "Biology 101 is too hard," "FreshmanEnglish is the dullest course I've everhad," mixed equally with "the dining hallfood is bad" and "first period classes arebad"-have shown no active desire to revamptheir present curriculum in an intelligentdirection.This minority is a group demanding,tion of change. And, admittedly, they tormentthemselves, because they have notfound sufficient courage to storm the castlewith morc than words.Amazingly, although the torture has notyet produced such courage, neither has itspawned apathy. In the past year, thesestudents have been avidly researchingspecific trends in college education, experimentsin curricula being continuously conductedat multitudes of schools. Findingshave been, and are presently being correlatedand discussed. As part of their resultantmaturity, the group has discoveredthat its complaints are not isolated; \VesternMaryland is not the archetypal SimonLegree.But, what is causing more deeply rootedconcern is what is NOT being experimentedwith here regarding interdisciplinary courses,team teaching, pass-fail grading for certainlevels and certain courses or hours outsidemajor disciplines. A general science laboratory-lectureL'OUfsealternative 10 the unrealas well as uri-ideal Biology-or-Chemistry-or-Physicsrequirement for non-sciencemajors is needed. Also crying for officialconsideration is a so-called "second track"curriculum for those students who, on thebasis of some determination of ability anddesire, would apply for entrance into thatcurriculum and would he educated throughindependent study. Necessary variation couldoccur in courses with highly selective bibliographiesand discussion to replace theprofessor-disseminator-of-facts. This wouldrequire few actual class meetings, but extensiveuse of libraries, other researchsources, and numerous consultations withprofessors. The abandonment of the sugarteatof compulsory attendance (or, moreinsinuatingly, "limited cuts") in the classroomand the increased use of field workaway from the campus for as much as ormore than a semester are realities elsewhere.Each of these could and should be inexpcriment on this campus now.And this is but a portion of the thoughtsof this minority. They should not be oontentWILLIAM L. TRIBBY is chairmanthe dramatic art department atofWestern Maryumd. He is completingwork on his doctorate which he ex--pects to receive from Iowa State University.with such replies as "to do any of this;:ul!u:~q%div~:al:~e~~~~~~~! :~~~professor-time, too much police action toguarantee an absence of undergraduateplaybovs't=or, even the always-availablecatch-all-"if you don't like it here, leave."They know these are not answers.This student body, on the basis of theintelligent research of which it is capable,will rise up, complain specifically, andvocally demand action. Individual facultymembers therefore, according to their majorfield and overall concern for education onthis campus, must experiment to and beyondthe traces of what they comfortably tagtheir "incap~ble students" and "unimaginativeadmtntstration." The administrationenthusiastically, indeed, pleadingly, shouldreiterate that the doors are, and ever havebeen. open for all of this.Then, what must occur, will: Most specifically,an equal representation of studentsand faculty will comprise the CurriculumCommittee. More generally, departmentsand faculty advisors will insist that each?f th~ir .m~jo~s be conversant, not onlym their discipline, but also in their abilitiesto ~~ess themselves in speech and writingto Critically evaluate and express themselvesregarding the latest world events, art, literature,and science, and wtll realize thatcourses are not always necessary or evenhelpful in this.E~entually, and most "utopmeally,"phYSICSand art and English and philosophyin the form of students and faculty, wilitalk to each other. They will feel that theymust confer, across lines of disciplinesbeyondcomparisons of make-out datesdrinking prowess, hair styles, rent, andmiles-per-gallon-into the concerns whichall educated people must have concerningcurrent events, the arts, literature, and science.And those who do not feel this needwill be made so uncor:'fortable that theystudentand faculty-Will leave, for anotherschool where this is not Important, whereall can hide and be hidden in the structurewhere 124 hours and a certain student:faculty ratio is nn easy public metaphor for"education."The failure of students and faculty toactively inquire in any of this and for theadministration to wait to see what otherschools will find out in twenty years on thebasis of present experimentation is an in-.\'tllttoallooncerned.pagefhirteen