Western Washington University - Klipsun Yearbook (Bellingham, WA)

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President Flora: I think that there are hundreds of them. Our greatest problem is somehow effec- tively eommunicating with all those who ought to be communicated with. And I suppose there is a greater number of people today that feel they ought bc communicated with than ever before in the history of this college and in fact throughout academia the same problem is true. I simply can- not communicatc with everybody as I should. I would urge, incidentally, students to take more advantage of the free hours we have in this of- fice. Itis a bit discouraging that so few come in Tuesday at eight and you may say 'cwhy do you set Tuesday morning at eight? I set it at Tuesday morning at eight because that's when I can afford to spend some time. Also twelve Thursday noon. And the numbers of students who actually come in and talk about the things, they are not many, and if they're really concerned to be informed this is a marvelous opportunity I think. I am not a bear-I am not going to eat 'em up. I am very pleased when students come in. I try however to answer every question they ask. Similarly the op- portunities to get around and talk to groups. I'm sorry I don't have more opportunity to do this, but I know that our administrators are always eager and ready to appear before groups and talk of various concerns and answer questions. I think the students should avail themselves to more of this rather than sitting back protesting that they donit know what's going on, because I think the avenues in this college are wide span for students to know what's going on if they want to seek the initiative. For example, talking about having membership on the Board of Trustees. How many times have you, sir, attended a Board of Trustee's meeting. Tell me. Dan: Zero. President Flora: Never have. Why? Do you think students ought to be involved in the Board of Trustees? Dan: I think that the student that is interested C interrupted Q President Flora: Do you think they should 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?

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President Flora Baps: Dan: Yes I do! President Flora: Why don't you go to a board meeting once in a while. They are public meetings. Dan: Because Cinterruptedj President Flora: 9021 of the board meetings there is never a student there. Occasionally someone from the Western Front appears to write a news article. But in terms of just general information very few students attend. That doesn't strike me as being terribly interested in what goes on there. Dan: But don't you think that there should be representation of what the students, idea is on the board? As a member or do you think finter- ruptedl. President: I think that the student viewpoint needs to be made available to the board better than we are now doing it. But I do not believe that stu- dents ought serve as voting members on the Board of Trustees. Nor do I feel that faculty should. Nor do I feel that administrators should. This is, stu- dents from this college, faculty from this college, administrators from this college. I think that thereis some real problems on this that haven't been thought through. Dan: Like the conflict of interest? President Flora: Well that is one of them. But I don't know whether thatls the problem. Let me cite for example that full-voting member student on the board of trustees. You have an Associated Student Legislature. That is supposed to be the spokesman of the stu- dents of Western. Now if youlre down here in a group, perhaps a minority group and you are a dissident, you are mad about something and you really want to get something changed and you've got your head on straight. How are you going to do it? People are going to go to the individual. They are going to circumvent internal operations of the col- lege. And I think there are some real problems in that. I think conflict in interest is one kind of thing, but I think this kind of concern is another. And I have a feeling that this really hasnat been thought through greatly and carefully. And another problem there is, of course, is that talking of limiting as you must with students. He would not serve the post six years as the other members do. And I would observe that it takes a long time-a whole year before he is sufficiently familiar with the complex problems that come there so that he can really respond.