Newsletter_19731207.pdf

Media

Part of The Evergreen State College Newsletter (December 7, 1973)

extracted text

the
evergreen
state.,
college
(•

)[

newsletter
December 7, 1973

volunteer families sought
GERSTL'S STUDENTS TO INVESTIGATE EFFECTS OF ENERGY CRISIS
How can American families effectively deal with the energy crisis? What adjustments to their life styles will they have to make? How can they more efficiently use
the limited resources they have?
Some answers to these kinds of questions may soon be available thanks to a research
project being undertaken by an Evergreen faculty member and 22 students in cooperation
with Olympla-area families willing to volunteer as control groups in the study. Families
who participate will be asked to live for one month within some severe energy restrictions .
Each of the families who volunteer for the project will agree to consume not more
than 10 gallons of gasoline for a week. They will cut their use of water and electricity in half; they will keep their thermostats set at 60 degrees, and they will live within sharply reduced food and entertainment budgets.
SACRIFICES MAY HELP US ALL
The results of their sacrifices"may help all of us deal more effectively with the
adjustments we may eventually have to make," according to Evergreen Faculty Member Ted
Gerstl, an applied behaviorial scientist with a Ph.D. in organizational behavior from
Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University, who is coordinating the study.
"It's becoming increasingly obvious that we will all be facing changes in our life
styles because of the shortage of energy sources," Gerstl says. "We want to study how
families make adjustments to these shortages now, before the crisis deepens any further."
Gerstl's students, all members of the Individual in Contemporary Society Coordinated
Studies program, originated the idea for the study before the Middle East war so dramatically affected the fuel shorage. "They're extremely concerned about the shortages we
face," he says. "They realize it will greatly alter our standards of living and are
anxious to gauge the effect these alterations will have on an average family." Students
have already prepared an in-depth study on the effects the energy crisis may have on
families based on reactions of families to similar shortages during the depression and
World War II. They have gathered detailed documentation on the energy crisis itself and
have spent most of Fall Quarter preparing for work with the volunteer test families, who
will be the first in the nation to participate in such a study.
FIRST STUDY OF ITS KIND
"Substantial amounts of research have already been done on the quantity of natural
resources still available for consumption," Gerstl points out. "in addition, there is
a wealth of statistics available which estimate when existing supplies may be exhausted.
"But," he adds, "there has been surprisingly little research into the effects these
shortages will have on the American family and on our culture as a whole. In fact, this
is the first study In the country which attempts to measure the effects of drastic energy
restrictions on average families." Twenty-five families are being sought to volunteer
for the program. They must be available between the first of February and the first of
April. All families will reside in single family dwellings and will have one to four
children. The first month of the study, students will interview family members weekly,
so that students "can become aware of what the family's usual interactions are," Gerstl
says. At the same time families will keep a log of their electrical, water and gasoline
useage, and will write daily journals. Then, about the first of March, the real test
begins.

-2DRASTIC CUTS PROPOSED
Families will be asked to cut their use of electricity and water by 50 per cent
based on their consumption rate for February and March of 1973. They will be informed f"
of the consumption rate of specific appliances and will be responsible for rationino
their use of water and electricity accordingly. They will be asked to use less than
ten gallons of gasoline a week and to live within a sharply cut food and entertainment
budget. In addition, several times during the month, families will be telephoned about
an "air pollution alert," which will require that they stay in the houne as much as
possible because of a dangerously high ozone count which limits outdoor activity. Families will also be required to keep their heat at 60 degrees the entire time.
"We realize participants will experience some discomfort," Gerstl says, "but we
strongly feel that the experiences which each family endures will have far reaching and
beneficial implications for the greater population." Each family will enter -he experiment voluntarily, he points out, and each will have a clear understanding of the conditions under which its members will be required to live. "We're certain thasa conditions
will not endanger the health or well being of any individual involved, and we guarantee
all participants immediate release from the experiment if an emergency situation arises,"
he adds. All participants will remain anonymous unless they request otherwise.
Throughout the two-month period, students will conduct weekly interviews with family
members as individuals and as part of a group, and they will test and retest trie participants. Spring Quarter, Gerstl's students, all of whom are studying social sciences, will
compile and compare the data they have gathered and present their findings to both the
Evergreen community and the community at large.
In the meantime, they're keeping busy recruiting participants; gaining interviewing,
observation and testing skills; detailing specific plans; and recruiting sponsors for
the program.
Persons interested in volunteering as participants or as sponsors j
of the volunteer study can contact Gerstl at 866-6638 between
9 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays or at 866-0784 evenings.
i

/

TEN MODULARS TO BE OFFERED WINTE_R QUARTER
Ten modular courses will be offered Winter Quarter to full-time, part-time and
auditing students, according to Academic Dean Charle^g^Tejike. An introduction to these
special academic programs will be held from 7:30 to 9 p.m. December 12 in Lecture Hall
Three. Teske said the special "Living Catalog" presentation will offer interested persons
an opportunity to meet faculty members and discuss academic program content.
Registration for the one-credit modules, which are equivalent to four quarter hours
of credit, will be held for part-time students January 3 from 4 to 8 p.m. in Office of
Admissions, Library Room 1102.
Full-time students can register December 12 and 13 and
January 2 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the first floor LAB lobby.
Modular offerings include: Education and Contemporary American Society taught by
Faculty Member Bill Aldridge; Organic Chemistry, taught by Paul Jacobsen, a professor
on leave from Tacoma Community College; Peoples of the World by Faculty Member Eric
Larson; Problems in Philosophy by Faculty Member Mark Levensky; Sociology of Everyday
Life by Faculty Member Carol Olexa; Mothers and Lovers: Thomas Hardy and D.H. Lawrence
Novels by Faculty Member Karin Syverson; Survey of Oceanography, by Faculty Member Peter
Taylor; History of American Cinema from 1919-1941 by Faculty Member Gordon Beck;
Ceramic Process, by Faculty Member Peggy Dickinson, and Calculus of Elementary"Functions,
by Faculty Member George Dimitroff.
Registration fees for persons interested in earning academic credit as "special"
students are $80 per module. Auditing students
those not wanting formal evaluation
or credit
may enroll in the programs for $20. Interested persons should contact
the Office of Admissions (866-6170) or the modular courses instructors for additional
information.
ECOLOGY PROGRAM AWARDED $750 GRANT
The Environmental Defense Fund has awarded a $750 research grant to Evergreen's

-3-

Ecology and Chemistry of Pollution Coordinated Studies program. The grant will enable
38 students in the two-year academic program to further research the biology of the
Douglas Fir Tussock Moth.
Taught by Faculty Members Steye_Herman, an ecologist, and Michael Beug, a chemist,
the program involves intensive laboratory and field work in general, organic and biochemistry, as well as electronics and ecology.
Study of the tusso-ck moth has been one emphasis of the program, Herman said. Earlier this year students spent more than a week studying the Tussock moth infestation
area near La Grande, Oregon. They collected data on the population status of the pest
and on its natural enemies. The data they gathered has since been analyzed and will
shortly be ready for distribution.
In the future, students will study Puget Sound marine life and examine the effects
of petrohydrocarbons, pesticides and heavy metal pollutants on that marine life. Herman
said the students, all upperclassmen, are currently preparing themselves for the "sophisticated analytical work" such studies will require.
S and A BOARD ANNOUNCES NEW MEMBERS
The members of the 1973-74 Services and Activities Fees Review Board have been
selected and the Board is now accepting budget proposals. The student members are Mike
Hall, Grace_Cox, Perry Newell, Ruth Milner, Chris Meserve, and Arthur Moore. The faculty
member is Carolyn Dobbs and the staff member is Ann Brown. Alternates for students are
Randy Acker and Ross Carey; the faculty alternate is Earle McNeil, and the staff alternate
is Lois Smith. Susan Woolley, the Board's executive secretary, selected the members
at random from those who had stated interest in S & A Board on the summer questionnaire,
and from the faculty/staff roster.
Each Spring, the Board is responsible for formulating the budgets of student organizations for the following school year. It also allocates monies that remain after that
process to those requesting funds during the school year and advises John Moss, director
of Auxiliary Services, on the structure of the total Services and Activities Fees budget,
which this year totaled over $200,000. About $1,300 is yet to be allocated during this
school year.
Information on submitting proposals and on the Board's function can be obtained from
Ms. Woolley (CAB 305D
866-6220). Dates of Board meetings and deadlines for submission
of proposals will be publicized.
SENIOR GIVEN RESEARCH FUND
Pi irk. V^ Lanning, an Evergreen senior has been awarded a $450 study grant by the
Southwest Parks and Monument Association to assist him in the purchase of radio telemetry
equipment.
Lanning, who is currently conducting field studies in the Chirica Hua mountains of
Southeast Arizona, will use the equipment to track the coatimundi, small raccoon-like
mammals which are the focus of his field investigations. A graduate of Eureka, California
High School, Lanning is studying under the guidance of Faculty Member Steve Herman, an
ecologist.
power and personal vulnerability
CROWE:

"IT'S NOT A SEARCH FOR TRUTH.

IT IS THE TRUTH"

The program prerequisites are simple according to the 1973-74 catalog supplement
all you have to do is be able to read and understand its description. No easy task.
But, once the reader overcomes slight feelings of intimidation and sits down to talk with
program coordinator Beryl Crowe, the Power and Personal Vulnerability Coordinated Studies
program starts to sound exciting.
As Crowe, a political scientist, declares, "It's not really a search for truth. It
is the truth." Then he disclaims his words, orders a "no print," and precedes to
describe a program based on the theory that "Western civilization is waning because it
has divorced theory and practice.

-4-

"We have failed to follow the successful Greek example of continuity and integration
between theory and action," he says. "The Greeks saw no difference between the two,
while we constantly separate them." To avoid that separation, Crowe and his three
faculty colleagues (Fred Young, whose speciality is mathematics; Sjmdra Simon, English; ( ;•
and Daye_Marr, American Studies) help students examine the relationship between the
dichotomies of yesterday's world and the problems of today.
PECULIAR AND COMPLICATED PROGRAM
A "peculiar and complicated" program, Power and Personal Vulnerability has "focused
on clarifying the critical conflicts in the human condition" most of this quarter, Crowe
says. Students have been developing the analytical skills necessary to examine the dichotomies and have begun examining parables by some of history's most famous writers
"to determine how those authors resolved such basic dilemmas as freedom versus authority,
individualism versus citizenship, public life versus private life."
Describing the program as "bookish, intellecutal,analytical and non-action oriented,"
Crowe stresses PVP's relevance to today's world and believes it is a superb preparation
for living. "It prepares students for life," he says. "If we are to survive the kind
of life in which we live
with all its complexities and its need for continual analysis
we have to be prepared for it."
Part of that preparation requires the development of understanding of the "languages
of today," he says. For example, Crowe points out that "we live in a mathematical world
where computers and computer kinds of rationale control many things in day to day life.
To live in this world, we have to have some understanding of the computer." That's
where Fred Young comes in. As a mathematician well versed in computerese, Young is teaching students the language of the computer
"not how to be computer programmers," Crowe
asserts, "but how to at least talk their language so they can understand and work with
computers as they need to."
MORAL CURRICULUM IS UNIQUE
Unique to the program is its "moral curriculum," Crowe says. "It offers an approach
to moral questions from a hard, analytical perspective, not a soft, mish mash of con- /
fusion," He feels strongly that "the university as an institution has so long ignored
these kinds of dichotomies that we are all soft and confused in these areas." He opines
that the dilemma of Watergate is "not BAD philosophy, but NO philosophy," and implores
his students to apply the basic philosophical questions they are studying to their everyday life.
Each week the program's 68 students attend book seminars, skill workshops, lectures,
and faculty conferences. Then they conclude their academic week with what the faculty
calls a "relevancy seminar," which applies the dichotomies students have studied to
today's world. "That's where we urge students to unite their theories with action...
not action directed at some vague person in Washington, D.C., but action aimed at someone
here at Evergreen with whom they have direct contact," Crowe explains.
The faculty urges students to create "a humane ideology" which they feel must be
generated before a reconciliation of today's dilemmas can be achieved. To help students
develop their ideology, the four instructors will emphasize reading, writing and analyzing skills during Winter and Spring Quarters. Students will spend two weeks each with
such authors as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Kafka and Jung. The first week they will
be "required" to write a counter-parable to that of the author,and the second week they
will be "required" to write an essay reconciling their own parable and the author's.
And, they will not be allowed to become "soft" or remain "confused" about the dichotomies
they're examining. As the Catalog description indicates, "full and conscientious participation in all aspects of the program will be required each quarter." No partial
credit will be granted. It's all or nothing in PVP.
beck reports
ITALIAN FILM STUDENTS ENJOY AMERICAN THANKSGIVING
Faculty Member Gordon Beck, who is coordinating the International Film Production
Group Contract in Italy, reports that he and his students "had a grand TESC American

-5-

Thanksgiving feast." In a letter to Program Secretary Pearl Vincent, Beck said 45
Evergreeners and their friends devoured four American turkeys and a wide variety of
American and Italian dishes, and enjoyed the company of their special honored guest,
Aldo Tonti, a celebrated director of photography and one of the students' master
teachers.
Beck also noted that two unexpected guests for the Turkey Day feast were faculty
offspring Greg Youtz and Crag Unsoeld who are studying in Rome briefly before they head
east to Nepal. Beck said his students who are studying at the Istituto di Stato per
la Cinematografia e la Televisione are "getting tremendous experience and contact with
great professionals almost every day..." He says of special interest is the excitement
of "living and working in a city where film production is a routine and everyday occurence. On almost any day one sees crews working on Rome streets or neighboring locations.
This proliferation of film production coupled with the easy acceptance of our students
by working professionals has made the entire trip worthwhile," he concludes.
Beck is expected back on campus by the beginning of Winter Quarter.
ROSE NAMED ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Al Rose, an Evergreen June graduate, has been named assistant director of student
activities. The appointment, announced by Activities Director Pete Steilberg, was
effective December 1.
Rose, 26, is a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War. He formerly managed the
Clark College Student Center before he graduated from that school and transferred to
Evergreen, where he has managed the College Activities Building since Fall Quarter, 1972.
In his new role, Rose will be responsible for facilitating the expenditure of funds
allocated to student activity groups by the Services and Activities Fees Review Board.
He will also act as a program advisor for student groups and activities, and will contribute to the development of student activities policies, Steilberg said.
on curriculum planning
MARTIN:

"SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER..."

Now's the time to speak your piece about Evergreen's curriculum for the 1974-75
academic year. Dean Rudy Martin says he and his fellow deans will make a "first cut" of
the curriculum over the Christmas holidays and, by the first of the year, hope to have
a plan ready for campus discussion. Martin, speaking to the Sounding Board meeting on
December 5, said students and others interested in having input into the 1974-75 curriculum should contact the deans before the end of the quarter.
"Persons with ideas for programs can drop them off at my office
or at the
offices of any of the other three deans," Martin said. The deans' secretaries have copies
of all proposals submitted so far, and Martin invited Evergreeners to stop by the first
floor of the Laboratory Building for a personal perusal of the suggestions.
He said the deans have high hopes of completing plans for the curriculum by the
end of January so the Catalog supplement will be written and published by early Spring,
and so faculty assignments can be made in plenty of time to allow for adequate program
preparation.
EVERGREENER ASSISTS IN RESCUE
Evergreen student Oliver Fienholz^ recently participated in the rescue of two skiers
lost over the November 25 weekend on Mt. Baker. Fienholz, a farm management instructor
at Skagit Valley Community College, says the Skagit Rescue Unit, of which he is a member,
found the two youthful skiers late November 26. Members brought the two nearly frozen
men food, sleeping bags and clothes. They stayed with them overnight and brought the
skiers out November 27. Fienholz, who will graduate in March, will continue on the
Skagit Valley faculty after graduation. He has been a contracted student with Faculty
Member Mark Levensky.

-6 —
UNION STREET CENTER NEEDS VOLUNTEERS
An appeal for help from Evergreeners has come from the Union Street Center,
Olympia's youth drop-in service. A wide variety of tasks await students or staff who
can help direct in-house activities and/or outdoor recreation programs, provide paraprofessional counseling, or tutoring, or offer a hand with publicity, office work,
or maintenance. Interested persons should call Barry Senter at 943-0780.

GOING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS?...KNOW OF AN OUT-OF-STATE EVERGREENER
WHO ISN'T?... Housing Director Ken Jacobs suggests that everyone's
Christmas will be a little brighter if it's shared. If you know
someone who's having to stay on campus over the holdiays, invite
them home...It'11 be a more special Christmas for all!

EVJERGREENERS IN THE NEWS
Program Secretary Pam Fox has announced her resignation effective December 31.
Ms. Fox will be marrying 2nd Lt. Ron Hawthorne of the Army Corps of Engineers on
February 16 and moving to Kentucky...Faculty Member Larry Eickstaedt recently spent
a week in Hawaii representing the National Humanities Faculty as an environmental consultant in Kailue High School, which is sponsoring three interdisciplinary programs.
Eickstaedt reports a "fantastically favorable response" to and high level of interest
in Evergreen's programs. He and his wife, Jean, managed to enjoy a second honeymooon
on the November excursion...New to the Evergreen staff are Stanley Hulett, who began
work as a janitor November 28, and Cleveland Green, who began work December 3 as
a custodian.
Administrative Vice President Dean Clabaugh has been named to the American College (
Public Relations Association Steering Committee on governmental Affairs.,.And, five
Evergreeners recently made the Volunteer Services news for their contributions to
several volunteer programs...Welcomed as new volunteers were Karen Munrq, administrative
assistant for the Washington Commission for the Humanities, which is based at Evergreen;
and students Wendy Fitchi11, Carol Welch, Madeline Mullen and Jody Brotman...One final
note, students from the Dance-Theater group contract, who have been performing "Alice
Through the Looking Glass" all week, are also scheduled for two "road? shows. The
50-member cast, under the direction of Faculty Member Bud Johansen, will perform at
Rochester High School December 10, and at a special Christmas function of the State
Department of Fisheries December 8.

Evergreeners

Information

Activities
Come,
make your own hand-crafted orna
ments and hang them on the
Evergreen
tree.