University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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I SOCIAL WORK inc Dean Martha Williams Students in the school of Social Work received more than just classroom instruc- tion in the course of earning a degree. Ac- cording to Dean Martha Williams, dean of the School of Social Work, candidates for the bachelor ' s and master ' s degrees were re- quired to spend part of their time working on field assignments, an important part of their curriculum. Some of the school ' s field outlets in the Austin area included the Austin Center for Battered Women, Seton Medical Center and the Children ' s Psychiatric Unit of the Austin State Hospital. Students might work at the legislative budget ,, , , i t ffJ If din g employment. It We have lost a lot of federal fun- . , . , board, Williams said, was om y tnose wnc or they might work ding but have been able tO COpe absolutely insisted on with that because the University of sta y in g in Austin that . . . , , found limited oppor- Texas has been very helpful to us tunkies . Wimarns con - Basically, it affected our field program, the dean continued. The federal money that we had was mainly for field instruction. But things had a way of working out We have been able to get the field teaching covered by agency social workers, Williams said. Also we have been able to get master ' s program students in the field to supervise our students rather than having our faculty supervise them, she added. As for placing students once they graduated from the School of Social Work, Williams said that surprisingly enough, the graduates seldom had any difficulty in fin- in that transition. ' at a child and family service agency, hospital or correc- tional facility in a number of different social services. Duties ranged from administrative paper- work to counseling patients. Williams was optimistic about her school ' s continuing programs, even though President Reagan ' s federal budget cuts caus- ed reverberations. We have lost a lot of federal funding, but we have been able to cope with that because the University of Texas has been very helpful to us in that transition, Williams said. eluded by praising the School of Social Work. We have a lot of job requests for our students mainly because we ' ve got good, high quality students, she said, adding that education doesn ' t seem to hurt anybody in the job market as far as our field is concerned. A native of Houston who received all three of her degrees from UT, Williams said that social work is challenging and important in the sense that it is applying knowledge to the solution of human problems. Students Receive Experience Through Austinite Counseling Programs Turning out people who wanted to help others was the main objective of the School of Social Work. One of these helpers was Susan Noffke, a graduate student and intern with Junior Helping Hands. At that agency, Noffke counseled children ages 4-12. Nof- fke was assigned several cases in which she would first interview the child and the parents, and pinpoint the problems. Usually the children she counseled were abused or came from backgrounds plagued by finan- cial, legal or marital trouble. After the inter- view, Noffke and her supervisor met with the children individually to begin therapy sessions. Depending on the child ' s problems, the therapy used took different approaches, including recreation, relaxation and psychoanalysis to help arrive at a solution. The student interns tried to make a positive impact on the children ' s lives, accor- ding to Noffke. She was particularly in- terested in the administrative and planning aspect of the intern program, especially when it helped other people. She summed the program up saying that being involved with people is what social work is all about. Pat Vires Social Work 129

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NATURAL SCIENCES Professors Clown Around Clark Hubbs Zoology An ichthyologist was someone who knew a helluva lot about fishes, according to Dr. Clark Hubbs, chairman of the Department of Zoology. Hubbs said that his research ex- pertise in the area of aquatic biology was the vehicle for his becoming department chair- man in 1978. As chairman, Hubbs stressed that one of his goals was to maintain the department ' s excellent international reputa- tion for zoological studies by continued recruitment of only the best teachers and researchers available. Hubbs received his bachelor ' s degree from the University of Michigan and spent three and a half years in the U.S. Army dur- ing World War II before coming to the University of Texas in 1949. After receiving a doctorate from Stanford University in 1951, Hubbs accepted an assistant professorship position at the University of Texas. After becoming a full professor in 1963, Hubbs ' energy had many outlets. He was managing editor of Copeia, a science magazine; editor of Texas Journal of Science; a professional zoological consultant; and a member of numerous panels and com- mittees for everything from selecting sites for power plants to protecting endangered species. Hubbs also wrote more than 170 dif- ferent publications and 42 articles that ap- peared annually in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. I Dr. William Coker, professor of physics, demonstrates chemi luminescence (cold light), showing that light can be pro- duced from a chemical reaction. Coker and Dr. Karl Trappe, a research scientist in the Department of Physics, demonstrated physical phenomena at this 60-minute meeting of the Newtonian Circus of Physics. The titles of 40 dif- ferent intriguing demonstrations ranged from the amazing Peggy Fleming and the Falling Cat, to the more daring, but safer, Killer Pendulum and Atomic Explosion. This circus was one of a free series sponsored by the Department of Physics for the purpose of showing that science in general, and physics in particular, can be fun. 128 Natural Sciences

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CONTINUING EDUCATION Graduate Students Continue Quest for Knowledge Dean Thomas Hatfield Dean Claud Glenn Sparks With the Reagan administration ' s cuts, the Title II-B grants under the Higher Education Act which supported students who would work with ethnic minorities through libraries may be discontinued in the near future, according to Dean Claud Glenn Sparks. The primary function of the grants was to enable ethnic minorities, who were unable to independently finance their educa- tions, to enter the library and information science field. Sparks, who became Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Infor- mation Science in 1972, remarked that most of the people in the Title II-B program have been ethnic minorities. If the grants dry up, then many things that have been funded in this manner will go undone, and a real reduction of minority students in our Graduate School will result, Sparks said. Sparks received his bachelor ' s in business from East Texas State University, a master ' s in library science from UT, a master ' s in English from TCU, and a doctorate from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Dean Thomas Hatfield Updating education for the profes- sionals, was the aim of the Division of Con- tinuing Education, said Dean Thomas Hat- field. Continuing education programs sup- plemented the population ' s education in areas from law to nursing to art. The pro- grams offered ranged from beginning pot- tery to advanced technological aspects of engineering. The program was developed because it met a need people wanted to expand their knowledge, change careers and exchange information. Hatfield spent many of his childhood days on his grandparents ' ranch in South Texas and was exposed to adult education programs through the Agriculture Extension services. He later realized the importance of updating information in people ' s lives and pursued the career of educating adults. Hatfield came to the University in 1977 as Dean of the Division of Continuing Educa- tion. The continuing education programs are striving for greater understanding of the arts liberal and fine arts, he said. Dean Claud Glenn Sparks LIBRARY SCIENCES 1}0 Continuing Education, Library Sciences