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

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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

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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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“The stagnation factor of the valley bothers me”. “Here as much as anywhere I’d say quality is relative”. GD (Z H z w Q O H c 3 W o cn I've had a drastic change in philosophy about Plymouth in the past three monthes. Changes arc in the power of the individual to go beyond the power of recognition. There used to be some super high people here who were'nt interested in letting other people know about them, they were doing it for themselves. Perhaps the change is just a further evolution of my ability to see. I'm mostly affected now by one individual in particular. The stagnation factor of the valley bothers me. People are still dreaming and thinking of the same. (I'm talking about Be Here Now dreams). Between apathy and stagnation it's not quite the center I thought is was. Perhaps I was by a theory, I thought more was going on here than is. Now I see it's Just a small New England town in a state headed by Thomson, which says a lot. Speaking geographicly rather than sociologicaly the valley has a power to create anything, given the right group or bunches of input; an area like this can really blossom. In a place like this you have such a movement of beings. It's constant evolution of people. I think that helps in the aspect of Keeping the town going. For one who tries to step out of the flow you see recurring patterns in a short period of time. I think there arc two types of patterns. Ones you arc aware of and your more supernatural or sophisticated ones. There arc patterns that reoccur in a day and lifetime patterns. I'm a believer in self awareness. It's good to be aware of as much as you can. With recognizing patterns and almost predicting them and keeping with them you keep the harmony in your system. Pattern is connected to balance--in keeping a pattern balance it covers pnysical and mental balance. If you're moving correctly, ou'rc keeping the balance which is ecping the pattern which evolves back to your total oneness. There is a relationship between actions that all come back together. What one person does is what he is; it's rare to find one person who is another person, or does another person, regardless of what the Psychology department may say. Here as much as anywhere I'd say quality is relative. The accdmic quality is a bit lacking though the apparent conceptual quality is a very high standard. Regardless of the obvious lack of acedmaic quality there is still a good number of intelligent people here, I don't know why .... Chris Hassig 25 ChrisHassig