Wichita State University - Parnassus Yearbook (Wichita, KS)

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genuine appreciation for learning, for intellectual things, creative things. You have to have some sense, of what's good and what's bad, in a wide variety of areas. In that sense, you have to be an educator: you have to be interested in the process and change that occurs in people. That's really what education is all about. But also, if you are going to be in this kind of an enterprise, in the best sense of the word, you have to be a person who can represent the institution and interpret it to a wide variety of different kinds of groups of public--to those who are interested in art and music, to those who are interested in athletics, to those who are interested in simply the cost of financing it and legislature, to the alumni, to students who usually think they own lt. PARNASSUS: Don't we? AHLBERG: Sure! And so do a lot of other people! So in that sense, if that's what you mean by political, you have to have that kind of interest in relating yourself and in relating your institution--those kinds of publics, because we are a public institution. We have to justify what it is we want and what it is we do and what we can secure to the public that we ask for support. In that sense its political, because we're in a democratic system. I don't find that distasteful. PARNASSUS: How is our General Studies program functioning? Is it serving to give a Liberal Arts taste here and there? AHLBERG: Well that's obviously its intent and its purpose, and I'm very glad you brought it up because I think it's another evidence that institutionally, as a faculty, we've still a strong commitment to the idea of general education as an important component. Every person's experience ought to be said to have earned a college degree and we are committed to that. We're doing more than many and perhaps less than the strongest Liberal Arts institution. But I'm personally very much in favor of the idea of general education. The present program comes out of the fact that the central administration along with many or the deans have pushed systematically to keep it. When I arrived on campus seven years ago, the committee reported at the first faculty meeting I attended that they were unable to change the core curriculum and they worked on it two years and we did change it, we improved it. lt's not perfect, but it's an effort on the part of the faculty to provide an exposure to the Liberal Arts. PARNASSUS: In what role do you view the Student Government Association at present? AHLBERG: Well I think we've been 30lAhlberg blessed with a good Student Government all the years I've been here and excellent leadership. The Student Government provides an important component to the totality of University life. It can not only do a lot of things that are of a primary concern to students, what students are doing, but in the process it provides an important part of a learning experience. I think that students who participate in Students Government, students who participate in other activities on the university campus, are gaining an important component of their total educational experience. What people do in Student Government is not unlike what they do in the so-called real world. Therefore, it's a very good experience. lt's a part of the learning. PARNASSUS: How effective do you view it? AHLBERG: Well, I think quite effective. How you measure that is what one's expectations are. I sometimes hear students who are critical of Student- Government criticize Student Government as if they assumed Student Government should run the university. I don't think it should, so I don't put it in that continuum for critique. I think what Student Government does, it does well. And what it should do, it is participating significantly in all kinds of university governments--all committees of the University Senate now have student lf I didn't have problems I wouIdn't have a job. members, every student in the University Senate is elected to it, students serve on practically every advisory and service committee appointed in the University. I think like every other area, sometimes the student members make important contributions and sometimes they're less than important and so are some of the faculty. PARNASSUS: How do items from the Student Government reach you? or do they? AH LBERG: Well most of the things they deal with, no, they don't require my approval. They have the authority and confidence. I have to approve the over-all budget that they recommend when we allocate the student fees. But I've been here seven and a half years and have not yet changed one item, or really seriously questioned any. lt's never really been necessary. They make certain proposals for changes that I can't approve, in those cases we pass it along to the State Board of Regents--like the beer issue which seems never to die. PARNASSUS: Do individual complaints ever reach you? AHLBERG: Oh, I have students drop in with gripes. I had one in the other day for about an hour talking about Traffic Court. I've had other students come in and complain about a faculty member, or a class they were taking--I try to do something about it. If students come in irked about their schedule-- PARNASSUS: They come to you? AH LBERG: Oh, yes every once in awhile, if they don't get treated the way they think they should be or if they aren't satisfied with some decision they've had. Sometimes I can do something about it, and sometimes I don't think I should and don't, but most often I listen and try to find the proper person to get their need resolved. But I don't see a large number of students. I deal with Debbie Haynes and every other President of Student Government--she has a regular scheduled appointment, we just see each other. I of course see her now at the Board of Regents meetings. Then the editor of the Sunflower comes in on a regular schedule... PARNASSUS: Governor Bennett has stated that the days of a yearly increase of funds for education are at an end. How will this effect us? AHLBERG: Well, I'm not sure your accurately quoting him. I've heard him speak to this. In fact, he has talked directly to the six State Presidents about it. In fact we were going to have another meeting with him sometime before

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Candidly Speaking A Conversation with Ahlberg Almost everyone would like to sit down with the president of our university and ask him the many questions that can be directed toward his position. Only a few people, however, have such a chance to visit with President Ahlberg and hear his view on current issues. It was with great interest and pleasure that this writer took that opportunity. W.S.U.'s President knows and understands the University and its community. Clark David Ahlberg was born in Wichita, Kansas, May 23, 1918 and received his A.B. at the University of Wichita in 1939. He continued his study of political science at Syracuse University in the State of New York, earning his M.A. in 1942 and his Ph. D. in 1951. Dr. Ahlberg spent a number of years at Syracuse University, first in the role of student, then as professor, and later as an administrator. In 1968, he returned to Wichita to assume the role of president of Wichita State University. Dr. Alhberg has the personality as well as the qualifications for university president. He is an easy man to talk to and sees the best side of everything and everybody. Despite the barrage of questions, President Ahlberg retained an interest and enthusiasm for each answer. He was soft-spoken, smiling or looking concerned as the situation varied. I don't have a list of dreaded questions. I'm proud of the University. PARNASSUS: As a student here yourself, did you ever think you would be President of this University? AH LBERG: Never, no never, I never thought of being President of anything! PARNASSUS: When did you feel that that would be a role you would like to fulfill? AHLBERG: Well, really much later than you might think. l've been one of those fortunate persons who always enjoy what l've been lucky enough to be able to do. I love Syracuse University. I was very happy there for many years. I had many, many friends and never really thought a lot about leaving. In fact, I had opportunities to leave, including opportunities to be a college president, and I turned them down. But I think as you grow older in a job, you come to the point where you have to decide Is this where I want to spend the rest of my Iife? and Do I want any other kind of experience? I think my wife and I talked about it and decided that maybe I ought not to be so satisfied, and perhaps take a look at some of these opportunities. I think, fortunately for me, lnever expecting itl, I was asked if I had an interest in coming back to Wichita. As it turned out I did, and l fooled the committee into recommending me! PARNASSUS: Good for us! What has been the high point of your years in this position in Wichita? AH LBERG: My reaction is that it's been a great pleasure to be here all the time. There's always unpleasant things, but most of the time I like what I do and am so enthused about the university, the people, the students, that, if I had the money, I'd pay to do it! lt's a little hard to think about highlights--the depth of it was the airplane crash ..... But there are a lot of very good things that have happened and one of them is not necessarily more gratifying than the other. The feeling that we're making progress as an institution, becoming a better, more significant educational enterprise for Wichita people and the area. I'm convinced that we are and that's the main sources of satisfaction. PARNASSUS: Do you consider yourself an educator or a politician? AHLBERG: Well, I see myself as both. I don't think you can survive on a university campus if all you are is a politician. I think you have to have a Ahlbergf29

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now--his annual Budget Hearing--to just talk about higher education in Kansas. I would say what he said somewhat differently, but he has indicated that in his judgement that it is going to be increasingly difficult for him to support, or for the legislature to accept, what he considers to have been the rate of financial growth. The rate of growth of financial support for higher education is going to taper off and slow down. Nationally, that is happening. l hope that it doesn't happen to the same degree in Kansas. lt still remains that the Governor is probably the single most important decision maker in the process. But, we also have access to the legislature. The Board of Regents again this year recommended a very generous increase in budget for all of the six state schools, including W.S.U. I think we're all going to work very hard to try to sell that to the Governor and to try to sell it to the legislature. But l agree with him that it is becoming more difficult .... I think that higher education is not nearly as blindly accepted as good as it was a few years ago. That there are increasing citizen concerns about whether too many people are going on, whether it's not costing more than it's worth, whether there aren't other social needs in society that are more deserving of support and that is some competition that is increasing. There is also the specter that everybody sees of decreasing enrollments because the Pill works! All you have to do is look at the schools. The elementary schools have already begun, to experience a dramatic drop. Bv 1980-84, in Kansas there will be a 3096 decrease in the number of higher school graduates. So if you're looking to higher school students for your future, you're probably looking at a declining enrollment. This year we grew, and l think when we get through with all the analysis it will be clear that we grew largely because of increase in adults, part-time students, lots of women, lots of people returning. That's going to be, have to be, increasingly true or we are going to be faced with a decline. PARNASSUS: Will our original plans for construction continue as now forecast? AHLBERG: Well, l hope so, because I think Wichita State University, as the objective data will show that the state now collects, could lose three or four thousand students and still have space needs. We still have many programs at the University that are poorly housed. Many faculty share offices, many faculty are in old houses. The College of Education, as you must know, is located in what--six or seven different buildings all over the campus. We grew so rapidly, particularly in the first five years, but we were in the state system five years before the first state facility was built. So it's my argument that W.S.U. still needs some additional facilities to accommodate even a smaller enrollment than we currently have. lt is going to be hard to sell that. PARNASSUS: With the rising expenses, do you think that our faculty faces the possibility of increased student load to avoid hiring additional faculty members? AHLBERG: That's one of the common things occuring in the nation. l'm hopeful that we can avoid that, but in many states there have been cuts in higher educational budgets, even stand-pat budgets really being cut. There's only two or three ways that you can accommodate yourself to We've been blessed with a good Student Government... and excellent leadership. that. One is to let people go, the other is not to add anybody, and the third is to increase class sizes and cut the number of courses or the number of sections they teach. All those things, in my judgement, would be done if we were faced with that problem. PARNASSUS: Would the faculty be pretty cooperative? AH LBERG: l don't think anyone among the faculty is much different than people in general. No one likes to lose a job. No one likes to be suddenly asked to teach half again as many students from the same amount of income. No one likes to do something less well than they've been accustomed to doing it and as they think it should be done professionally. So my guess is that if these things happen, there is going to be adverse results--lowering of morale, discontent. PARNASSUS: Has the controversy over the tenure system more or less vanished? AHLBERG: No, l think tenure is part of the general insecurity about enrollments and growth and stability or decline. Because the tenure system is viewed by those who do not have tenure as a threat to their security. That's very true and very real. So I think as long as there is a good deal of apprehensiveness in higher education, there is going to be some genuine concern about tenure. I think, on the positive side, that the faculty at Wichita State University by and large feel that they are participating in an orderly and objective process in which they and Ahlberg!31