Michigan State University - Red Cedar Log Yearbook (East Lansing, MI)

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EDUCATION I8 Much of the measure of any educational institution's success lies with its students and the results of their labor.

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Surrounded as we are by countless magazines and news- papers, radio and TV, the impact of mass communication media has become almost unavoidable in modern living. Michigan State is among the first universities to ap- preciate fully the magnitude of these media in our daily lives, and to undertake large scale scientific investigation of their influence. The Communications Research Center of the College of Communication Arts is the eye of these investigations. The Center, under the direction of Dr. Paul Deutschmann, seeks the answers to three basic questions: 1. What are the effects of communication? 2. What are the important variables in the communi- cation process? 3. How do these variables interact? Much of what we may assume intuitively to be true regarding messages, from major news items to political speeches, has already been shown to be only partially true or even false in the Center's studies. For instance, in spite of the growth of television and the continued prominence of radio, newspapers remain the chief au- thority on news information for most people. A case in point is the story of President Eisenhower's light stroke several years ago. Research by the Center revealed that 80 percent of persons polled used newspapers as a source of information, either direct or supplementary. The effect of the political address is still under study, but it has been found that only a small number of readers or listeners appear to change their political position during a campaign. These few, however, might make the dif- ference in a tight election, thus making important the continued study of such influences. Another area of productive and successful work for the Center has been in face-to-face communications. One of the biggest problems in this area exists for foreign tech- nicians trained in this country and returning to their homelands. Communicating their new knowledge to their fellow countrymen is often as difficult as mastering the special knowledge itself. Under a contract with the International Cooperation Administration, the College of Communication Arts has conducted 14 workshops providing training for over 850 foreign participants. This program, conducted in Cava- pon, Virginia, has already achieved a notable degree of success. According to Dr. Deutschmann, the long range purpose of the center is to gain a better understanding of the com- munication process, not only to aid those whose business it is to persuade, but to enable everyone who watches or listens to be more selective. OUR COY MOTHER EARTH By celestial standards, Mother Earth is by no means ready to retire, but it may be that she has been fooling us in recent years about her true age. The latest and pre- sumably most accurate way of getting around the old girl's coyness has been through the study of radioactive decay. Any radioactive substance loses its intensity of radia- tion, or decays, in a predictable fashion. The time measurement usually associated with such a substance is its half-life, which is the time required for half of it to decay into another element. In the case of radium this half-life is 1620 years. In other words, if we were to set aside one gram of pure radium today, we would have one half gram in 1620 years, and one quarter gram in 3240 years. With such knowledge physicists are able to deter- mine how long certain elements have been present in the earth, and hence, the earth's age. Dr. William H. Kelly and Dr. George B. Beard of the physics and astronomy department have reason to believe, however, that the lives of some radioactive elements have not been measured accurately. One of the problems in such measurements is the presense of background radiation caused, it is believed, by cosmic ray bombardment from outer space and by the natural radioactivity of some minerals in the earth's crust. Although this radiation is slight, there is enough present to cause trouble. To minimize this difficulty the two physicists, using more ingenuity than money, have constructed a container which shields any radioactive sample undergoing study from background radiation. This device, consisting of thousands of pounds of metal and called the f'sewertron, gets its name from its center cavity, an old sewer pipe picked up at a local junk yard. But if the sewertron's name is a jest, its performance is not. According to Dr. Beard, studies which might normally have taken weeks have been managed in a matter of days since its comple- UOI1. Preliminary findings have been encouraging, and if future studies substantiate these, then entire theories may have to be readjusted concerning the age of the earth and the universe. THE STORIES UNTOLD These, then, form a small sample of the breadth of MSU scientific inquiry. That they merely hint at the magnitude of this breadth is apparent in light of the hundreds of stories not told here. Another equally rep- resentative group might contain the story of perception studies in the department of psychology, or more details on the radioisotope cemetery pictured on the opposite page. It could tell of packaging developments, studies in sociology or anthropology, or the new undergraduate research program beginning this year in the College of Engineering. The list is endless, and each story told must leave much in itself unsaid, perhaps unsayable. But however poor in detail this must be compared to that which has gone untold, one fundamental fact is obvious. None of it would be possible wthout the in- genuity and dedication of the scholars, student and faculty alike, who constitute the mind of MSU. l7

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Since the beginning of the cold war and our academic competition with the Soviets, the ivied halls traditional- ists of American Education have erupted in the acute pains of a dislocated complacency. The resulting reevaluation has been both vigorous and painful, not only because of the need for immediate change which has come to light, but because of the prospect of no end to change in the future. It is notable that such a philosophy of continued re- evaluation is not merely 10 years old at Michigan State, but has been present throughout the over 100 years of the University's history. We have ivy at MSU, a good deal of it, but on masonry, not minds. Michigan State was, in fact, founded to serve a growing society at large, rather than only an educated elite. In the last century the Michigan Legislature recognized the need of such a service. They saw that a progressive people, competent in their work, meant a prosperous state. And even more far-seeing was their realization that a free man, to remain free, must be educated in more than his vocation. The constant change and growth that such a concept im- plies has been happening in fact at Michigan State since its founding. At the beginning of the school year, Thomas H. Ham- ilton, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, put it this way: The problems which confront large public universities at this point in history are grave in nature. Basically these stem from the fact that our society in the middle of the Twentieth Century, cannot afford less than quantity edu- cation on a quality basis. The state university rather largely, although not exclu- sively, through its academic program must help the modern citizen become free in a triple sense. The citizen in our society cannot become free unless he can realize all of his creative potentialities in his vocation. He cannot become free unless he has the intellectual equipment and acuteness to be able to participate in social, economic and political decisions at the highest level. He cannot become free un- less and until he is capable of developing his humanity for the uses of contemplation and leisure. It is the duty of the public university to see that these three aspects of freedom are not shut off because of lack of opportunity. f'This is the responsibility of the University and indicates the dimensions of its function. As this task becomes ever more difiicult, so must the University increase both its resolve and capacities to deal successfully with it. THE EFFORT OFF CAMPUS The benefits of Michigan State University are by no means restricted to the 20,000 students on campus. Every college in the university participates in the growing Con- tinuing Education Program under the direction of Dr. H. R. Neville. Every year, through this service, instructors travel thousands of miles, reaching cities in every part of Michigan to present subjects ranging from art to retail advertising. Since 1951-52, when the Continuing Education service was first offered outside of Kellogg Center, the program's enrollment has increased over 700 percent. Nearly 10,000 people in 190 Michigan cities were enrolled in this year's classes. In addition to formal class work offered off campus, adult conferences numbering over 400 were held at Kel- logg Center this year. At the same time countless other educational services were offered through the Labor and Industrial Relations Center, the Trafiic Safety Center, the Ofiice of Community College Cooperation and the Institute for Community Development. The Cooperative Extension service alone has 275 field employees and 125 on-campus subject-matter specialists working through its 83 county offices. This program offers information and services throughout the State in Agricul- ture, agriculture marketing, home economics and 4-H activities. In the crucial area of science education on the high- school level, the Junior Engineering Technical Society with national headquarters on campus, has had national influence. In recent years JETS has done much to stimu- late interest in science and technology for secondary school students, giving many of them the early start so useful in science education. The most recent service to be added, and another MSU first, is WMSB, Michigan State's educational TV station now operating on channel 10 with the commercial station, WILX. Broadcasting on a standard frequency, WMSB can be received by any set within its range, thus reaching the entire central Michigan audience. Few educators are unaware of MSU's recognized leader- ship in the increasingly important area of international education. Through its overseas efforts, the University has brought American skills and ideals to the very border of the red dominated world. The largest overseas program of any university in South Viet Nam is conducted by MSU, while the University of the Ryukyus on Okinawa is MSU sponsored. In addition to these projects, the University has been active in Colombia, Brazil and Pakistan, and is considering a program for East Nigeria. THE CONTINUING CHALLENGE The new program at Oakland, to begin this fall when MSU-O welcomes its first students, has been designed for the future. Throughout the year, distinguished educators and national figures have been gathering at MSU-O for seminars on the planned curricula, contributing invaluably from their thought and experience. The effectiveness of Michigan State's working philoso- phy, on campus, throughout the State and the Nation, and overseas, suffers no lack of indorsement. The ideal of quantity education on a quality basis has been expressed by MSU in the language of hard effort, and will be per- petuated in a continuing policy of far-sighted planning. 19