HOW BIG SHOULD THE UNIVERSITY BE?




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   RECENT ARTICLES in the Wisconsin Alumnus stressed the
merits of the big versus the small college. The main arguments for
the large institution being (1) that the student is brought into con-
tact with other students of like specialized interest who furnish him
competition and stimulus; (2) he has access to facilities which are
furnished a group of students but could not be furnished to a single
student of such interest; (3) he can develop specialties and skills
without being isolated from the broad view of human knowledge; and (4) he
has access to the facilities of great laboratories and libraries which could
not
possibly be provided in a small college.
  Dean John Guy Fowlkes believes that
the small junior college will relieve the  By SIDNEY  PRITZERT, '47


a two-year coordinating and finishing
program for those students who do not
desire a degree.
   Let us be realistic and practical in
this analysis.
   This is supposedly a state univer-
 sity, paid for and operated for any
 deserving student who desires to enter
 the institution. The University also
 offers advice and help to the citizens
 within the borders of the Badger state.
 To support this supposition, the Legis-
 lature, once each session, appropriates
 sufficient funds for operation, or build-
 ing construction, research, etc.
   To any intelligent reader of the
newspapers, it is easily discovered that
much of the above statement is false.
   The Legislature does not come any
where near appropriating     sufficient
funds. The University should not be
ebligated to receive hundreds of mar-
ginal grade students and care for
them   under their   ridiculously low
tuition of $60. It certainly costs the
University more. The private univer-
sities keep a smaller student body,
charge $500 to $800 in tuition, yet
receive large state subsidies. The people
of this state want something for prac-
tically nothing given by them in return.
Meanwhile, the excessive number of
students diminishes the quality of the
instruction. How?
   The smaller universities have a more
intimate contact between teacher and
student. This is not possible here with
lecture classes of 600 students. The
professor must prepare his 45-minute
lecture as if he were addressing a talk
over the radio. He cannot take time
during his lecture or in his oversized
quiz class to stop and answer ques-
tions or help work out problems in
which the student is concerned.
  Does the student have advantage of
better facilities here at this gigantic
institution? No, he has not. Wisconsin,
with its 18,000 students, can no way
co m p a r e with higher-scholastically-
rated Princeton University, for ex-
ample, whose 2,000 students receive the
benefit of larger and better equipped
libraries and laboratories; or with most
of the other top universities in the
nation which are smaller than Wis-
consin, but are far superior in facili-
ties.
  Nor can I quite visualize the Wis-
consin Legislature ever appropriating
10


THE AUTHOR is a graduate of the Wis-
consin School of Journalism and is now
enrolled in the Law School. He was ac-
tive on Wisconsin Union committees and
on the staff of the Daily Cardinal. Dur-
ing the war he served for three years in
the Air Corps. Mr. Pritzert has also studied
at Princeton and Temple Universities.

     The Alumnus emphasizes
  that the opinions of its con-
  tributors are not necessarily
  those of the magazine.
enough funds to accommodate the at-
tending student body.
  Nor does the average student really
contribute to the fame of the Univer-
sity in the field of intensive research,
the great work in medicine, or other
scientific or social fields. The great
findings go on independent of the mas-
sive undergraduate student body. The
boys and girls who come to Wisconsin
never work within the fine laboratories.
The wonderful work done here under
private endowment could easily be per-
formed at smaller institutions or pri-
vate research centers.
  Here within this University are sev-
eral corporations, all functioning under
one Board of Regents who supervise


the main holding company, popularly
known as the University of Wisconsin.
Much of the local set up is quite like
a modern commercial corporation. How-
ever, whenever a business organization
desires to market a product, it must
test and devise a formula so that when
proven, it can manufacture duplicates
in tremendous quantities. The board of
directors can compute easily by the
number of units produced, multiplied
by the cost of production, and thus
arrive at what their profits or assets
will be. However, in its production, the
modern corporation is careful that its
product be exactly what the formula
calls for, or the product will meet with
a mixed public reaction.
  Can the Board of Regents follow the
  lead of a business corporation and by
  some formula, turn out annually 2,000
  units of duplicate quality? No, it can-
  not. Yet the Regents have attempted
  to turn the school into some sort of a
  mill. Perhaps it pleases the worthy
  gentlemen of the board to survey a
  tremendous corporate organization.
  The Board members must remember
  that although they are organized like
  a modern corporation, they must think
  along terms of production as found in
  the old craft shop. The University
  should not take the entering students,
fill them with a touch of economics
(secured via long range), a dash of
sociology, a jigger of English, and hope
to turn this assembly-line product out
as an asset which will pay off in future
years. The University actually cheats
the poor soul of his "great expecta-
tions."
  We are still promising him the qual-
ity of the past instruction and giving
him the treatment of the modern speed-
up, factory method.
  The Board of Regents and the Uni-
versity administrative committee have
done a poor job of training thinkers
and scholars. They have had their ear
to the ground all right, but what one
hears isn't always correct. Instead of
training for leaders, thinkers, and true
scientists, the Board has heard the
pleading of large trade organizations
asking for trained technicians. Nat-
urally, all a trade needs, in a special-
ized production, is trained technicians.
But our corporation should not be in
business to supply such a product.
  The penetrating eye, so nobly im-
printed upon our emblem, should gaze
inward for complete introspection. We
must select entering students carefully,
sifting through their scholastic records.
The classes at the University should be
made much smaller, thus providing the
modern scholar with the intimate con-
tact which he gains through close as-
sociation with his professor. Our goal
should not be to provide leaders for the
provincial boundaries of Wisconsin. We
should send forth students who are
custom-trained, not assembly-line pro-
duced, who will seek to discover new
truths for the enlightenment of all
mankind.