University of Miami - Ibis Yearbook (Coral Gables, FL)

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nity parts of tisa illation that lained. I ' m i athletic, akthat trandbe- ] think trend to- ts themselves as consumers of an educational good? Stanford: It probably put us more on our mettle than before. There has been a great change in students in the last decade. In the late 60s and early 70s there was a challenge to authority. There seems to be a conviction that you can trace to that melancholy Dane, not Hamlet, but Kierkegaard, that is saying, Time is short. I can, how- ever, affect those decisions which, in turn, affect me, by making my views known. It ' s a kind of existential- ist posture that students and faculty are assuming, a phenomenon of this century. That was the late 60s and early 70s. Now the stud- ents, affected by consumer- ism, ask, What am I getting for the dollar I am pay- ing? Just as the ques- tions about authority forced us to rethink the University ' s structure, I think the questions about cost are making us think about the quality of the product. So I think it ' s constructive in that sense. Ibis: What is being done on a continuous basis to find out what the students think about the quality of the various departments? Stanford: I don ' t know that anything is being done as vigorously as it should be. I know that I meet with students every two weeks for breakfast. These meetings usually see someone making comments about various de- partments and I have someone making notes. The comments are then referred to the department that is being criticized or complimented. I think we need to have a somewhat more formal way of polling student opinion of the various departments. Ibis: Did you engineer integration at this Uni- versity? Stanford: No. The decision to integrate the University had been made before I got here in 1962. However, I think that I have used the authority of this office to bring blacks into the Uni- versity in greater numbers and try to carry out the dictates of Affirmative Action. It is a require- ment of the federal govern- ment to have blacks in prof- essorial, administrative, and other employee positions at UM. Ibis: Has your effort to- ward this end been success- ful? Stanford: No. We don ' t have as many blacks as we should have under the Affirmative Action Program. We ' re working on it. It has not been completely success- ful, but we ' ve made some progress. Ibis: How much longer do you think you will remain at 27

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The University stands to- day before an abyss that it may successfully leap across or fall into. Pres- ident Henry King Stanford labors under strains and influences that his pre- decessors could only have dreamed about. His tenure, since 1962, has marked the strongest showing of the University both within the academic world and in this community. Listening to Stanford, who is totally optimistic about the future of this institution, one gets the impression that no problem now plaguing UM is too difficult to overcome. As stated in the charter of the University of Miami, the alternative to a suc- cessful and viable insti- tution would be a reversion of the assets of UM to the people of Florida, thereby converting it into a state facility. This is an alter- native the administration does not want to think about, nor, for that matter, does it feel it will ever need to consider. Dr. Stanford, interviewed this past fall on a rainy afternoon, talked with the Ibis about where we are and where he feels we are going. Ibis: How has the ' Sun Tan U ' reputation of the Univ- ersity of Miami helped or hurt your responsibilities? Stanford: I think we will always have the problem to overcome of operating a serious academic enterprise in a resort atmosphere. People are going to question whether a person can ser- iously study in a benign climate. My answer to that is, you don ' t have to be snowbound to be intellec- tual, as we proved in so many areas of this Univer- sity. We have so many distinguished areas, which, if sun were an obstacle, would not have achieved the eminence they have already attained around the world, not to mention in the United States. So I think that is a foolish, silly argument. But it ' s going to continue being applied to the University by people who like to make flippant remarks about any effort you make in the sunshine. So it hasn ' t made my res- ponsibilities very dif- ficult. Ibis: How important is sports within the framework of UM? Stanford: I ' ve often thought about the role of intercollegiate athletics at the University. I lis- tened carefully to people who have been here longer than I, who believe that athletics, particularly football, has propelled UM to the attention of people throughout the Northeast and the Midwest, from which areas we ' ve drawn lots of students. There is a faculty committee report prepared for the self- study procedure which eval- uates intercollegiate athletics, both pro and con. It finally concludes that it is a constructive asset for the University to main- tain because of the spirit which it imparts to the cam- pus, even when we ' re losing. I think we ' ve had a lot of spirit this fall because the team has played so well. Because of the publicity it brings the University throughout other parts of the country, there is a strong recommendation that football be maintained. I ' m also interested in athletics, such as intramurals, that can be carried over and be- come part of a person ' s way of life when he gets to be an adult. Ibis: What do you think about the recent trend to- ward the students perceiving anedi Slfflfo IB me WOK ; ief be taittr Dane, fob Tuni ever, is a: 1st pa 26

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UM? Stanford: The retirement date is May, 1981, and I have no intention of resigning before then. Ibis: Can you foresee any more buildings on this cam- pus? Stanford: Yes, I can fore- see a facility for Art, in which we are in a desper- ately poor situation. We need to tear down the present facilities and put up some decent Art Buildings. I can see a new facility for animal laboratories for the Psychology Department. Those are desperately need- ed. The School of Business Administration needs a building of its own. Those professors are housed here in the Ashe Building in cramped quarters. We have, waiting in the wings, so to speak, a bequest that will provide this building. The spot is already allocated for it. That ' s over on the canal in front of the Merrick Building. There is land in front of the West Lab Elementary School, which the University owns. We ' ve been unable to get it re- zoned for parking. I des- perately tried to reacquire the property on which the West Lab is built several years ago. Three times I went down to the Board of Education to try to get the Board to negotiate with us for the purchase on the improvements there and the return to us of land that was originally ours. We needed that for additional classroom space. I was thinking particularly of Art over there, but I lost the battle because the Board of Education was unwilling to turn down the pleas of the parents, whose children are studying there, to maintain it as a laboratory school. I can foresee additional intramural facilities. This new Lane Campus Sports and Recreation Center is the first of several units that we plan to build. We ' ve been talking recently about a North-South Center, which would be comparable to the East-West Center in Hawaii, where there is a commingling of the Asian and European cultures under federal grant. Well, where in the U.S. is there a more likely place for a North-South Center than Miami? It would be a kind of student-re- search-teaching center bringing the North and South of this hemisphere together. Ibis: Would you consider that a fulfillment of William Jennings Bryan ' s original dream? Stanford: Yes. I think we ' ve fulfilled it in many ways. 28