Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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Antony Raubitschek Classics I like Stanford because of its undergraduates. And they are getting better all the time. If one were to ask Professor Raubitschek his opinions concerning teaching at Stanford, he would answer that there is a good balance of fine professors, the best being those who devote themselves completely to teaching. Raubitschek himself belongs to that category. His life has been devoted to the study and teaching of classics. A graduate of the University of Vienna, Dr. Raubitschek did some practice teaching there before taking a professorship at Yale University in 1942. He then taught at Princeton in 1947, remaining until he began teaching at Stanford in 1963. He specializes in the history and archaeology of Athens. Apart from his work here. Dr. Raubitschek serves as Stanford’s delegate to the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. Greece. Athens is like home to me, he admits, and is hopeful of securing a position as visiting professor to the school for next year. He has spent much time there, and would have no trouble communicating: besides fluent knowledge of English and German, he speaks perfect Greek; he understands French and Italian, and. due to some rigorous classes in school, even speaks Latin. According to Raubitschek, the field of classics is holding its own as a major area of study. The number of students going on to graduate school has changed little in the last ten years; there are Stanford students, in fact, currently applying to Oxford University. He credits the prevailing interest in classics to above-average teaching ability, however, and acknowledges the fact that the future of the field depends almost entirely on the inspirations of its professors. 29

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Hubert Marshall Political Science LBJ and Nixon probably didn’t intend to. but they had the effect of assassinating our constitution.” says Prof. Hubert Marshall of the Political Science Department. “We now have a serious problem on our hands. Public polls have tried to measure the effects of these recent events on popular conceptions of the government. If we went back about 10 years, two-thirds of the American people had substantial confidence in Washington. Now the figures are reversed: two out of three say they have no confidence — the government does not know what it’s doing. “The machinery of our system is good. says Marshall. Advice is generally reliable and intelligence is fairly accurate. But if this lack of confidence in our government spreads to the extent that we lose confidence in each other, he foresees that our society as a whole will be the loser. Sure, it's interesting to watch Nixon sink: to see McGovern support Eagleton 1000% and then, a week later, dump him completely. Bu: though it can be a circus, it is also deadly serious The quality of the political and social life of a people depends on politics. In spite of this. Marshall remains optimistic abou' our country’s future — though he admits being somewhat critical of the way our government functions a: times in his lectures. He sees it as a challenge to cleat away students’ illusions, to teach what student! never learned in high school government and civic classes — realism without cynicism. “It’s not as dirtj a business as people maintain, he says. There art . some very dedicated people who could do a lot better monetarily had they gone into business instead. For Marshall, the chief rewards of teaching lie it helping to provide a better understanding of the ■ American system. ■ 28

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Ralph Smith Electrical Engineering Professor Ralph J. Smith, a former San Jose State dean, was recently asked to assume the administrative details of the electrical engineering department but he doesn’t mind. Not only does Prof. Smith enjoy his combined duties as administrator and teacher, his position allows the other teachers more freedom for their research. He has just finished the third edition of his Circuits. Devices and Systems: A First Course in Electrical Engineering. So many articles and books have been written on specifics that Smith wanted to provide a broad introduction and overview to the concepts of EE. Two methods of communication are available — lecturing and publishing. Smith prefers the latter because it reaches a larger audience. His book, having been translated into many languages, among them Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, illustrates to teachers in schools all over the world Stanford’s approach to E.E. Smith finds this far-reaching effect rewarding. Smith got started in electrical engineering because his brother-in-law w’as an E.E. Smith likes it because, it’s a challenging field. There’s nothing static about it. Things are always happening.” It’s exciting to Smith because EE affects people’s lives — the way people live and communicate. It gives him great pleasure to be able to look at something such as a TV set and know how it functions to produce the image on the screen. Smith has found his 18 years at Stanford stimulating. The cultural opportunities Stanford offers in the arts and the humanities provide a roundness to his technical disciplines. It’s an ideal situation for Prof. Smith; he wouldn’t want it any other way. SMITH 30