University of Notre Dame - Dome Yearbook (Notre Dame, IN)

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Naught. I think anyone would agree that in producing a whole man at Notre Dame it might be more easily accomplished, rather, if it were a better contact be- tween the professors and the students and between the priests and the students, and I was wondering if there was any way that we can try to establish a better con- tact between them in the future . . . even granting the fact that it ' s a large University, and it ' s very difficult because of it. Fr. Hesburgh: Well I think there is much more contact today than there was at the time when I came here to the school. I think this is going to grow because as the University grows in excellence, it must grow at the focal point of education which is the action of the professorial mind acting upon the curious and know- ledge-seeking young mind. And I also think that a great deal of this particular kind of contact needs initiative on the part of its students. I think sometimes students are reluctant to approach a professor because Dean of Students: Rev. A. Leonard Collins, C.S.C. 20 Director of Admissions: Rev. James E. Moran, C.S.C.

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Vice-President, Business Affairs: Rev. Jerome J. Wilson, C.S.C. don ' t think they necessarily know literary criticism because they don ' t teach this in grammar school or high school, but somehow they think they know religion. I think the problem is to make the courses in theology as relevant as possible to bring the person to bear upon the problems with which we are faced today. Ideas regarding salvation and the Incarnation, ideas regarding God and human destiny and the place of man in relation to the world and the advance of science these are the burning questions of our day the common good, Church and State, many of these prob- lems concern everyone in America and in the world. Naught. Father, there ' s been a lot of discussion recent- ly about several changes in the freshman orientation program, and we were wondering just what the changes were going to be and whether or not the students would be able to play an active part in the attempt to orient the freshmen at Notre Dame. Fr. Hesburgh: I believe the thought now is to give the orientation more of an academic twist, and insofar as this is done, of course, it will involve more faculty, but there are other things that must come into orientation, and these other things I ' m sure will all be handled by the students. Bab. Father, in your years as President . . . people, students have been very gratified by your intense amount of interest in student organizations and partic- ularly student government as the coming-together of all these organizations. What ideally would you like to see the ultimate role of student government be as a force on this campus? Fr. Hesburgh: Well I would hope that in most of those things which are primarily in the area of student ac- tivities that students will take the responsibility for organizing them and for executing them. Scheck. Father, along that line then would you say that the main value of student government is not in the content of the program but in the training that people who run the programs receive? Fr. Hesburgh: I think this might be a fair statement, Bill. I wouldn ' t want to say one is essential and the other is unimportant they are both important, but the educative function is perhaps the most important in the long run. Stall. Father, there is always a lot of discussion about Notre Dame and St. Mary ' s contact, and especially as regards super-social contact. Now in this past week as you probably know, another area of St. Mary ' s- Notre Dame super-social contact has been shut off. (5:10 Mass at Sacred Heart Church on Notre Dame campus. Ed) Now I wonder exactly what your thoughts would be on this. Fr. Hesburgh: I think that the great problem that comes up and has come up is that the thing gets too frantic --it gets to a point where either the girls are out every night in the week, or our men are out every night in the week, and this, of course, begins to militate against the primary purpose of being here, which is to get educated in an academic sense. CONTINUED 19

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Vice-President, Student Affairs: Rev. George Bernard, C.S.C. they might seem to be encouraging a favor or some- thing. I think if they both understood that their pur- pose in being here ... the students and the professors, that this natural contact would be a spontaneous kind of thing. Perhaps at the instigation of the student this would be most fruitful and the most to be desired. You see, this is a very unusual situation in education on a world-wide scene. We always say we don ' t have much contact, and yet every European student who comes here to study or students from the other parts of the world always says the thing that strikes him most is the friendliness and the openness and the accessibility of the professors. This simply doesn ' t happen in Europe. When I studied in Rome you saw the pro- fessor on a high pedestal; he scurried out as soon as the class was over, and no one ever talked to him. You couldn ' t even see him in his room. I think at least our professors are available, but the problem, I think, is to find fruitful ways of prolonging this contact. Scheck. Father, is there any plan to increase the size of the undergraduate school? Fr. Hesburgh: Not at present, Bill. We presently plan to stay approximately at 5,000 undergraduates and to keep the Graduate and Law School to about 1,000 which would be a ratio of about five to one. Naught. Father, a great part of the ten year program at the University is now aimed at increasing faculty salaries and attracting distinguished professors. How will this program be carried out? CONTINUED 21