Western Washington University - Klipsun Yearbook (Bellingham, WA)

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related to this government such that it can func- tion as an institutional government. We have developed a functioning committee . . . itis called the ad hoc committee on college govern- ment. It has, I think, three students as full-voting members, it has three faculty as full-voting mem- bers, and two administrators as full-voting mem- bers. It has a chairman who is from the faculty. It has two ex-officio, non-voting members from the old Broad Committee which you may recall was working on the matter of government-govern- ment and administrative reorganization of the college. And it will now have an observer from the staff employees council. Alright, we might regard and I hope we regard this most important com- mittee which in my opinion does not report to the faculty council and does not report to the Associat- ed Student Body Legislature but regard this new committee as a Constitutional Convention. Where it is now going to sit down and draft for Western a new constitution which will bring into being a new government which I hope very much will be able to represent this entire community. Thus, if we have a particular problem, speaking of it selfishly from my own viewpoint, if we have a problem which should properly involve students, faculty, staff and whatnot. Instead of being forced to go to a variety of different governing agencies within the institution, we can go to one. We can feel then that it has been given the college-wide scrutiny that it requires and that Western has spoken. I am talking about the government-of the offi- cial governmental structure. Perhaps it is called a senate, as I said earlier. I feel that students should be represented on that senate in significant num- bers because clearly their viewpoint is a powerful one-it's an important one. Dan: What do you consider significant numbers of students on this academic senate? President Flora: I'm not going to say. I think that's the task of the committee. My first concern was that the students be adequately represented on the committee that are working with this problem and I think they are adequately represented there. In fact I would hope that no students feel that they are not. Right now I look to this committee to come 'up with figures and approaches and ways. I am also aware that students are in a great hurry and that one aspect of the generation gap that is commonly mentioned is that the older folk who are typically administrators and faculty tend to be much less in a hurry. It seems that things are backwards sometimes. The young people who have much longer to live you would assume could go slower-the older people should be in a great hurry because they have less time. But neverthe- less the students want things done very quickly. And thus we see for example a press right now, a very strong press on the part of the students, to have full membership in significant numbers on our academic council which is a curriculum agency for the college, to have voting members, full par- ticipatory membcrs on the tenure and promotions committee and on and on and on. I happen to believe that we ought to take a look at the full

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resid nt Flora Editor's note: The following is an interview be- tween President Flora and Dan Windisch, assist- ant editor of the Klipsun. Increasing student in- volvement, PhD programs, Huxley College, and student apathy are covered in this taped inter- VICW. Dan: This year has shown a tremendous energy on the part of students for a role in determining college policies pertaining to themselves. What are your opinions on the new desire to share in the decision making? President Flora: Western' Washington State Col- lege should be regarded as a community. Now it is a community of scholars, but it is a community. Now, this community involves various segments. There are some very large segments that we are all quick to realize. There are the faculty, there are the students, there are the administrators, and there are what I refer to as the staff employees. Now, most people don't understand the term staff employees. That involves the secretaries, ground keepers, technicians employed in the sci- ences, etc. Nearly 400 of these people who are members of this community. I think what we should try to do in this college is to develop a single college government. One gov- ernment-we can call it a senate or we can call it whatever we wish. But whatever we call it, it should involve the word college or community to give the idea that it is a government that relates to all segments of the college. If you are going to have such a government, it is clear that the various ele- ments contained within the college must be repre- sented. And I feel very strongly that faculty in significant numbers, students in significant num- bers, administrators and staff employees must be

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spectrum of Western Washington State College and ask ourselves the question 'Gln what way can we best solve our problem? By utilizing students, faculty, administrators, staff employees-whatever themembers of this community-that's what I am hopeful that this ad hoc committee on college gov- ernment is going to do. That rather then the piece- meal approach and then in terms of this govern- mental structure say to ourselves, Wherein should students be involved completely 100026 of the membership, wherein should they not be in- volved at all? I think there are functions in this institution that you could argue a good case, and students would agree that they really don't have any reason to be involved. And other situations, I think, where faculty have no reason to be in- volved. And similarly with administrators, etc. I would hope that we would take a look at all the varied functions of this college and ask ourselves the prime question, What is it, that committee is charged to do? What is it's function?,, And since the college exists to utilize reason, logic, persuasion and these various arts in search of truth to solve its problems, let us ask wherein the greatest proba- bility of finding people appropriate to that task may be found. They happen to be students- Great! we use them. I would hope that this would be the institutional viewpoint but I would hope that the students are not so incensed with involve- ment that they want to be involved just for involve- mentis sake. I would rather hope that they would seek to be involved in order to make this a better place. Dan: What are some of the things that you don't think students should be involved in? President Flora: I don't personally feel that stu- dents should be involved on the tenure promotion committee. I think student opinion is terribly im- portant in the tenure promotion process and I think that their views must be fed into the mech- anism but the business of actually sitting down now and saying 'fare we going to promote this guy or not promote this guy? , I don't think that decision ought to be made by students nor do I think stu- dents ought actually to participate in making of that decision. I think that the assessment of a person for -tenure, the assessment of a person for promotion is an enormously careful, very careful study by well seasoned academics who are able to look at all the various kinds of evidence and among those evidences should be the student as- pect and assess the role of these and finally con- clude whether an individual should be promoted. I personally feel that that should not involve stu- dents at the decision level, but at the informa- tional level indeed I think students should be in- volved. I feel similarly with regard to the Aca- demic Council but it looks as if I might lose that one. Don't tell anybody-this is a classified tape I presume. Dan: What do you think will be the next area of expansion at Western? President Flora: I think in the area of environ- mental sciences, as you perhaps know, we have this concept referred to as Huxley College after the great T. H. Huxley. It's a tentative name in- cidentally. We recognize that Western is in a location unique. I am hard put to think of any other college in this land which has a location so well suited to offering studies in the study of the environment. Looking at the problems of pollu- tion, looking at the problems of contamination of the environment, looking at the problems of urban sprawl, etc. I think that we are here uniquely qualified by reason of our environment to put on a program in environmental sciences that will not only bring us great credit over this land, but ren- der great service to this land. And I would point out that this idea is apparently captivating enough that we have now had, I believe, 341 applicants for the deanship of Huxley College. If what I'm saying is true, that we do have the environment, that we do have the interest-we do have the capability to offer something significant in the area of environmental sciences. It strikes me as incongruous to think we are going to do this starting with the freshman level and we're go- ing to whopp it off at the Masters level. Because the kind of capability Ifm talking about justifies an extension far beyond to the doctoral level and the post-doctoral level. I think there we could argue a strong case. Dan :A Is there any other area that you think should be covered in this interview?