Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 27, 1955, edition 1 / Page 4
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'SPEND YOUR EFFORT . . ON THINGS THAT CAN SURVIVE7 What (Editor's note: This concludes Dr. C. Hugh Holman's speech to the second All-Campus Confer ence, which met last weekend. Dr. Holman, chairman of the College of Arts and Sciences, was chosen keynote speaker at the annual conclave, a meeting designed to promote student faculty relations and to study problem areas within the Uni versity. Two-thirds of Dr. Hol man's speech, "A 'Community of Purpose' Is Essential," and "What Does the University Ask of Students?" have appeared In the last two issues of this news paper. This is the final third of Dr. Holman's speech.) By DR. C. HUGH HOLMAN . But the achievement of this goal (of a tradition of study at UNO does not rest exclusively in stu dent reform. As partners in a true community of scholars, there are many demands which the students may justly make of the Univer sity; and here, too, I shall select a few that seem to me relevant to the basic problem of achieving the purposes of an educational in stitution. I believe that the student may reasonably expect the University to do the following five things: (1) To present him with a reason A 1 given away each day THURS., FRI., SAT. FREE GIFTS For the Ladies For the Kiddies BARGAINS GALORE YOU Do I he ed and reasonable program of study, define It for him and con sistently work to keep him in formed of it and its objectives; (2) To maintain for him a rigorous, consistent and logical standard for the performance of his aca demic responsibilities. (3) To give him a faculty dedi cated to the purposes of education and committed to the idea of the student as both the basic raw ma terial and the crucial produce of the educational process; (4) To deal with him always with equity, with justice and with firmness, but never t0 surrender to him the central functions of the faculty. (5) And to bring to bear upon him and his problems a catholic interest and a warm human sym pathy. As I have indicated, I believe that the program of study which is followed at Chapel Hill is, ' at least in broad outline, well rea soned and broadly consistent with the best traditions of liberal ed ucation. I am not convinced, however, that the University has ' attempted very vigorously in recent years to explain and to defend that pro gram of study. I think every student who en ters the University should ex pect and receive at regular inter . . . 'n-.r- rx 7 MAY WIN A FAMOUS G. E. 17" TV. ..THREE GIVEN AWAY THURSDAY, FRIDAY AND SATURDAY' BE cnni: nEGLSjrjR I YOUR NAME FREEBALLOONS AND LOLLIPOPS FOR THE KIDDIES! COME, JOIN "the FUN' You need not be present at the drawing to win! " Students vals an academic orientation which is not a "let's-all-study" pep rally, excellent and necessary as such rallies can be, but is a thoughtful and specific explana tion of the program of study upon which he is engaged. This is the task of deans, advisers, teachers and everyone connected with the official family of the University. I should like to see a detailed, frank, and open discussion of the University's program of study the subject of an all-campus confer ence such as this. We blame the students for not respecting or un derstanding our program, as I am doing today; but we do not very often make an effort to demon strate to them the simple fact that a reasoned program exists. The student has the right to ex pect the University to maintain rigorous, consistent, and logical standards for his work. We all know that standards of work that are either exceptionally high or exceptionally low undermine the program of study in a university. You have the right to expect that there be some consistency of requirement and performance among the various courses and disciplines. You have the right to expect that you will receive not the grade you tell the instructor you need but always the one you 1 Expect actually earn, that you will not receive credit for a course which you have attended only 10 times in a semester, that a certification of competence in a subject matter for you and for' your fellow-students have concrete and equiva lent meaning. . On the other hand, you have the equal right to expect that exces sive amounts of work in propor tion to credit hours and certifi cation not be exacted of you. Of course these matters are relative and neither the student nor the University desires t0 interfere with the prerogatives of the in structor; yet many of you feel, I expect, that this reasonable de mand of yours is but partially met in Chapel Hill. The student has a right to ex pect that he have a teaching fac ulty dedicated to learning and in terested in communicating it, a faculty that sees the undergrad uate student as the most precious commodity in which a university can ever deal. By and large, I believe that you have such a faculty here, but' I also believe that its presence and its interest in. you is often ob scured by an unreal kind of con flict that is alleged to be occur ring . between teaching and re search and between graduate and v i 0 I A u undergraduate instruction. Com petence in subject matter, con tinuing interest in that subject matter, continuning work with that subjcet matter these you demand of a teacher, and these are synonimous with re search. A dedication to learning and to the spread of learning this, too, you demand, and when it is truly present a teacher does not dis tinguish so sharply between grad uate and undergraduate instruct ion that the undergraduate suf fers. The students have the obli gation perpetually to demand of the University that the best pos sible faculty with the highest de gree of dedication perform the task of instruction. As Alfred North Whitehead once said, "The whole art in the organization of a university is the provision of a faculty whose learning is lighted up with imag ination. This is the problem of problems in university education; and unless we are careful the re cent vast extension of universities ! in number of students and ' in variety of activities of which we are so justly proud will fail in producing its proper re sults, by the mishandling "of this problem." The student has the right to ex I t i ii HI V ,1! 1 7 'J Y mm I heir pect that his University will deal with him f airly, equitably, firm ly, always with justice tempered with mercy, but never surrender ing to an easy sentimentality or judging him by standards false to the world for which it is pre paring him. Above all, I think the student has the right to de mand of the University that it al ways recognize the central funct ions which it has in regard to him and, in giving him freedom, never surrender its own respon sibilities to his ' control. ' That primrose path, which looks so at tractive to everyone, ultimately proves painful and disastrous. I think, that, in part, is what happened on the question of ab sences. The faculty, by failure to act under the old - regulations, virtually surrendered class atten dance control to the' students, and the students pursued the primrose path to the beach and various other points out of Chapel Hill until finally our present un pleasantness had to occur. The final demand that the stu dent makes on the University is that it, as a community of schol ars, be catholic in its interests and warmly sympathetic with vastly different situations, atti tudes, and human problems. Somehow, within the pattern of DJ Doors Open 9:30 A.M. Till 8:30 P.M. Thursday-Friday-Saturday Right smack in the middle of Chapel Hill's busiest crossroads, a new kind of shopping center to serve all of Orange and surrounding counties! Home-v Colol brick-and-white on the outside . . . and inside, broad, inviting aisles and a very special kind of welcome warmth that makes you fee! right at home! FIND EVERYTHING YOU NEED! Fashions for Mom, -Dad, little Johnnie and Baby Sue! Fashions for your home! Notions! Lotions! Andan entire section just for workclothes! At last! One-stop shopping for ail your needs! ENJOY NEW SHOPPING COMFORT! Belk-Leggett-Horton is completely air conditioned! Free parking, too, right at store-side! . Easy-on-the-budget charge and layaway purchase plans . . . yours to use just for the asking! 4 tELK-LEGGETT-HORTON FREE PARKING West Rosemary St. -74-H n n O n if A wt r? 11 u rrn u m w v a group of specialists dedicated to the sharply delimited interests of their specialization, the Uni versity must find a means of keeping a tolerant and universal sympathy' with people and partic ularly with young people. Within the limits of its broad purposes, the University must not make discriminating distinctions among attitudes, subject matters, professions. It must take a view of the world broad enough to value highly and simultaneously the physician, the sales manager, the poet, the preacher, the re search scholar, the teacher; to submit them each with impar tial love to the fructifying tradi tion of western man; and to train them with diligence and affection for their varied walks of life. Here it is the communal aspect of university education which comes most obviously into play. I think we otfen fail on this point at Chapel Hill, but I think when ever we d0 it is because we have allowed ourselyes to lose sight of our broad primary objectives while looking at special interests. There are many aspects of the general question before you for this conference on which I have not touched. In fact, I have cen tered my attention almost exclu sively on what is a slightly differ ent question: What things in the University and in the student both are necessary to a rebirth of a i0e of learning on the campus Chapel Hill? But that is, ultimate ly, not a different question, but the primary question about any university. All other aspects of i'n educational institution arc per ipheral to the central ones of as duty to teach young men and wo men and to preserve and enrich human learning. Nothing else finally jiistif.es the existence of this University but its preservation and communiea tion of knowledge. Student life, student government, fraternities, sororities, newspapers and mag azines, athletics all these exist because first there is a communi ty of scholars here, a program of learning. I would close what may have seemed at times a carping ad dress with the hope and expecta tion that we shall join hands and causes and light here in Chapel in,! a lamp of learning the reflection of whose gleam shall shine down the centuries in better men and better lives. Out of man's past nothing sur vives but his art and his know ledge. I would challenge you to spend your major effort here oa i things that can survive. TO L3 15) aa - nn nn n n j o J Li am mm n T MP L
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 27, 1955, edition 1
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