Miami University - Recensio Yearbook (Oxford, OH)

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UNIVERSITY ox far babies and the increasing need for a college educa- tion forced Miami, faced with an ever-increasing enrollment, to rely on student, faculty and alumni organiza- tions to solve the problem. The school year of 1964-65 was the last before the change to tri-mester, a system designed to put the class and residence halls into year-round use. Every section of the University, besides their regular duties of keeping the school functioning, had to master the prob- lems incurred by this change. Also important was the need to build an image of Miami, in Ohio and other states, in order to attract superior students. Last year Miami found herself with numerous difficulties but no actual head. Dr. Charles R. Wilson was appointed acting President to fill the vacancy left when Dr. John D. Millett resigned. In Dr. Wilson,s words, llLong range planning, thus committing the new administration, was out. In my role as acting President, I have conducted the Presi- dentls oche on a sort of caretaker basis? Change through cooperation continued, however. The newly created office of director of educational serv- ices was responsible for cooperation between Miami and its extensions, particularly the Dayton campus. Another new oHice, director of institutional development, will assume the responsibility of coordinating intra-University departments and setting up a fund-raising campaign to supplement Miamiis hearty expansion. 18 As always, working with the President was the 27- member Board of Trustees. Most vital of the issues before the Board was the need for more facilities to accommodate the growing freshman classes each year. The Board, faced with constant pressure from the state legislature to take more freshmen, approved the tri-mester program in hopes that the year-round use of University facilities would allevi- ate some of the problems. The housing shortage remained on the agenda again this year, as it has in the past. The number of students accepted at Miami each year is limited by the amount of housing available, and the Board has been trying to meet this demand. One solution to the housing problem has been the use of uptown apartments by upperclass men. This, however, has led to a deeper, related problem, one which raised a great deal of controversy on campus during the past year. Stricter enforcement of the old apartment rule which prohibited women to visit men in their uptown housing led to vigorous protests all over campus. Letters to the editor of the llStu- dentll generally reflected shock at Miamils antiquated policy. The Council on Student Affairs, under the leadership of President Wilson, tried to calm the storm and fmd a solu- tion acceptable to all. For Miami students, the Council was one of the most important policy-making groups for representation of the student voice. Primarily concerned with the exchange of ideas to promote understanding among all parts of the University, the Council has broad- ened its scope to include student problems. Besides the apartment ruling, the Council discussed the car impounding lot, the Miami-Western Resume' and the Southern School Exchange. The main administrative committee for decision-making was comprised of the deans representing all of the depart- ments of Miami. An advisory body to the President, the Council of Deans also worked with the faculty and students. Their main job in this respect was the scheduling of classes, lectures, concerts and other academic and social events. Setting up a calendar for the new trimester required most of the CounciPs time in the past year, but they also man- aged to become involved in the campus controversy over the Voices of Dissent program, a forum deeply involving the first test of House Bill 800 after its passage last year.

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MIAMI I7

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Proposed by students, the ilVoicesb program brought four speakers who differed from the prevailing opinion on civil rights and economics. The last speaker, on communism, caused considerable controversy since his appearance was the first test of House Bill 800 after its passage last year. The original Council of Deans decision which disapproved of three of the four speakers was reversed. The final decision was left up to the Board of Trustees. The Board, in turn, gave authority to President Wilson, who approved the program and ended the possibility of a bitter freedoms fight at Miami. Not all speakers last year were as controversial as those on the llVoicesi, program. The W. A. Hammond Lecture Series brought several lecturers who spoke on the iiAmeri- can Tradition? Under the terms of Dr. William Hammond,s $25,000 donation to the University for this series, the speakers, subjects were llan explanation or elab- oration of basic values developed by the American Tradi- tion of a free society that has come to be called the American Way of Life? Former Miamians may not have heard of the latest campus controversies, but they were kept up-to-date on other important events through The Miami Alumnus, the alumni magazine edited by Mr. John O. Hendry. It report- ed on Miamiis academic progress, building programs, athletics and alumnae activities. Its publications projected an image of Miami as a fast-growing university which was successfully meeting its changing needs. Through this contact, fully one-third of Miami alums contributed an average of $13 per person to the Loyalty Fundwver $200,000 a year. A more limited, but none-the-less effective, program which spread the name of Miami University was the newly instituted Southern Student Exchange Program. This co- operative effort by Miami and Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, saw an exchange of four Miamians with four Southern Negro students from Morris Brown. Other Miamians also traveled and spread the image. The Miami University Abroad Program took 44 people to Europe last summer. The students and faculty on the trip traveled all over Europe sight-seeing and hearing lectures on contemporary conditions on the Continent. On the basis of these lectures, observations, interviews and research, the students on the trip could write a paper giving them three credit hours in economics, government, history, social stu- dies or sociology. Miami professors studied abroad also, doing research or taking leaves-of-absence to lecture at other universities. The government department was especially well-represented in this manner with three members absent for the year. Dr. Joseph Black, who recently resigned as chairman of the department, has spent the last two years at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Dr. Black resigned to accept a position as a Vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Herbert Waltzer spent the year in Bologna, Italy, doing research on the welfare program of the communist party there. Before leaving the United States, however, Dr. Waltzer served as a consultant to CBS during the broadcast of the Republican and Democratic national conventions. Also on leave from the government department was Dr. Badgely who was at Kyoto University, in Japan, and a visiting lecturer in the Far East. Through faculty and administrative efforts, Miamiis image spread. The trimester program, Voices of Dissent and other events gave Miami an image of a modern uni- unversity answering the challenge of questioning students. Miamians abroad, both faculty and students, contributed to the Miami image, making it known internationally. Faculty publications such as Dr. Reo Christensenis new book ciChal- lenge and Decisionl, added to the prestige. The faculty and students probed and discussed, challenged old theories and formulated new ones, researched and reviewed in the age- old scholastic tradition. The administration, realizing the need for the questions and the skepticism, encouraged the discussions. Their forward-probing academic outlook has been appreciated by those seeking excellence along with the physical environment Miami provides. I9