"CONTENTdm"@en . "http://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=1210082"@en . "University Publications"@en . "2015-07-17"@en . "1968-10"@en . "https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/ubcreports/items/1.0118306/source.json"@en . "application/pdf"@en . " >-\nREPORTS\nVol. 14, No. jg/Oct., 1968/Vancouver 8, B.C.\n __^\t\nTURN POSTAGE GUARANTEED\n^\nThis is a confrontation\nNot just a sit-in,\nbut an educational experience.\nA UBC professor\nexplains why on Page Nine . . .\n\u00E2\u0096\u00A0pp\nRADICAL STUDENTS\nJN[SEARCH OF ISSUES\nW____\u00C2\u00A3$l_ri '\u00E2\u0096\u00A0\nprevious committees that have looked into the\npossibility of change and improvement and some items\nthey suggested have been used and devebpment made\nfrom them, but there was never such a widespread\nfeeling. There are times to say certain things or do\ncertain things and it seems that a culmination of several\nforces have led tc the development of this commission.\nOne among them, no doubt, being the sort of stirring of\nstudents to say things about what's happening and what\nshould be happening, and not to be as docile as students\nwere at one time.\nTOMKINS: Let me interpolate that this study was\ninstigated by the faculty and was not in\nany sense initially, a student-instigated force.\nBLACK: I know it rose within the faculty, but I feel\nthere are forces which affect a person's\ndecision. The faculty are aware of, and are sensitive to,\nstudent reaction to courses and curricula and ideas and\nso on. And therefore, indirectly perhaps, this would help\nto affect the climate which made this come about right\nnow.\nGUMLEY: Yes, I agree with you. Last year we created\nthese dean's forums to look into the\nproblems that the kids were finding in classes and one of\nthe things that came under severe criticism was music. In\nthe fall of last year and in the spring of last year, it was\nradically changed to conform more with the students'\nopinions. I think it was you. Dr. Tomkins who pointed\nout in one of our discussions that what we're trying to\ndo is create a better atmosphere for the students to work\nin with the faculty members so that we can get a\ncooperation toward a better teaching program all\naround.\nUBC REPORTS: How, specifically, is the Commission\ngoing about its business? How many\npersons are on the Commission and are they all faculty\nof education people, or are you co-opting others from\noutside? How are you going to go about getting outside\nopinion which will lead you to recommendations?\nTOMKINS: There are seven people on the\ncommission, all of them from the faculty\nof education, appointed by the dean from a slate\nnominated by the faculty. We've asked every department\nwithin the faculty of education to give us their views and\nin effect, each constitutes a committee, but apart from\nthis, we have set up I think about a dozen committees\nthat cut across departmental lines.\nWe are asking that professors from other faculties be\nco-opted onto some of these committees and we also\nexpect to see a committee that will consist entirely of\nprofessors from outside the faculty, who teach\neducation students. Now, further to that, we have been\ngathering opinions from, I think, a very, very wide range\nof sources. A number of us have visited other\ninstitutions in Canada and the United States.\nWe referred already to the fact that Gary, the\nchairman of the student committee, did something of\nthis kind during the summer. We took the occasion to\ntalk with some distinguished overseas educators who\nwere here on campus during summer session. We've been\nin touch already, I think, with hundreds of teachers\nthroughout the province and we intend to continue this.\nBLACK: Through the B.C. Teachers' Federation\npublication we have been in touch with\nteachers and distributed information to teachers.\nIncidentally, the first committee we established was the\nstudent committee. We have had meetings with other\nmembers of faculty, other people in education from\nother universities and with people visiting here. We have \u00C2\u00BB\nalso had meetings with Dr. Archibald McKinnon, the\nhead of education at Simon Fraser. It is worth\nmentioning the Principals' Conference that was held here\nduring the summer, where 80 or more principals met and\nwere given information about COFFE and asked to,\nconsider questions which they later took to a meeting of\nCOFFE members for discussion.\nGUMLEY: As for the Student Commission, it was\nunfortunately around exam time when we __\nfirst got organized. We went through the Education,\nUndergraduate Society, which fortunately last year\nbecame quite a significant factor in the faculty of\neducation and was cooperating with the faculty\nmembers. We were able to set up, and I was fortunate^\nenough to be selected as chairman, and from there we\nselected a board of four members of the student council\nto meet with the 13 applicants who applied to sit on the\nstudent commission.\nI decided, in consultation with Gerry Olund, who is -\nthe education president this year, to make it a\ncommittee of seven regular members who will be\nattending University this year. One of these seven will be\nBarrie Mowatt, who is the student ombudsman working\nin liaison with the faculty on the student-faculty liaison*\ncommittee, and two other students who are going to be\nin the schools next year, in their first year of teaching.\nWe felt that this was an important part of the program\nthat we should look into\u00E2\u0080\u0094what it is like that first year,\nwhen you're really hit hard. What changes you, what'S\nwrong, what happens?\nI know the faculty sends out a questionnaire at the\nend of the year, but we're going to try and get the\ninformation from a direct viewpoint. You know, like,\n'this month, how do you feel?'\nOne thing that we are making sure that we do is get a\nquestionnaire out to every student in the faculty of\neducation during registration week to fully orientate\nourselves with respect to the economic background from\nwhich the students come, the decisions that made them\nenter the faculty and other relevant material which we\nfeel is important in the study.\nBLACK: May I mention one point. Gary mentioned\nbriefly the questionnaire that the teaching '\npractice division has issued. They have sent out a\nquestionnaire for the past three years to the teachers one\nyear out of college, asking their views on various aspects\nof teacher training and the faculty of education. We\nhope to use the findings of this.\nA graduate student will be devoting a great deal of\ntime to finalizing this and working with COFFE on what\nCOFFE wants out of it.\nTOMKINS: I think that one point that is noteworthy\nhere is that we seem to be concentrating*\non the basic teacher education function of the faculty.\nThere is no question of the importance of that. But I\ndon't think we can overlook the very wide range of\nother responsibilities that the faculty has, that in a sense\nwere imposed at its formation.\nFor example, the tremendous amount of in-service\nwork that members of the faculty do with teachers. The\ngraduate program of the faculty, which is a major means\nwhereby the teachers of the province seek to up-grade\ntheir professional qualifications. If I were to try to\nidentify any future trend that I would see the faculty\ntaking, it's likely to be on the one hand, continued\nemphasis on the teacher education function artd TOMKINS: 'We are committed\nto a fundamental look\nat the education of teachers and the study\nof education at UBC\nimprovement of this operation for obvious reasons,\n'including much greater emphasis on fields like special\neducation, adult education, counselling\u00E2\u0080\u0094where there are\ngrowing needs and where, incidentally, the faculty has\nalready made significant contributions.\n. On the other hand, there has to be a much greater\nconcern with what I would call the study of education,\nof educational issues, in a disciplined and scholarly\nsense. I think it is very revealing that, again, referring\nback to student unrest on campus everywhere, that the\n,, students are demanding, and I think rightly, that the\nUniversity ought to be a place where we really discuss\neducational issues seriously. This certainly hasn't taken\nplace in other faculties. Obviously, the place where it\nmight occur is in the faculty of education.\n* In teaching (and here I include not only the schools,\nbut our universities), almost nothing we do has any\nempirical basis or rests on any disciplined theory as that\nterm is used in the modern social sciences. In one sense,\nj/vt;'ve simply got to be more scientific\u00E2\u0080\u0094without denying\nthat teaching is probably fundamentally (ancl must\nremain) an art. Myth, anecdote and sentimental\nutopianism can no longer serve as substitutes for\neducational theory.\nUBC REPORTS: When is it expected that COFFE will\nmake its report to the Dean or to the\nfaculty?\nTOMKINS: It is due to report in September, 1969, in\na year's time. We have the very\nenthusiastic support of President Hare, who has recently\ncommitted the University to the production of our\nreport as a public document. Now I think that this is\ngoing to have obvious psychological impact. Coming\nback to what I said a few minutes ago, abcut the\nresponsibilities I see of the faculty in the future, I\nwouldn't want this to sound as though I seethe faculty\nas in any sense being isolationist. There have been\ncriticisms, we know, of faculties of education for being\nrather isolationist within the university communities. I\n^ think the time now is ripe for us to pursue the education\nof teachers and the study of education on a truly\ninter-disciplinary basis, on a University-wide basis.\nThere's been a good deal of lip service to this, and while\neducation sometimes has been rightly criticized for\nmaybe seeming somewhat isolationist, the fact of the\nmatter is that many of our colleagues in the other\nfaculties have not always shown a tremendous amount\nof interest in the question of educating teachers and in\n-> the problems of the schools.\nGLjiMLEY: Isn't that what we're trying to do with this\ncommission, Dr. Tomkins? Isn't it that\nwe're trying to prepare people for the future, to be able\nto go out and teach in 1980, instead of being able to go\nout and teach in 1968 and 1969? Isn't this the type of\nthing that we're looking for in this Commission? Instead\nof coming up with a program that is satisfactory for\ntoday's standards, we have to come up with something\nthat is going to be satisfactory 10\u00E2\u0080\u009415\u00E2\u0080\u009420 years from\nnow.\nTOMKINS: I would agree with you that this is our\ntask and we know it's difficult because it\nis very difficult to foresee what the schools, teaching,\nand society will be like in the future. But we do have\ncertain guideposts. We can be reasonably certain that we\nare going to oe living in a period of continuing change\nand that we'ie going to have to produce teachers who\ncan adapt to change, who can work with pupils and help\nthem to grow up in a world of change.\nI think of the teacher of the future as a more\nsocially-committed individual, one who will have to have\na great deal more knowledge of society and I think this\nmeans that obviously we are going to have to put more\nemphasis on the social dimension of the teacher's\npreparation. I think that we've got to abandon the idea\nin educating teachers that it's a kind of one-shot\nproposition. That we can pretend to do sort of a final\njob in three or four or five years of university.\nTeacher education for the future is going to be a\ncontinuing thing. Now this implies that we've got to\nbring the teachers into much greater partnership with\nthe University in the training of teachers.\nGUMLEY: This is a severe criticism that the students\nhave, that what you're taught here seems\nto be completely irrelevant to what goes on in the\nschools. This is a blanket statement, but in some cases,\nit's quite true. They feel that people here in the faculty\nof education tire isolated.\nTOMKINS: More likely they're trying to train\nstudents in the concept of a subject which\nI'm trying to do in geography, for example, as I see it\nmight be within ten years, and I come back to my point\nearlier. I get as much criticized for that as I would be if I\nlooked in McL.uhan's rear-view mirror. That is one of our\nproblems, believe you me. The conservatism of the\nstudents often frightens me. It's they who too often\nwant to conform to the image of the school as it is\u00E2\u0080\u0094or\nwas.\nBLACK: You know, there's another aspect, an\ninteresting one. Your reference to the\nteacher being a more mature person. It has been\nsuggested that perhaps either before or after training, or\npreparation for teaching, students should spend a year or\ntwo in a job that is maybe sociologically oriented or in\nsome way connected with education, to give them a\nbrush with the outside world before coming into\nteaching.\nRather than this school\u00E2\u0080\u0094college\u00E2\u0080\u0094back to school\naffair, which is another criticism levelled at teacher\npreparation. Students journey in a sheltered cocoon, and\ngo back into schools, without having experienced life\nin-between. In a way, the method whereby students have\nto go out to work in the summer gives them contacts\nwith other people in other situations and widens their\nexperience in a way that's needed for work in schools.\nTOMKINS: When I spoke of abandoning our pretence\nto sort of do a one-shot job of training\nteachers, I think it amounts to saying that we're no\nlonger going to try to prepare what has been called the\nomnicapable teacher. One of the likely characteristics of\nthe teacher of the future is that he's going to be more\nspecialized in his role. And this doesn't mean only\nspecialization in terms of the particular subject that he\nteaches, though this will be a part of it.\nBut he's likely to play a more specialized role, he's\nlikely to have much more professional autonomy.\nThere's likely to be a reduction in the hierarchical\norganization within which the teacher has traditionally\nworked. There is very likely to be a much greater stress\non cooperative endeavour in the teaching process. I\ndon't like the term team-teaching, because, although this\nwas avant garde a few years ago\u00E2\u0080\u0094it's already almost out\nof date. But certainly the idea of the teacher functioning\nin a team is going to continue, but I think it's going to\nbe much more sophisticated than the sort of thing that\nwe've seen.\nNow all of these possible changes in the teacher's role\nand his relationships to his fellow teachers, to others, to\npupils, to the administration, have obvious implications\nfor our program. Though more specialized in his role,\nhe's going to have to be a more broadly cultivated\nperson\u00E2\u0080\u0094with an awareness of the liberal arts, humanities\nand social sciences, having rigorous training in language\nwhich, despite educational technology, will remain the\nprimary vehicle of communication in the classroom. All\nthis implies possession of a whole repertoire of analytical\nskills\u00E2\u0080\u0094skills in which teachers, including university\nteachers, are often woefully lacking.\nGUMLEY: There's one comment that I'd like to\nfollow up with on this whole thing. At the\npresent time, students and faculty, especially in this\npart, the lower mainland\u00E2\u0080\u0094for example, Simon Fraser\nreactions this summer, have differed in their opinions\nand ideas as to the cooperation that should exist\nbetween students and faculty members.\nAs Dr. Tomkins has mentioned, this hierarchical\nsystem has got to go. It's got to break down a little bit. I\nthink that this is an excellent opportunity to make the\ncomment that I feel is very valid here, that in this\nparticular commission, the cooperation that exists\nbetween myself. Dr. Tomkins and the members of the\ncommission is one of the best examples of how people\ncan cooperate to form a much better society that we can\nlive in, instead of going out hollering and screaming,\nfighting and shouting, rioting and things like this.\nLet's get together and negotiate on these things. I\nthink this is what we've got to do and do it well. And I\nfeel very strongly about the fact that education is where\nit's going to start and where it's going to happen at UBC.\nTOMKINS:' And I'd like to stress the idea that this\nstudy is, I think, the first really\nfundamental study, by any faculty of its own operation,\nin the eight years I've been at UBC, and with the\nstudents involved, I think the point that Gary made is\nreally very good and I go back to what I said a moment\nago, there can be no doubting the seriousness of this\nendeavour.\nWe are committed to really taking a fundamental\nlook at the education of teachers and the study of\neducation at UBC and we're soliciting the views of\neveryone; alumni (we've already done this), teachers and\nfaculty. I'm directing a letter to every single member of\nthe entire University faculty at UBC and we hope that\nour readers will let us have their views.\nBLACK: 'Students journey in a\nsheltered cocoon, and go\nJbdckinto schools without\nexperiencing life in-between1 Father Gerald McGuigan, a member of the UBC faculty,\njourneyed behind the Iron Curtain in the summer\nof 1968 to attend the 9th World Festival of Youth . . .\nIn the question and answer session which\nbegins on this page he describes . . .\nommunist\nFestival\nThat Needed\nBeauty Queen\nUBC REPORTS: I understand you have been behind\nthe Iron Curtain recently to attend\nthe 9th World Festival of Youth, and that afterwards\nyou talked with students in Prague, Paris and London.\nFR. McGUIGAN: Yes, the festival was held in Sofia,\nBulgaria, for ten days at the\nbeginning of August. There were 30,000 students and\nyoung people representing some 120 countries at this\nfestival, which was sponsored by the socialist countries.\nUBC REPORTS: What was the theme of the\nconference?\nMcGUIGAN: 'Peace, Solidarity and Friendship among\nthe Youth of the World.' Although it\nwas intended on paper to be a cultural and educational\naffair (and in many respects it was), it could not fail to\nbe highly political as well\u00E2\u0080\u0094whether some of the\nparticipants knew it or not. The main focal point was\n'Vietnam.'\nUBC REPORTS: How was the festival organized?\nMcGUIGAN: Very rigidly, along communist party\nlines. Don't forget it was in Bulgaria,\nwhich while free in some respects is very much\nneo-Stalinist. The authoritarian structure of the festival\npresented a good foil to set the attitudes of western\nstudents over against. The whole occasion provided an\nexcellent perspective on western student radical thought.\nUBC REPORTS: Were western radical students\nrepresented at the festival?\nMcGUIGAN: As far as I could tell, radical students\nwere there from nearly all western\ncountries-with especially heavy representations from\nWest Germany, France, the Low Countries, Italy and\nSpain. Naturally, the largest delegations of students and\n8\nyouth were from Russia, Czechoslovakia and the other\neastern socialist countries.\nIncluding the Quebec delegation, there were about 40\nyoung people from Canada, not all of whom were radical\nstudents. Relatively few of the Canadian delegation,\nwhich was made up of both students and other young\npeople, were communist party members. But this was\nnot the case just for Canada.\nIt is important to realize that even though there were\nmany radical students from the west, none of them by\ndefinition were active communist party members. This\nturned out to be one of the main lessons learned from\nthe festival. It reflects upon the accuracy of the notion\nheld by many people that student unrest is a\n\"Communist Party plot.'\nUBC REPORTS: But many of them would be\n\"communist\" in the sense of being\nMarxist or socialist?\nMcGUIGAN: Oh yes. But don't forget there are many\nbrands of Marxism. And this was\nprecisely the point at issue in the confrontation that\ndeveloped between western European students and the\nfestival. It was the fact of variety in Marxist thought\namong the students that led to the confrontation, for\nthe festival organization represented the official\ncommunist party as far as the western students were\nconcerned.\nIn many recent student uprisings, particularly that in\nParis, the party had not only failed to come to the\nassistance of the radical students but had even disowned\nthem. The students resented this conservativism in the\nparty, and were seeking a more realistic theory of\nrevolution. For them, the party had become largely an\noutdated organization which had sold out to 'bourgeois'\nmethods of change.\nOne must distinguish, then, between the\nMarxist-Leninist doctrine espoused officially by the\nsocialist countries aligned with Moscow and that\nespoused by the radical students. The latter draws its\nthought increasingly from the younger and more\nphilosophical Marx. The implications of this early\nthought of Marx, especially in its relationship to notions\nof human community and the relationship of practical\naction to social revolution, were to a large extent\nneglected by many of the later commentators on Marx.\nUBC REPORTS: Exactly how was this philosophical\ndifference which you mention\nrelated to the festival and the differences in thought\nbetween students in the west and students in the eastern\nsocialist countries?\nMcGUIGAN: It showed itself in the demonstrations\nand teach-ins initiated against the\nauthoritarianism of the festival. They tried to cut across\nthe vertical organization of the festival by dialogue and\nattempts to create new ways of looking at the problem\nof socialism and the third world. It indicated that the\nbasic opposition of western students was one which was\nanti-authoritarian\u00E2\u0080\u0094regardless of whether the authority\nwas capitalistic or socialistic.\nIn western countries this anti-authoritarianism shows\nitself in the issue of anti-American imperialism,\nanti-colonialism or neo-colonialism, and especially\nanti-Vietnamese war. The western students used the\ntechnique of confrontation in an attempt to shake the\nstudents in eastern socialist countries out of their\nenvironmental envelope, out of the political bag of the\nMarxist-Leninist line. Because their countries do not have the same history\nof colonial experience as students from other countries,\n- eastern European students are not nearly as aware of the\n-* j third world as western students (whether radical or not).\nAlthough \"anti-Vietnam\" was an official slogan for the\nfestival, for eastern Europeans it was not the gut issue it\nwas for western students. Without any real experience of\nit, the eastern European students accepted this\n' ' propaganda form of protest against western capitalism\nbecause it was official.\nWestern students were very much aware that to be\ntrue to their principles they had to be opposed as much\n* to the rhetoric of the Marxist-Leninist line as they were\nto the rhetoric of freedom in the west. On paper the\nideals of freedom and goals to work toward as espoused\n4 by the west and by the socialist countries are not all that\ndissimilar.\nUBC REPORTS: From what you say and from what I\ngather elsewhere, the radical student\non at least some occasions seems to be rather politically\nnaive and a bit Utopian in some of his hopes.\n' McGUIGAN: To be perfectly frank on this, I gained\nthe distinct impression in eastern\nEurope that the western radical students are indeed\nconsidered rather naive when it comes to political\nThe eastern 'pros1\nresent the intrusion\nof amateurs in the\nrevolution business\nrealities, especially the reality of apathy, cynicism and\nself-interest, whether in capitalist or socialist countries.\nMany of the eastern students were not only not fired\nup by the ideals of a human society as outlined in Marx,\nbut large numbers had not even read him, or Lenin for\nthat matter. They rather resented these prophets and\nmissionaries coming out of the west to \"save\" them.\nAfter all, they were the \"pro's\" in this business of\nestablishing the socialist revolution, and no student from\n\u00E2\u0080\u009E the west was going to tell them how to run it. But, aside\nfrom cynicism, self-interest and so on, this sort of\nreaction, again, was due largely to the lack of real\npersonal awareness about the third world on the part of\nmany students in eastern European countries.\nThe western radical students recognized readily that\nthe socialist countries had lost their idealism fully as\nmuch as the west, and that there was as much of a split\nbetween official teaching or propagandizing and reality\n?as there was in the west. It is on this basis that there is a\ncommonality of protest between North American\nstudents and European students. For these students\nMarx-especially the younger Marx (and his more recent\n. interpreters, Che Guevara, for example)-diagnose this\nsplit between reasoning and social reality, and the need\nfor positive action to heal the breach.\nOut of this grows a theory of revolutionary action in\nwhich one acts to change reality. Social reality in these\n'terms never develops to a point where society is ready\nfor revolution. One doesn't wait for change to evolve.\nOne alters reality by acting. History doesn't make the\nperson. People make history.\nFor these reasons, rather I should say because of the\nactions and demonstrations of the western students that\nflowed from these principles, the festival officials\naccused the western students of trying to wreck the\nfestival. They hurled at them the worst epithet they\ncould think of-C.I.A. agents-when they saw that these\nstudents were not going to be dissuaded or hushed up.\nYet back at home, the same radical student in the\nwest is accused of being a communist\u00E2\u0080\u0094which is our\n\u00C2\u00AB worst epithet. And so, strange to relate, the communist\nestablishment directs the same kind of criticism at the\nradical student as does the capitalist establishment, such\nas adventurers, anarchists etc. From both sides they are\n.disdainfully referred to as Trotskyists or Maoists, even\nthough the label may not always fit or in some cases\ndoes not fit at all.\nSome people will probably take comfort in what\nEast or west,\nindustrialixation\nproduces similar\nstudent discontents\nradical student, namely a certain commonality\nunderlying all student protest.\nUBC REPORTS: What do you think, then, are the\ncommon bases of students' protest?\nMcGUIGAN: Let me mention only one of them,\nalthough obviously there are other\nimportant factors involved. I see as one set of causal\nrelationships a pattern which associates the rejection of\nauthotitarianism in the universities and in society at\nlarge; the pre-empting of the universities by training in\nskills in technical training, in the social sciences and even\nin the humanities; and the stages of the development of\nthe economy, with their corresponding levels of\nprosperity.\nThis may not be a very profound observation, but I\nthink it can be useful. It is apparent that we can't speak\nin generalities when we consider the eastern European\nsocialist countries, student unrest and the search for\nissues there on the part of their students. Each country\nmust be considered separately.\nIf I may be pardoned an economic interpretation,\neach of the socialist countries is in a different stage of\ndevelopment toward industrialism. One need not\nbelabour the point that the industrialism in the U.S.S.R.\nis becoming similar to that of the United States.\nHowever, even if we can't speak of a general student\nmovement in eastern Europe, it is fair to say that a\ncommon set of values or protests develops, arising out of\nthe fact of industrialization\u00E2\u0080\u0094or, more exactly, out of an\nuncritical acceptance of it.\nThere is also a common set of virtues inculcated by\nthe establishments, both eastern and western, that are\nnecessary for industrialism. In the early stages of\nindustrialization, a certain unconscious acceptance of\nauthority develops. Division of labour has much to do\nwith the genesis of these attitudes of dependence upon\ncentralized authority.\nUBCREPOFITS: Is there any evidence for your\nobservations concerning the\ndevelopment of the uncritical acceptance of authority.\nMcGUIGAN Yes, among other things, I can point to\nthis pamphlet, \"Your Questions\nAnswered,\" which was distributed at the festival by the\nSoviet students. The thoughts advanced are almost\nidentical, except for some of the vocabulary, with those\nwhich would be given by a member of the Junior\nChamber of Commerce in the United States, or in\nVancouver, for that matter. ~*~\nSo you see there is a comparison between the\nattitudes in two reasonably equated highly industrialized\nsocieties, the Soviet Union and the United States. But I\nwant to extend it farther. Below that, we have various\nIt's fast communication,\nnot organization\nthat makes it all look\nlike a worldwide plot\nvappears to be at least one area of agreement with the\nofficial communist line\u00E2\u0080\u0094that is, that they mutually\ndislike radical students. But to me it points to something\nmuch more important and critical in understanding the\ngradations of economic development from almost\nagricultural societies through developing stages of\nindustrialism. And in each one of these particular stages,\nwe have different sets of attitudes with regard to\nstudents vis a-vis the university and the governmental or\npolitical set within which they live.\nSo we experience differences between the students in\nBulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, East Germany and\nthe Soviet Union; quite different sets of attitudes have\ndeveloped in each of these countries and so have\ndifferent issues, different especially from the issues for\nwestern students. There is a gradation of politically\nexpressed protest (almost negligible in most socialist\ncountries as yet), from acceptance of the 'establishment'\nand a positive desire to enforce industrial virtues to\nrejection of political control and the beginning of a\nrejection of cultural values, as in Czechoslovakia.\nBut in no case is there the basic gut rejection of both\npolitical and cultural values as has been generated by\nprosperity under industrialism in western society.\nUBC REPORTS: You spoke earlier of a socialist\nrhetoric and a capitalist rhetoric.\nLarge sections of youth in either system seem then to be\nconservative in the sense that they have not become\n'aware' of the political 'bag' or environment in which\nthey live, o- that rhetoric doesn't represent reality. Or,\nagain, if they do appreciate that rhetoric and reality are\nnot the same, they don't see that it matters that there is\nsuch a discrepancy. They don't ask questions about the\nContinued on page 10\nRADICAL STUDENTS\nIN SEARCH OF ISSUES\nBy Father Gerald McGuigan\nFather Gerald McGuigan, Chairman of UBC's experimental New Arts II program, is the author of the article\nbelow, which will appear in a book entitled \"Student\nProtest,\" to be published in October by Methucn\nPublications of Toronto. Father McGuigan has also\nedited the volume which will contain a number of\nessays on student unrest. \"UBC Reports\" is grateful to\nMethuen Publications for permission to reproduce excerpts from Father McGuigan's lead article.\n0\nNE cannot properly\nunderstand the thought of radical students until one has\nsome understanding of the process of an unstructured\nradical student meeting and the relationships between\nmeetings, a \"turn-on,\" the issues, confrontation,\neducation and the genesis of revolutionary analysis. To\nunderstand radical thought, one must appreciate that\naction and thought are only true when united in action.\nEducation takes place in a seminar, at a meeting, or at a\n\"sit-in.\"\nThey are all basically the same thing, in that thought\nand action are combined. A \"sit-in\" is an education\u00E2\u0080\u0094it is\na seminar on the problem of confrontation. The younger\nMarx (not the older Marx of western economic\ndisrepute) sums up this notion of education and truth as\nparticipation and creation, \"The question whether\nhuman thought can pretend to objective truth is not a\ntheoretical question but a practical one; it is in practice\nthat man must prove that his thought is true.\"\nThe nature of the problem of understanding begins to\nbecome apparent, then: it is a mistake to look for a\ncorpus of student revolutionary thought, for thought is\nrevolution and revolution is thought. Under these\ncircumstances, radical thought escapes adequate\ndescription by the classical categories of western thought\nand logic. It is precisely that combination of thought\nand action that cannot be rationalized into ordinary\nexisting categories which is radical.\nIn fact, it is the attempt to define radical activity and\nclassify it as a body of thought, as certain members of\nthe movement itself have attempted to do, which impels\nit forward into the areas of happenings which lie beyond\nthe grasp of formal logic or even conceptualization.\n\"Happenings,\" by definition, cannot be categorized and\nit is precisely the attempt to categorize them that either\npushes them on into further \"happenings\" or destroys\ntheir quality as on-going participation. In the event that\nthis forward movement fails to take place, it fails in the\nultimate sense of pure revolution; the analysis, proven\nincorrect, must be reworked and re-tested, or\nabandoned. Reality or the truth is only what continuous\nrevolution makes it.\n\u00E2\u0096\u00A0 OR t\nlOR these reasons, and others\nderiving from a different basic philosophical/theological\napproach to life and its meaning, the establishment type\nfinds it difficult, if not impossible, to communicate with\na genuinely radical student. One must be willing to\nparticipate in the more demanding notion of revolution\nas participation in order to understand, because understanding is \"doing,\" and \"doing\" is \"being.\" It is in this\ncontext that one understands \"ad hoc\" actions, \"be-\nins,\"- \"teach-ins,\" and \"board-ins.\"\nThe notions of issue, confrontation and education are\nthe same things, seen in different aspects. Confrontation\nContinued on page 11 The Search\n/s for Meaningful Issuesl\nCONTINUED FROM PAGE NINE\nframework of their own society and its relationship to\ntheir own personal development.\nMcGUIGAN: Well, given the fact that the educational\nmethods proper to industrial systems are\nnot geared to create self awareness\u00E2\u0080\u0094although they\neventually cause it\u00E2\u0080\u0094this is not surprising. However,\nbecause of increased communications, especially in the\nwest where there is greater cultural diffusion, students\nsuddenly become aware in a practical way that industrial\nvirtues are not the only ones possible or desirable.\nThis has not happened in the socialist countries yet,\nat least not to the same degree. Incidentally, rapid\ncommunication gives student unrest the appearance of\nbeing a plot, communistic, anarchistic or otherwise. In\nreality it is not organization which is facilitated by easy\ncommunications, but the spread of similar attitudes.\nUBC REPORTS: Do you see the rapid advance of\nstudent radicalism in socialist\ncountries?\nMcGUIGAN: Given ten years or even less\u00E2\u0080\u0094perhaps\neven tomorrow\u00E2\u0080\u0094what with the speed of\nchange these days, it might be that Vladimir, a Russian\nstudent we met at the festival who was so representative\nof the Soviet equivalent of the American Junior\nChamber of Commerce type, will be faced with the\nradical student as his counterpart.\nSch/u$W7cfem/(t/i\nc/er USA In 1/ietnaK\nIndustrialism not\ndirected to truly\nhuman use generates\na certain revulsion\nIn other words, industrialism by itself, depending\nupon how well it is developed and assuming it is not\ndirected to truly human use, generates a certain\nrevulsion for the impersonalism and the superficiality\nwhich comes with it. And sooner or later the U.S.S.R.,\nand then the countries which are less economically\nadvanced at present, will take up this form of radicalism.\nPerhaps it's less than five years away in\nCzechoslovakia; the hippies, probably the forerunners of\nthe radical students and who don't care to be or are\nperhaps less able to be intellectually explicit about their\nactions than the students, are already seen in large\nnumbers on the streets of Prague. And so are the\nlong-haired student activists who have become visible\nduring this past year in Czechoslovakia; compared with\nthe short-cropped Russians, or the Bulgarians, for\ninstance.\nBut in fact, in almost every one of these eastern\nsocialist countries, when speaking to people who\npresumably are reasonably honest, ask them whether\nthey had read Mao, or Marcuse, or the early Marx, and\nyou don't find much response in that direction so far.\n(Whether you agree with them or not, these authors turn\nthings upside down for both eastern and western\nestablishments and reject what people think of as\nordinary or natural.)\nTo make a pun, the east hasn't been exposed to a\n\"death of socialism\" theology yet. I don't know what\nsort of world it will be when we have a \"death of Mao\"\ntheology. To extend the observation on the uncritical\nacceptance of industrialism itself, up to a point people\nwill accept quite a bit of discipline in order to raise their\nstandard of living.\nNow, to go back again, why is it that students from\nwestern Germany reach a stage of protest in an industrial\nsociety? That's a good question, but I don't know that I\ncan answer it. I think that much of it has to do with\ncommunications, the necessity for a horizontal flow of\ninformation as the industrial society grows more and\nmore complex. Not a flow down from the top.\n10\nThe Sofia Youth Festival had its share of banners\nurging an end to the Vietnam war. B. C. delegate Jim\nHarding is seated in the foreground.\nUBC REPORTS: How were these attitudes related to\nthe festival?\nMcGUIGAN: Well, it was the display of these\nuncritical attitudes at the festival which\nprovoked much of the western students' reaction. Can\nyou imagine? They actually had a festival queen. God\nhelp socialism! The slogan of the festival, and its avowed\npurpose, was for solidarity, friendship and unity among\nsocialist countries and indeed all peoples of the world.\nBut, in fact, the official policy and organization\nprevented dialogue, even though they would claim\ntheoretically that the contrary was true. So, in effect, as\nfar as rhetoric is concerned, are we not in identical\npositions in western society as in the eastern socialist\ncountries?\nTo mention that Soviet pamphlet again, \"Your\nQuestions Answered,\" the answers given there are\nexactly the same sorts of answers that you'd get in the\nUnited States, in defense of their system. One of the\nquestions seriously posed in the pamphlet was whether\nthey were against long hair. The answer was that if it was\nsloppy, yes.\nBut with regard to women, the remarks were that\nthey favored hair styling. I mean to say, when you have\nto defend hair styling in order to make socialism\nacceptable, what have you got? Not that long or short\nhair is in itself a big issue, but it does function as an\nindicator of other values.\nAll sorts of 'freedom' is allowed, all sorts of\ninfections much more serious than long hair which might\nthreaten society are effectively absorbed; and there's no\nhuman protest that can ever really be effective. If you\ncare to put it in terms that Marcuse would use, the\none-dimensional society is not only capitalistic but\nsocialistic. Any possibility of effective opposition is\nremoved, absorbed, neutralized.\nI think it says quite a bit for the consistency of\nradical students' thought\u00E2\u0080\u0094and the quality of their\nnerve\u00E2\u0080\u0094that the western radical students were almost as\nmuch prepared to demonstrate in Sofia as they were in\nParis, New York or Berkeley, in order to point up the\nrhetoric of the socialist thought and its authoritarianism.\nThey held back at the point that would have provoked\nviolent clash.\nIn part this was because of the longer history of\npolice brutality in socialist countries, and in part because\nthis confrontation will wait upon the eventual open\nappearance of the east's radical students.\nUBC REPORTS: But how do you see all this applying\nto a Canadian university?\nMcGUIGAN: Well, that is a complicated problem. The\nwhole situation must be seen in light of\nthe notion of confrontation, which is critical to an\nunderstanding of student protest. In France, the.\nstudents were driven to violent confrontation\u00E2\u0080\u0094to\ndestruction and to fury.\nNow, obviously there's a difference in degree in the\nuniversity situation between Canada and France. The x\nuniversity system in France is archaic and terribly\nregressive compared to the university situation in\nCanada. However, it might be that the real difference in\nattitude between French students and Canadian students\nis not all that great\u00E2\u0080\u0094except that the basic humai*\ndemands that the French students are asking have been\nrealized in some part already in the Canadian\nuniversities.\nIt is because of the entrenchment and the*\nconservativism of the professorial and academir\ncommunity in France that such a tremendously hard\nshock is necessary there to begin anything.\nUBC REPORTS: Do you suppose that kind of shock\nis going to be needed in introducing\nacademic reform in Canada and the U.S.?\nMcGUIGAN: I hope not. But aside from the\nconservativism of academics, it must be\nsaid that in Canada and the United States the capability .\nof absorption of demands for reform has increased.\nThe establishment has found it easier, in a non-violent\nway (at least in Canada), to contain university reform.\nBut this is probably a recognition that we in Canada\nhave a more suffusive and elastic set of industrial values\nwhich can effectively smother reforms, or at least render\nthem ineffective.\nThe question is more complicated than just that,\nhowever. We are involved here in the whole question,of\ncolonialism and the historicity of issues. Students in\nwestern universities have a sense of guilt about\nimperialistic capitalist expansion\u00E2\u0080\u0094but this sense of guilt\nUniversities enforce\nthe values that\nstudent protestors\nmost decry\nis not generally present yet, as far as students in the\nU.S.S.R. are concerned, in looking at Soviet expansion.\nIt is this sense of guilt which is an important factor-in\nstudent protest. Since almost every western European\ncountry has had its own particular history of\ncolonialism, out of which issues for protest arise,\nCanadian students in particular must be careful in their\nassessment of these issues. \u00C2\u00BB\nUBC REPORTS: You think then that Canadians have\nparticular difficulties in finding real\nissues for protest?\nMcGUIGAN: Yes. The search is for meaningful issues,\nwhich have at the same time a\nrelationship to societal change and to their own personal\nlives. For want of issues more meaningful in this sense of\narising out of his own personal circumstances, he\nfocusses on Vietnam, for example. This may be worthy\u00C2\u00BB\nof protest, but for Canadian students it is experienced\nvicariously when compared with the personal\ninvolvement of French or American students.\nUBC REPORTS: So Canadian students turn to the\nuniversity as issue?\nMcGUIGAN: The university is something right at\nhome for them. When they strike at the ^\nuniversity, they strike at an important place where the\nvalues they decry are enforced and where the thinking\nwhich supports these decried values is best developed. f\nis the kind of happening in which the order of the\nsenses and the priorities formed by institutions are\ncfisrupted. Institutions condition and order the senses to\nrespond in certain predictable ways in the name of\nobedience. Thus the institution becomes an object of\nobedience for the sake of the institution itself and one\nmust be shaken out of this catatonic state in which one\nis obedient principally to preserve the institution for its\nown sake.\n0\nUT of the disruption of\n..patterns of obedience, created by the confrontation\nwhich provides a justifiable human alternative, arises a\nnew ordering of the present which is unique in its\ncombination of evidence. The act of becoming aware of\nthis newly created pattern is education.\nMany radical students are theologically minded (at\nleast implicitly so), and would accuse the establishment\nof a lack of belief in the real possibility of human\nrenewal. Added to this is what amounts to an accusation\nthat the establishment has a superstitious attachment to\nways of acting which by nature are not proportioned to\nattain their intended purpose, that of human growth.\nThis is true of all magical formulations, whether it be an\nappeal to the spirits of the forest or the earth, or an\nappeal to the spirits of the technological world which\nmust be fed and appeased.\nThis is where the establishment misunderstanding of\nwhat an issue is, is likely to arise; for this consideration\nis basic to an understanding of radical thought and the\nrole of real \"issues\" in the renewal of human values.\nBeyond this first consideration, it is only when the\ntheory of revolution is fully understood that we can\nunderstand what an issue is, and what the expressions,\n. \"liberal issue,\" \"tokenism,\" or \"selling out\" mean.\nIt is often said that students do not know what they\nwant. They are vague. They are visionaries. They want to\ntear down and have nothing to put up in its place. They\n,go from issue to issue, like a dog hunting for a bone. In\nour consideration of what the students do want, let us\nfrom the beginning dismiss the nihilist, the mad-man\nwho has a rage against society and simply wishes to\ndestroy. Undoubtedly some students, like others in our\nsociety, are genuinely mad; however, they are no more\nacceptable in the \"new left\" than anywhere else. To\nweigh too heavily on this element is simply another way\nthe establishment avoids the real intellectual issue at\nstake.\nTFie word \"issue\" has a special meaning in the\ncontext of revolutionary thought. In ordinary thought,\nwe can give this word two meanings. In the first sense,\nissue is a specific problem to be solved within a given set\nof values. In the second sense, an issue can be the\noccasion when two sets of values come into conflict. For\nexample, the resurfacing of an existing road is a different\nsort of issue than the building of a throughway in a\ndensely populated city.\nThe meaning of issue as used in radical thought is\nbasically that of the second sense, where there is a clash\nof values. However, it goes beyond that. An issue in the\nradical sense also has the dimension of being the\nmoment of creation of human awareness to a new and\nunique situation which did not exist before, one in\nwhich a new set of human relationships is established\nwith reference to new human needs.\nSo, an issue in the radical sense may have two\ndimensions. One may refer to an absolute concrete need\nto be satisfied (for example, civil rights), and occurs on\n, the occasion of a clash of value systems. The other\ndimension is that in which an issue is seen as having\nsymbolic or even \"sacramental\" character in social and\npolitical terms. That is to say, the \"issue\" as symbol\nbecomes the occasion for a rejuvenation of human\nawareness.\nI\nT is the contention of the\nradical students that it is often destructive of human\nfreedom\u00E2\u0080\u0094and even superstitious, in the sense above\u00E2\u0080\u0094to\nsolve radical issues in terms of institutional ways which\nare disfunctional and incapable of solving human problems arising from changed circumstances; it is an appeal\nto abstract entities which have ceased to have human\nconsonance. Thus, liberal\" theories of change and\nparadigms of action can only lead to \"liberal solutions.\"\nADICAL STUDENTS\nC NTINUED FROM PAGE NINE \u00C2\u00BB\n\u00E2\u0096\u00A0 ,&&*?\n&. a\nRadical thought then need not of itself deny the basic\nwestern values concerned with the person and the\nrelationship of the person to society, but it does deny\nthe relevance for today of the particular sets of past\ncircumstances, coming down to the present, which\ncoerce the recognition of certain values and their\noperation by means of obsolete institutional forms.\nThese forms are often part and parcel with a particular\nexisting set of economic, political and social\nrelationships.\nNow we have reached the core of the\nintellectual/moral argument that the radical students\npose to the university, for what is moral for the radical\nstudent is a total human act which contains upon\nanalysis both theory and practice. Moral actions for the\nradical student are not those which \"ought\" to be done\nout of prescription (or moral theory) and in obedience\nto moral proposition, but those which are creative of\nhuman community in the given moment out of presently\nrecognized needs. The impact of the radical definition of\nissue, which is associated with confrontation and\nmorality, is then of great importance both in posing the\nproblem facing the university and searching for an\nanswer.\nI\nHE question in its first\napproximation is\u00E2\u0080\u0094does the university implicitly contain\nan economic, political and social bias? And if it does,\nwhat are the implications of this for intellectual debate\nwhen the radical point of view is such that learning and\nmoral awareness (in which is implicit economic, political\nand social change) are the same thing? What is the\nimplication of the bias for truth when truth is not a\ntheoretical question but a practical one?\nIt would seem the debate finally resolves itself into\nthe question of whether truth is propositional or\nexistential. Is a university faculty prepared to seriously\ndebate this question, as the radical student would\ndemand? Or if the faculty interprets the student's call\nfor debate as a threat to professionalism, will the debate\nturn into personal invective directed against the students\nfor not keeping their intellectual place?\nIt was pointed out previously that a radical issue can\nhave two dimensions, the practical dimension and the\nsymbolic. The university as a radical \"issue\" involves\nboth of these. Symbolically, it becomes the occasion of\na rejuvenation of the human spirit. The practical aspects\nflow from this, and they are associated, for example,\nwith global solutions to practical and existing human\nproblems which press for solutions. Radicals claim that\nit is the absolute set of establishment values, whether it\nbe of the west or the east, which is one of the principal\ncauses of injustice to certain sections of our own society,\nthe cause of the paradox of poverty in the midst of the\ngreatest material abundance the world has ever known,\nand which prevents fresh solutions in keeping with new\nhuman needs from being realized.\nThe creation of issues is an educational process in the\ndeepest sense of the word. Confrontations\u00E2\u0080\u0094for instance,\ncivil rights demonstrations, the poor in Washington,\npicketing\u00E2\u0080\u0094are intended to be \"shocks\" which create, by\nthe fact that they are done, a new set of circumstances\nwhich did not exist before and which, if the\nconfrontation is properly chosen, cannot be effectively\ndealt with by the normal operations of the establishment\nmethods of handling change and new situations.\nw\nHEN the public or university authorities are confronted in such a manner it is\nintended that they should reassess the validity and\nfunctionality of their organization's assumptions as to\nhow they assist human values and rights of self-determination. However, few established institutions are in fact\ncapable of doing this. Given the entrenchment, the\nvested financial and intellectual interests in maintaining\nthe status quo because of the advantages it confers on\nthose in control of the establishment or teaching in it, to\neffect a sufficiently large shock by confrontation is no\nsimple matter.\nThere is sufficient evidence in history to show that\nthe establishment never wakes up until it is too late.\nThey rest too easy in relishing the \"old values\" which\ngive the ease, satisfaction and appearance of order. A\nradical student refuses to respond to the accusation that\nhis actions are \"immoral,\" because in his terms this\nmeans he is being accused of offending against the\nestablishment rules, which he claims are divorced from\nmoral responsibility with respect to any larger \"issue.\"\nSo when we hear the expression \"liberal issue\" it\nmeans that the issue is one which is soluble or of genuine\ninterest in the given context of a liberal society, or\nself-serving of special interests in the liberal society. To\nsolve this \"liberal problem\" is not to solve the real issues\nwhich are in the context of world awareness. Not\nappreciating what the framework of radical thinking is,\nit is no wonder that \"liberal\" administrators are\ndismayed when the radical students fail to be\n\"reasonable.\" Given the context of his reasoning, what is\n\"reasonable\" for the liberal is patently \"unreasonable\"\nfor the radical student. The radical student is inviting the\nestablishment person to abandon his parochial view of\nsociety. Those in the establishment look upon this as an\ninvitation to anarchy, when it really is an expansion\nwhich looks beyond localism. The radical student\nrealizes there are certain localisms which cannot be\nescaped, but he wishes to have them drastically\nre-examined.\nWhat radical students are saying is that so long as the\nuniversity is associated only with the total liberal society\nin all its political, economic and social relationships and\ncontinues to concentrate on training people to maintain\nthis set of connections, then there can be no true\nalternatives. To have alternatives is to have freedom.\nIn other words, they define freedom in this context\nas the real ability to be able to decide against the liberal\nset of values; but not, let it be noted, merely to cogitate\nabout \"non-liberal\" values, but to do \"non-liberal\"\nthings and act upon \"non-liberal\" issues. In terms of\nradical analysis, this is not a destruction or a negation of\ndemocratic values but an affirmation of them.\nOne may disagree with radical students or even\nsuggest third or fourth alternatives, but one cannot judge\nthat they are merely perverse or unreasoning. The most\nmature of them claim to have a way of approaching a\nproblem which should (at least in the university, where\none would expect it) be treated on an intellectual basis.\nIt is an incredible thing, whether or not one will be\nconvinced of the radical analysis in the end, to dismiss\nradical students as mere trouble makers. And to take the\nposition of some members of the establishment that any\nfurther spending of university funds on these students is\nof doubtful value because they are hardly likely to\nbecome educated or finally useful members of society is\nto reinforce the lines of misunderstanding.\nI\nIF education is only another word for \"training,\" this is probably accurate\nenough. The radical student will not be trained when\nwhat he is seeking is an education in a broader sense. But\nif what is meant is that these students do not have the\nability and willingness to learn, to stretch their own\nminds and the world's intellectual resources in a search\nfor new solutions, the establishment view of the radical\nstudents is probably wrong. 37V - .' \u00E2\u0096\u00A0 \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 \u00E2\u0096\u00A0.\u00E2\u0096\u00A0-..\"\u00E2\u0096\u00A0 \u00E2\u0096\u00A0!_\u00E2\u0096\u00A0:. *.\"''\u00E2\u0096\u00A0 . \"& I'-\". *: . \" \"\n\u00C2\u00AByj- a \u00C2\u00BB \u00E2\u0096\u00A0\u00E2\u0096\u00A0 r \u00E2\u0096\u00A0 - \u00E2\u0096\u00A0''. ;\u00E2\u0096\u00A0\n\u00C2\u00A3, ........\nHomecoming '68 Has New Home\nThere will be a new home for\nHomecoming this year. No longer will\nalumni congregate for reunions in the\nold Brock Hall-it's been replaced by a\nmassive new $5 million Student Union\nBuilding. That's where the action will\nbe Oct. 25-26. And grads of the\n1958-68 decade are particularly invited to attend the functions in SUB.\nThat is if they want to get a little\npleasure out of the $1.2 million which\nthey contributed to the building.\nA bold, raw concrete structure, the\nstudent union building (now being\nrushed to completion) is already one\nof the most impressive buildings on\ncampus. Set in a huge plaza at East\nMall and University Boulevard, it\ndominates the entrance to the campus\ncore.\nFestivities formally get underway\nThursday morning, with a women's\ngolf tournament on the University golf\ncourse. But Homecoming really begins\nin earnest on Friday, Oct. 25. First,\nthe men will be able to test their\ngolfing skill in a tournament on the\nUniversity course. In the evening there\nwill be a family sports jamboree in the\nUBC War Memorial Gymnasium. Over\nin SUB, Sigma Tau Chi, the honorary\nmen's fraternity will hold its 25-year reunion. The 50-year reunion of the\nUbyssey staffers is planned for the\nsame time. And UBC hockey teams\nfrom the last 50 years will be holding\nreunions in the Faculty Club. The\nhighlight of that event will be a talk by\nall-time hockey great Babe Pratt, who\nat 8 p.m. will referee an old-timers\nhockey game at the UBC Winter\nSports Centre. Another game will get\nunderway at 8:45 p.m. that evening\nwith the Ex-Thunderbirds taking on\nthe 1958-68 'Birds. The $5 fee for the\nhockey program includes dinner at the\nFaculty Club with the old time hockey\nplayers, the games and a season pass to\nUBC hockey games.\nOn Saturday, the students will stage\ntheir traditional parade through downtown Vancouver. Following this, there\nwill be student-sponsored bus tours of\nthe campus and of the new student\nunion building, winding up with a student-alumni lunch at SUB. Sports fans\nwill be able to take in the annual\nHomecoming football game with Pacific Lutheran taking on the Thunderbirds at 2 p.m. in the new Thunderbird\nstadium. After the game there will be a\nhot rum party at Cecil Green Park.\nAnd at 6 p.m. returning grads will get\ntogether to reminisce about old times.\nReunions for the classes of 1923,\n1928, 1933, 1938, and 1943 will be\nheld in the Faculty Club, while the\n1948, 1953, and 1958 classes will get\ntogether in SUB.\nHomecoming '68 will be climaxed\nwith the annual Homecoming ball,\nheld this year in the new student\nunion building. So come on back and\nrenew your ties with the old campus.\nIf you want more details, phone\n228-3313 or write the UBC Alumni\nAssociation, Cecil Green Park, 6251\nNorthwest Marine Drive, Vancouver 8,\nB.C.\nCITY CAMPUSES\nON CAMERA\nVancouver CBC-TV will zoom in on\ncampus unrest at UBC and Simon Fraser University with the first of nine\nhalf-hour shows beginning September\n30. The program, which will be aired\nweekly on Monday nights from\n10:30\u00E2\u0080\u009411:00 p.m., has been given the\nintriguing title of A Little Learning.\nThe man behind the cameras is producer Brian Guns, a UBC alumnus (BA\n'58) who decided to do the show after\nbecoming concerned with the media's\nfailure to date to adequately examine\nthe university issue. \"After having read\na few hundred headlines and seen\nmany TV clips I realized that what lay\nbeyond these were some important\nand interesting issues which the public\nwas not being made aware of,\" said\nGuns. \"To use a cliche, I felt it incumbent on me to close this information\ngap.\"\nThe CBC-TV crew has been roaming around both campuses since midsummer filming and conducting interviews. Guns is using university students exclusively as his team of\nresearchers and interviewers. Host for\nthe series will be UBC graduate\npsychology student Lanny Beckman\nand key researchers will be Stan Wong,\nan SFU student senator and Stan\nPersky, a UBC anthropology student\nand former Arts Undergraduate\nSociety president. Guns stressed that\nuse of the students did not mean the\nprogram would forsake objectivity.\n\"We're doing all we can to approach\nthe series as a kind of research project\nin a spirit of free inquiry,\" he said.\nAlumni Assist Programs for Students\nTo students in a large university\nlittle things mean a lot. Little things\nlike having a bone-wearying three hour\nwait to register for classes, or having a\n10-minute walk in the rain from car to\nclasses, or having lecture with 300-plus\nstudents or wanting to chat with a professor over coffee and having nowhere\nto go. Little things that make all the\ndifference for students in the quality\nof their university experience.\nThe way UBC has grown in recent\nyears, scrambling to find classrooms\nfor swelling enrolments (now 20,000),\nit is not surprising that some of the\n\"little things\" should have been\nneglected. And it is understandable\nthat some students now should complain\u00E2\u0080\u0094as they do on large campuses\neverywhere\u00E2\u0080\u0094that UBC is impersonal.\nWhile UBC is not as impersonal an\ninstitution as some would make out,\nthere are some weaknesses and more is\nbeing done now to provide the little\nthings that are so important to the\nquality of student life. One of the new\ndevelopments, for example, is that\nmore benches have been placed around\ncampus for students to sit on during\nsunny weather. An old barn near the\nnew H.R. MacMillan building on the\nmain mall has been refurbished into a\nbrightly-decorated student coffee shop\n12\npredictably called. The Barn. The new\nexperimental Arts I program, of\ncourse, is an obvious step toward eliminating the problems of large classes\nand increasing faculty-student contact.\nAnd the UBC Alumni Association\nhas been playing a part in this process.\nFor one thing, last year the association\nallocated $5,000 from the Alumni\nFund to a special contingency fund to\ngive prompt help to worthwhile campus projects\u00E2\u0080\u0094one part of a larger program of student aid. Under the contingency fund procedure, each request\nfor aid needs only the unanimous approval of the UBC president, the executive director of the Alumni Association and the Past President of the\nAlumni Association. \"This allows us to\nrespond immediately where we would\nlike to help out a student situation on\ncampus without getting bogged down\nin red tape,\" said Gerald McGavin,\nchairman of the 1968 Alumni Fund.\nTo date, the Alumni Association\nhas made grants of $1,600 from the\ncontingency fund to help projects for\nwhich aid was not available elsewhere.\nThe Faculty of Arts received $500 to\nassist three projects recommended by\nthe joint Student-Faculty Committee\non Student Life. Of this, $100 was\ngiven to provide free refreshments to\nfirst-year students during pre-registra-\ntion this month. The aim was to enable students to select courses and talk\nto professors in a relaxed, informal atmosphere. Another $100 was given to\npublicize a series of lectures to be\ngiven by heads of departments in Arts\nin which they will discuss their departmental programs and the disciplines\nfor which they are responsible. The remaining $300 was granted to help\nlaunch small, informal snack bars in\nthe Buchanan and Henry Angus buildings where students and faculty could\ntalk.\nActing Dean of Arts Dr. John Young\nsaid the gift had been a big help and\nthat the snack bars have proved popular. \"We wanted something where students and staff could mix informally,\"\nhe said. \"Our feeling is that having the\nnew Student Union Building so far\naway is not very helpful to promoting\ncloser student-staff relations.\"\nThe Alumni Association also provided $500 to assist an initiation\nsymposium of Group A of the new\nArts I class held September 6\u00E2\u0080\u00948 at\nCamp Elphinstone. The grant went toward transportation and accommodation for 95 students who attended the\nsymposium, aimed at introducing\nthem to each other and to the year's\nwork. \"The grant was a great help indeed,\" said Brian Mayne, assistant professor of English and a co-chairman of\nArts I. \"The total cost of the weekend\nwas about $1,500 and the grant\nallowed the amount we had to charge\neach student to be only $6. If it had\nbeen $10, fewer students would have\ncome and the symposium would have\nbeen a lot less successful than it was.\"\nThe Alma Mater Student Housing\nBureau was also given $200 to help in\nobtaining off-campus housing for students. The money was used toward\nhiring a student field worker who\nspent five weeks this summer drumming up listings of accommodation\navailable to students. \"The field\nworker proved a great success,\" said\nAMS housing co-ordinator John Tilley.\n\"We picked up 800 listings over what\nwe had last year.\"\nAnd the UBC Medical Undergraduate Society will be holding a\nmedical retreat October 4-6 at the\nPinewoods Lodge, Manning Park, with\nthe assistance of a $400 grant from the\ncontingency fund. The grant represents a subsidy of $5 for each of the\n80 students attending the annual event\nat which students, professors and\nmedical practitioners gather to discuss\naspects of modern medicine."@en . "Periodicals"@en . "Vancouver (B.C.)"@en . "LE3.B8K U2"@en . "LE3_B8K_U2_1968_10_01"@en . "10.14288/1.0118306"@en . "English"@en . "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en . "Vancouver: University of British Columbia Information Office"@en . "Images provided for research and reference use only. Permission to publish, copy, or otherwise use these images must be obtained from the University of British Columbia Public Affairs Office."@en . "Original Format: University of British Columbia. Archives."@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "UBC Reports"@en . "Text"@en . ""@en .