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

Page 28 text:

An experiment to discover the effects of overcrowding was performed on a group of rats. It was revealed that a break- down in normative behavior occurred.

Page 27 text:

It is he again, while we have him about the neck, who allows the Off-ROTC faction to argue that classes in the likes of Military Science are incompatible with the university ' s academic purposes (in essence, that such courses exceed the domain of academic free- dom); and, who allows the same faction to claim the would-be cancellation of a course on revolution as a violation of academic free- dom. He then may have read SMC president Zarchen, the football team, and a selfish sense of priorities. It was in the face, and ap- parently at the expense, of an imperative $500 need of our tennis team that the foot- ball team was housed in a motel the night be- fore a home game for $400. In another in- stance, athletic-related priorities were ques- tioned by the meager demonstration which met the dedication ceremony of the Tootell gymnasium. Though we need more classrooms Paul Crowley ' s reported opinion that ROTC was retained in the fall referendum due to the pro-ROTC campaign — evidently believing the presentation of both sides to be unfair. Enough. Neither the issues nor our student is of much consequence so far, you will say; (I will say that everything contributes). In fact, that was the point of former Beacon editor Bruce Daniels ' swan-essay entitled Nothing- ness — You Deserve It. Nothingness indeed! We are not so fortu- nate. We have the packaged comedy of and dining halls, we build swimming pools. In addition to the financial is the academic immunity of the athletic department. Last year the department paid an hourly wage for a tutor to help two or three basketball players through Math 7. Amusing in itself (they rarely showed for the sessions), it is not at all the point. Anyone may enter URI with sufficient I) academic record, or 2) athletic ability; the second category is the more stringent. And, the classroom becomes the facade, a formali- ty guising another priority. 23

Page 29 text:

An increase in enrollment without an increase in facilities and instructors results in an overcrowding. The similarity of students and rats is debatable but the desirability of overcrowding is absurd.