Plymouth State University - Conning Tower Yearbook (Plymouth, NH)

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“Very few of us know where we are going to be 5 years from now.” Students have become a little narrow in what they think an education is. Take the average 18 year old who is going to enter our business program, let say, okay, what are you going to do five years from now? What do you want to be doing? He can't answer that question but seems to think that the way to get where he wants to be is through a very applied business education, or business curriculum. I think that's an error, and I think that's one of the reasons why we've maintained the posture that a good portion of a students education has got to be a liberal arts area. This will help the student develop his ability to think about other things; philosophy, art, theatre and all the componots to a general education. Very few of us know where we are going to be five years from now. If you are prepared to be an accountant and only an accountant, you're locked into one little narrow niche. I think the faculty shares this at Plymouth, we arc going to maintain our posture as a multi purpose institution. One of the problems we are facing in the business department is that soon we arc going to have to limit the number of people that can come into business. It's going to have to happen, because if we get over subscribed in business the other areas are going to feel the crunch because of the lack of students. They could fill the entire freshman class next year with business students, if they allowed that to happen what's going to happen to languages and all those other fields? I think we all recognize the sudden increase in business students is not going to continue forever. In the future there will be a shift to engineering. What we hope to do is take this period of growth to try to build a set of resources, so when things flatten out or level off, you still have real quality there. You can maintain a decent quality in a fixed number of students. In the long run, I suppose that whatever size the entering class is next year—it will be as big as it ought to get. This school is facing that decision .... Dr. David Kent “. . . It’s much healthier than when they had to keep this stuff in” Students are more open and freer to express opinions then they were 20 years ago. Back then young people were to be seen and not heard. As far as that is concerned though, the whole society has changed. I've heard students say things to their parents that never would have been said before. It's not so much a change in the students as it is a change in the environment in which they've been brought up. I think its a much healthier kind of thing than is was when they felt they had to keep all this stuff in. For the most part we have the kind of student who is earnest. We draw from the kind of student who sees education as being a step upward in society. I've always found the students here very easy to work with and I like that. Plymouth is still small enough so that students can drop in and talk if they want to, without making an appointment three or four hours in advance. That is good for faculty-student relations. Dr. Norton Baglcy Dr. Norton Bagley

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“For a student who wants a good general education PSC is definitely a good place to be”. “Students are now less socially oriented and more into studying their material.” I like the cross section of students at PSC, it represents what people are like in the outside world. This diversification of minds is a positive thing. It also holds true of the faculty, because of their unique educational backgrounds they do not all think alike. I've noticed a change of attitude in the students during my 5 years here. Before they were going along with society, going to college because everyone else was. They weren't really interested in learning for learnings sake. Today I feel students are here because they want to be. They arc no longer going to college because it is expected, but be-cause of a desire for more knowledge. Tliis is evident in better grades and more people going on to graduate school. Students today are more oriented toward the future. It is natural to change after college, because this is prepatory stage for life to come afterward. It would be foolish and harmful to replace liberal arts education with vocation. Liberal arts education means gaining knowledge for knowledges sake. In this way it is making a wise man wiser. For a student who wants a good general education PSC is dcfinatly a good place to be. Its small enough to get to know professors as well as students. There is also much knowledge to be gained through other students at PSC. It is a wise person who gets out and Joins organizations because so much can be learned from peers. Life should never be drudgery, it should be lived and enjoyed to the fullest extent. This can be done by not being rigid but by being relaxed and open minded. I've noticed a change of attitude in the students in the past few years. They are now less socially oriented and more into studying their given material. I say that because of the attention they are now giving as compared to before. I guess this is a national trend, I've read some things about it. Along with the students the reason Plymouth is so special is because of the mountain setting. In a small town you can get to know students better, when you see them you exchange greetings instead of just walking by. In other places you can see students and not even realize they are in your classes. I like the environment here. I plan on staying for a while . . . Dr. Ford “Every system has its limit and we are rapidly approaching ours.” This generation is approaching a crises point which will come cither at the end of this century or the beginning of the next. There are many problems which can no longer be ignored. It appears as if everyone has a small amount of time to get it together or we will witness a catas-rophie in the form of armed hostility, plague, fammon, or total destruction of the ego systems. I see spiritual awareness (not theological) as the answer to the above problems. Also, through Psy-cology and understanding of how we think we may be able to avoid this total destruction. Every system has its limit and we no matter how much mistreated, doesn't bear a grudge. This means that mistakes may be corrected. Don't give up but approach life with more aggression and self confidence. Mr. Terry Downs. Dr. Normand Cote 21 Dr. Boyce Ford Mr. Terry Downs

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. . The answer changes. The answer today might not be the answer tomorrow” Dr. Salmons: Well, of course, in America we've always been more inclined to vocationalism than, say, in Europe in fact they think our educational system is Just funny-business, you know, that it's not serious and intellectual like their own and maybe it isn't. In general, I think European graduates would be intellectually more developed than our own perhaps. Yet, you sec, you can criticize their system because they deal more with abstractions . . . one level or another . . . Young people arc no longer interested in dealing with purely intellectual things, they just want the answers. They want to know how to make it, perhaps there's a real difference between students twenty years ago and today. Perhaps they're not as free in our country as they once were. Q: Do you think students arc more pragmatic today than they were? Dr. Salmons: Well, maybe pragmatic's the word . . . but they've been seduced by the notion that college is the way ... the entre , the open sesame to advancement, and position in life, status, money, haven't they? Q: Some . . . Dr. Salmons: That's why we came to college, isn't it? So we could make it . . . Q: Some people might come to learn. Dr. Salmons: How many? What percent? Learn what? It's not many, I'm afraid, it's not the students' fault, its because they've been mislead in this. Q: Mislead in what? Dr. Salmons: In the notion that the thing to do is to make it without any clear idea of what is meant by making it, without any defined hierarchy of values. They are much less concerned with the question than they are with the answer. Q: Do you think the answer is as important as the thought process that goes into the answer? Dr. Salmons: Well, the answer changes, the answer today may not be the answer tomorrow, but if you're equipped so that you can think, you can probably determine a better answer tomorrow than if you can't think. If we Just leanr the answer, we haven't learned much but if we've learned how to think, if we acquire the habit of thinking, there is hope. Q: Dr. Salmons, you've been here for a long time, what is it that you particularly enjoy about this campus, that you've decided to stay here? Dr. Salmons: Well I think there's quite a lot of freedom here, intellectual freedom. I always like the fact that although Dr. Hyde might not exactly approve of what some of the faculty thought, he at least entertained the idea that they should do what they thought was good to do. I think that s good, in my own case, for instance, and for this reason, I rather think Dr. Hyde's very interesting and I really esteeem him for this virtue. I believe other faculty members share this view. Q: So, it's because of the faculty and administration that you stay here. Dr. Salmons: Well the faculty's changed a good deal over the years too and in some ways, Dr. Hyde may be freer than some of the facility. There's a faculty spectrum and I fear some very narrow professors, and there arc some in every institution. There are some remarkable faculty members here, who have sought the virtues to be found in this climate, and the students benefit greatly from their mentorship. I fear that there has come to be little spirit of inquiry on the part of most of our students, but, in the light of cultural influences, this is not astonishing, only dismaying. I consider it a great privilege to be a professor--to have the opportunity to think and work with young people. At Plymouth, I have known some students who understand the process of education and who displayed great human beauty. I believe that Plymouth is not more guilty of mischief in education than other institutions, but I cannot be sure. 24