Viking_Yearbook_71

128 Transfer from U. of 0. I'm 19. I have no idea how many credits I have; I've been going to college since September, '69. I transferred here from University of Oregon but I don't think you can compare the two schools. I really haven't had a radical class; I have had structured classes and unstructured classes. But last term I did take courses from two "radical" teachers. (Call them Jones and Smith because those aren't their names-isn't that the way you write these things?) The difference between the two classes wa.s just fantastic. Both had great potential but one of them seemed to me to make a mockery of teaching. In Jones' class-it was mainly 19th century-we got into the way American thought evolved. You draw your own conclusions of why we are the way we are. We read four or five books. They were fine books and the lectures were very good. There was a midterm paper and a final paper. We were given a variety of topics to write on with the purpose of seeing how we understood the material. There was no way you could cop out of his class; you really had to work. The evaluation of this class was very high. Everyone thought it was valuable and the instructor was valuable to it. In some classes the instructor isn't really very valuable part of it; you can do the reading part on your own, understand the material and come up with rational conclusions. With Jones it makes it a lot easier if he is there. In the other class there weren't any lectures-he would just rap, mainly on anything concerning revolution. The class went right along with him. We read four or five books here too, some very good ones. It could have been such a fantastic class. There was so much potential right there with the books. But, you know, if you pass the BS sessions in the cafeteria, Smith's class is a cinch. I don't know if he realizes that. He never prepared his lectures. He talked off the top of his head and was constantly making reference to this. He seemed to think that since people don't think in a linear fashion, it was irrational to try to pass himself off as thinking this garbage in a linear fashion. I guess he is very influenced by McLuhan. Smith's class was entertaining enough, never boring. He was too charismatic for that. There are a lot of profs who have tenure who pass themselves off as good professors who really aren't– who are very boring. Most of my classes are the typical-a little boring but with something I can find to get out of them. The radical classes at U. of 0 . were called Search Classes; I don't know if they have them there anymore. I was taking "The Mythology of Walt Disney". Every time I register here I'm so completely discouraged I feel like dropping out because that schedule is so boring. I tell people this and they don't understand what I'm saying because they haven't been to another university. Oregon had a far greater variety of classes and more interesting ones. They had U. of 0. classes which you probably couldn't find anywhere else. I guess Portland State is just starting this. Maybe teachers here are just sort of cracking their brains to think up classes to teach. Every term the English department seems to get a couple of neat classes like this term-" Literature of Wonder", and one about women, and others on folklore, witchcraft and science fiction. I wonder if these few new classes, though, aren't sort of tokenism. They'll put them in to spice up the schedule, to make it look a little different every term. They could do so much better. This quarter I'm taking "The Left Wing Critique of Capitalism" . There are eight instructors and none are getting paid for this. It is all on their own free time. I wanted to take the class because I thought it would get into economics. I don't know much about economics. Anybody can bullshit ideology. Anybody's ideology is valid; it's sort of a head trip. The class was so large it had to be moved to an auditorium. It meets three hours on Wednesday with each teacher presenting his topic or orientation under the general heading and his book list. Then it breaks down into eight groups and students signed to be in the group of their choice. But this "Left Wing Critique" class is one of those last minute things. People just showed up to teach a few days before the class started. You can sympathize with that-that a few instructors are really trying to get something off the ground. And something probably always stands in their way. Some sort of policy, maybe; I don't know. But, on the other hand, I pay $136 a term and I don't want it to go to waste. Of course, I don't really know what my money is worth . For awhile I was going to the university just to read books. That got on my nerves. I could do that on my own. I guess I'm just willing to pay $136 a term for feedback . That's what classes are all about. There was a radical clique at Oregon the same as here. The radical clique at Portland State seems very influential to the people here. It's not a little clique, it's big. And the people in it probably don't even recognize the fact that they are in a clique. But from the outside looking in, it seems that way. I made the assumption that everyone in this group dug each other which I see now is not true. But you see them around together. They all sit on the left side of the cafeteria. I think they really influence this school. They were the policy making people during the strike. They always seem to be the spokesmen at lectures, like the ones in the Ballroom on women. The group is left. But I haven't met a radical yet at Portland State. You hear a lot of yelling but when you get right down to the actual politics of people, they are not as radical as you might think.