University of Rhode Island - Renaissance / Grist Yearbook (Kingston, RI)

Page 29 text:

You, the Class of 1970, are the first group to be asked to develop demographic responsibility. Today, we are faced with a potential population explosion that could result in a loss of the quality of life we so dearly cherish. A continuation of the present growth rate will result in a doubling of our popula- tion, by the early part of the next century. We are indeed at the Ninety-Ninth Hour if the problems of pollution, airport and highway congestion, housing shortages, and mass education are to be solved. In the words of C. Wright Mills, the problem is no longer the personal troubles of milieu — i.e. the business solely of the individual, it is now the public issue of social structure. The society can no longer tolerate complete freedom in de- termining family size and thus you are being asked.to voluntarily develop this demographic responsibility. We must, as a society, attain a zero rate of population growth within the next decade. Families should voluntarily limit themselves to two offspring. Failure to do so will transform our dreams for a better world into nightmares. Our progeny will be legally forced to limit their family size. THE CHOICE IS YOURS TO MAKE NOW. Leon F. Bouvier Sociology

Page 31 text:

At first, it is easier to say what the university is not. It is definitely not an employment agency. The campus should not be merely a training area for future technocrats and bureaucrats ready to serve only the needs of a corporation or a state. There are plenty of institutions available whose legitimate aim is to train and provide specialists. But the university can and must provide a broader experience and purpose for individual growth and education. In other words, the university should not be a place for specialization — at least as it serves the undergraduate. And service to undergraduate education, .in the most broad and liberal sense, is surely one of the primary aims of the uni- versity and its faculty. The fact is that the urge towards spe- cialization begins not with the student, but with the faculty and administration. When such an. urge is predominant, the result is a place — not a university — which values research more than teaching, data gathering more than education; the result is expertise and its consequent isolation. The function of the university is not to be isolated. Granted, each instructor does face the responsibility of always increasing his knowledge of his field. Indeed the university may be a re- pository of knowledge. But it must also be a center of com- munication. If we cannot speak to one another within, the rela- tive homogeneity of the university, then, there is little hope for our already fragmented society. In fact, contrary to present trends, the university may be the place to begin to reunify the country. To succeed, the university must not be a never ending, growth retarding home for the perennial student or an ivory tower for the absent minded pro- fessor. It can and must encourage mature generalists (men and women — human beings who may have specialties) to reenter the community, the society, and the universe of man, in order to serve and work with other men. In fact, by the senior year, the truly mature student should find the university a surprisingly small world, which is now limiting his growth. He must move on. Finally the university is not a place for privileged students. Surely, the university should reflect the republic of which it is a part.-Our universities can surely serve the entire community. In fact, in order to remain relevant to a democracy, the uni- versity must open its doors and enrollment to the entire com- munity. Is URI a university? Ask most students and they will tell you, in one way or another, that it is an employment agency. Mrs. Linda Shamoon English 27