University of Denver - Kynewisbok Yearbook (Denver, CO)

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Steuen R. Antonoff, Executiue Director of Admissions and Student Affairs Dean Steven R. Antonoff has observed the operation of the University of Denver from a variety of vantage points. Since coming to the University in 1970, Antonoff has held six positions including University Man at Large, Dean of Student Life, and Dean of the Center for Prospective Students. Currently Antonoff is the Executive Director of Admissions and Student Affairs. In November the Kynewisbok spoke with Dean Antonoff on a number of subjects. SECONDARY SCHOOLS I think by and large the secondary schools in this country are providing adequate preparation for college work. Most of the students we get at the University are prepared for the work they encounter here. A great deal has been said and written in the last couple of years about the quality of the secondary school experience. Most of those articles have pointed the guilty finger at secondary education for the lack of literacy in society. It was easy to accuse the secondary schools of not teaching properly and not being good enough. I think that is a simplistic answer. Where the secondary schools have been guilty is in the area of offering too many courses. In the sixties when everyone was screaming relevancy, many schools bent with the pressure. Instead of offering ten good English courses in their curriculum, suddenly there were thirty, twenty of them mediocre. And the same can be said about other fields. I think the secondary schools need to make more demands of students. The schools must provide a more in-depth training in English, mathematics, and science. If students don't have a firm grasp of the basic skills by the time they get to college, then it is really too late. College is a springboard from the secondary experience, and if students have not had the kind of background I'm outlining, then I think they play catch-up during their college years. Then they go on to professional schools and never get back to some of the kind of learning they should have had earlier.