Western Washington University - Klipsun Yearbook (Bellingham, WA)

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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.

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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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PRESIDENT BOURA A SPEARS: .qila f1sibu51l is Jaui 3of1 asw 98' 569 was not just a freudian slip. baqqo3a a3r1obu3a Jsdi 1sov 3113 asw QGQI l969 was the year that students stopped playing games with adminis- 3ilods odT .n1932oW 3s v3Iuosl bus 21031313 trators and faculty at Wlestern. The abolition of game-playing came af- .31oii3 lo ZTBSY 5o1fl3 mods 133 ter about three years of effort. -131 baqsoaa HTSIZSW ,ZTSSY o91rI3 oaorh nl In those three years, Wlestern escaped rapidly from most confines of in rlloo 9d3 gnidiwaob H1193 is z',ai3r191sq oool loco parentisf' a term describing the collegeis action as a surrogate par- .1od3om gnidahuon 1o mo ent or nourishing mother. :Isws Is1or1og fs asw 519ri3 ,5mi3 aid3 gr1i1uCI During this time, there was a general awakening-at Western, as at other d3 gnilool 'z3f1obu3a orl3 logzoauqmso .Z.U U.S. campuseswof the students' feeling that the university was their in- guorh aid3 lo noiznsnxo lsoigol A .i1oi3u3i3a stitution. A logical extension of this thought is that if students can ac- 1ol znoiaiosb grlislsm ni 93sqioi31sq vllsm tually participate in making decisions for and in the name of the insti- : as bozu od uso v3i219vif1u 9d3 nod3 ,noi3u3 tution, then the university can be used as a platform from which students 4i3u3i3ar1i 15d3o ni m1olo1 dailqmoaos uso can accomplish reform in other institutions: educational, political, so- .o33 ,v1s11ilqio2ib ,Isis cial, disciplinary, etc. duob oI33il zsw o13rl3 ,88QI lo Ilsl 9ri3 vii By the fall of 1968, there was little doubt on campus that students were 01110291 oldslisvs gnisilim bus gniisool locating and utilizing available resources to gain and possibly usurp .boinab Snow v9d3 JI-al vod3 doidw 19woq power which they felt they were denied.