MAY 1971
A MEANINGFUl COI1MENCEMENT
We can cnly take the President's statement that the Seniors
should continue to attend classes the last week of Spring term
at its face value, as an expression of uninformed hope. Those of
us who are exnerienced in teaching Buch classes know that the
~e'!',iors
have not attended in the past in any !Iignificant numbers,
and will not do so now. I urge my colleagues to join me in com­
piling Senior
~ttendance
lists that last week, and sending them
to the President. He might come to realize
tha~
the nmeaningfUl
commencement't decision means, in fact, that our courses have
bBen chopped administratively by ten percent.
The other t.hing we can do is to find out which Faculty
Senators voted for this nonsense, and try to replace them in
coming elections. It is interesting that the Senate
~1inutes,
distributed to a11 faculty and dated April 9, 1971, show that a
roJl cal) vote was taken; the roll call record itself is not
revealed.
The Seniors Sh011ld, of course, have a commencement with
meaning. This should be done by putting commencement back one
weF!k, not by moving grades forward one week. "But what would you
expect the Seniors to do that week ?II, asks
keep them around".
~hy,
do in whatever week
ca~e
my
Dean. "You couldn't
I'd expect them to do just what they would
between grades and commencement - to have
a last party, to leave town for the beach, etc. Why is it more
meaningful if "that week is the last week of regular classes?
,
Page 2
I
May 19710SU Faculty forum Papers
Some suggest that commencement should be whl1e the other'
undergraduates are sti1) around, so that they can play in the
band (the "vital campusll hypott:.esis). Is an old teacher rea] 1y
being too conceited to question whether that band music can
compare to clas8Toom instruction for one week ?
Many people at OOU fleern blind to what goes on in the rest
of the country. The only two commencement schemes our administra.
tors can think up are not only no good, but also atypical.
Reportedly, OSUls odd custom of premature
~enior
graduation goes
back to the Depression, and was designed to give our Seniors the
advantage of a week or two in the market
pl~ce
over the competi­
ticn frOM Eugene. These days, it is just one more example of the
minimal importance placed on formal teaching. Just suppose some­
body chopped ten percent orf the athletic schedule 1
Those of us who regular1y have classes of
~eniors
mixed with
other students can look back to J. 970, when for the only time a]J.
our students finished the whole term and got graded on a common
basis. Apparently an we can look forward to is continuing
administrative interference with the classroom.
~~#~
U'Ohn
T. Yoke
Professor of Chemistry
April 22. 1971
'.
I
•
May 1971 OSU Faculty Forum Papers
Page 3
"Anti-Intellectuel. Anti-Knowledge, end Anti-Science"
President Leonard W. Rice of Oregon College of Educstion
included the following remarke in his speech of welcome to the
Oregon Acedemy of Science on April 10, 1971:
"A powerful mood on the cempueee these deye is enti-intellec­
tuel, enti-knowledge, end enti-ecience. When this mood exists,
intuitive end poetic truth ere valued without aciantific truth.
Emotion 1s stressed, not research, patient observation, suspension
of belief until the evidence is in, and respect for facts.
"Curious correlations are evident. For example, the people in
the erta heve become ecologists. Scientiste who struggled ao long
with ecologicel problems in the fece of public indifference may
welcome this new attention to ecology, but they cen eceraely evoid
some embiguous thoughte when they see the science of ecology turned
into e pessionete belief.
"Another thing occurring where knowledge is deemphesized is en
intense preoccupetion with power. The notion eppeers to be that we
don't need more researoh and knowledge; whet is needed, rather, 1s
ection. Politics, then, supplants knowledge es a primary concern,
beceuse politics is ebout the edjustment end exercise of power. The
ecedemic institution ie seen es en inetrument for direct politioel
ection.
.
"It might eppear that es en administrator and en Engl1sh pro­
fessor I would welcome ell thie. Administrators ere engeged in poli­
tice, and they occesionelly suffer beceuse faculty don't see the im­
portence of being politicel. But I em politicel enough to know that
en eoedemic institution cennot survive es e politicel egency that
tekes direct political action. As en Englieh profeseor I value po­
etio end intuitive truth. But I don't WIlnt poetry et' the expense of
ecienoe, end I don't trust intuition unaooompanied by knowledge. I
do look for the unepoken and non-speakable meanings 'in contemporery
music. I shall be guided by these meenings ee I find 'them, but not
in contradiction to ecientific end hietorical evidence.
"I have spoken these condensed and oversimple thoughte to you
beceuse I think that scientists perticularly, but by no meens elone
on the cempus, know the values in rationality end kno_ledge. Insti­
tutions whose business is discovery end oommunicetion of knowledge
ere not luxuries Which we csn't sfford in bad times. The too eim­
pIe morel of my remarks is ee follows. Scientists on cempuees
should help see to i t that knowledge remains the primllry emphasie
there, end they should elso be pol1tical enough so es' not to ellow
politios to become the dominant foous of attention."
Page 4
May 1971 OSU Faculty
For~
Papers
Dr. Rioe reminded us of the dangers in stressing "not what you
know but whBt you feel." History supports him in the pungent co~ent
that "emotion without intelligence leads to superstition." We see
plenty around us to urga with him that the oause of knowledge must
not be lost.
Symptoms of modern-day passionate anti-intellectualism eppear
in such phenomena as the heavy sale on many a university campus of
bOOKS on long-diacraditad astrology and other fantasies. Profassor
E. U. Condon hBa observed that many public dacisions including thosa
on the financing of aciance are made by people who cannot tall the
difference between science and pseudo-science, a situation not appsp­
ently reliaved by the widespread diatribution of university de~rees.
Arthur C. ClarKe's raoent atartling projections about life in
the year 2001 could eaaily get aborted by the lacK of valid Knowledga
by dacision maKers, laCK of parapactive by scientific specialists,
snd aspecially lSCK of meaningful and prompt communication among all
elements of society.
The university has an unique tasK bafora it to enabla modern
man compatently to probe and evaluete eny field of Knowledga end the
ebility to articulate his own field of expertise to assiet others.
Anti-intalleotualism can even infiltrate the academic resaarch
establ1shmant so that unwanted data gat ignored (c.f. Allan M. Csrtter.
pp. 132-140, Scianca, 9 April 1971, and E. F. Holzman, p. 847, Science,
S March 1971.J. Sciance must always nurture careful attantion to aa­
tails in the tradition of Keplar's discovery of the true orbit of Mars
through noting a discrapancy of only eight minutas of arc in ita
observed position, compared to earliar theory.
The univeraity has a special reeson for oUltivating csndor snd
meaningful inter-disciplinary communication. Nowhere elae in society
do we rind auch a potentially intimate intermingling of all intellec­
tual disciplines. The unique aoademic mission oonsists not so muoh
in the origin of new knowledge as the colleotion, evaluation, and
difrusion of valid Knowledge within the antire intellectual community.
ThUS, a healthy academic attitude toward politica would contributa
urbanity, rationality, and justica to the politioal cli~te through
the activitias of individuals participating in tha politicel process
examplifying thereby the reasoned, academic approach.
The university oan hardly claim or expect blanK-checK support
for esoteric researoh when many of its graduates seem as unaware of
the implications of Kepler's revelation of the true orbit of Mars aa
those citizens of his native town who sought to burn his ,mother as a
witch in 1620, nearly two deoades after he determined the laws of
planetary orbits.
The dirfusion of knowledge today appeers as the greatest oreative
task the modern university oan perform, along with the p~omoticn of
oandid oommunication among all intelleotual disciplines. , This would
probably maKe the library the vital heart of the university and the
soene ot vl~orous, illuminating dialogue. Let the light shine!
30 April 1971
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