THE EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION STATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By •O Hubert P.^Morehead, B.S., M.A. The Ohio State University 19f?7 Approved by: Adviser / Department of Education ACKNOWLBD GEMENTS I wish to offer my profound gratitude to my wife, Martha,whose yeoman service in this cause went far beyond the call of love and duty. I want to add my appreciation to Dr. I. Keith Tyler, Director, Radio Education, The Ohio State University, my adviser, for the patient help he gave and the interest he displayed throughout this study. Miss Bette Wallach, Secretary of the Institute for Education by Radio-Television, The Ohio State University, took care of numerous official details connected with this disserta­ tion, helping immeasurably to shorten the inconvenient distance between California and Ohio. To her and to all others who had a part in the dissertation my sincere nthank you.1' ii TABLE OP CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. HIGHER EDUCATION, TELEVISION AND THE C O M M U N I T Y ........................ 1 II. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING ................ 36 III. SOCIAL IMPERATIVES AND EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION .............................. 76 IV. TELEVISION SERVING THE ON-CAMPUS COMMUNITY............................... 109 V. THE TELEVISION STATION AND THE SCHOOLS . 153 VI. ORGANIZING AND PROGRAMMING THE TELEVISION STATION .................... 179 VII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.................. 225 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............. 232 AUTOBIOGRAPHY ................ 238 LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PAGE I. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION FORM 303 SECTION IV, PART I, SUBSECTION 2 .......................... 39 II. CHART FOR THE ORGANIZATION OF AN EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION STATION .......... 205 Chapter One HIGHER EDUCATION, TELEVISION AND THE COMMUNITY Educational television is higher education’s bright­ est new hope for the enlightenment of all the American people. It is potentially an effective medium for dis­ tributing information, understandings, aesthetic ex­ periences and entertainment to the majority of the public. Television offers our colleges and universities their latest and best opportunity to fulfill with new vigor and fresh techniques their obligation to educate the largest possible community beyond the campus. Ameri­ can higher education has shown a lively sense of its obligation to the community that supports it, whether the institution enjoys tax exemption privileges, as in the case of private colleges and universities, or Is supported directly by public taxation. Prom early In our history higher education has been conceived of as a train­ ing ground for leaders — religious, educational, politi­ cal, agricultural, industrial, lever before has higher education had a riper opportunity to extend its services, facilities, and ideals to the general public than through television — not even at the beginning of radio broad­ casting which presented opportunities education 2 unfortunately was not particularly anxious to grasp. The history of educational radio is reviewed in chapter two. Some institutions of higher learning have accepted the challenge offered by television and have risen to the occasion. Some universities and colleges have, with­ in the past few years, acquired channels and equipment for non-commercial educational television broadcasting 1 and are now broadcasting on a regular schedule. Other universities are closely allied with non-eommercial educational television stations. Some universities and colleges are operating commercial television facilities; notably Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Ames, Iowa; the University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri; University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana. 2 Television broadcasting by American universities can be, and certainly ought to be, among their most 1. In January of 195>7 the following are on the air: the University of Houston, Houston, Texas; the Univer­ sity of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois; Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska; the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington; the University of Wisconsin, Mad­ ison, Wisconsin. 2. In the interest of economy of words and con­ venience the word "university" will be used throughout the dissertation for all Institutions of higher educa­ tion. 3 Important undertakings. There are two reasons for this. First, television is higher education's most recent potentially effective vehicle for developing and main­ taining a society of free men. The achievment and assur­ ance of such a society are education's main tasks. This idea will be discussed at some length later in this chapter and throughout the dissertation. The second reason why television broadcasting ought to be one of the more important activities of our univ­ ersities, is that the television industry while not among the very largest American industries it is a sub­ stantial, growing enterprise employing tens of thousands of persons. It is a vitally important institution from the standpoint of influencing the minds, morals and manners of the American people. Thus, our universities must of necessity be concerned with any institution of such influence, and economic magnitude. Television must be seriously studied as a social institution. There are vocational aspects of the problem as well. Personnel must be trained in our colleges to work in­ telligently and effectively In the industry. These aspects of television and higher education will be dealt with in detail in chapter four. — This thesis will attemptto arrive at a worth-while, practicable philosophy for an educational television k station operated by an institution of higher learning, and finally to devise a plan of organization and adminis­ tration whereby the station may successfully realize its purposes. Program guides will also be erected to govern the kinds of programs the educational station should broadcast. Additionally, the problem of training per­ sonnel in our universities for the commercial television industry as well as for non-commercial educational tele­ vision stations will be explored. The idea from which this dissertation begins is that the proper study of educational television in higher ed­ ucation is the examination of higher education itself. The role of the university television station is educa­ tional. Its purposes, its programs, its ideals and its administration and organization should be based on principles of American education, if it is to be a true educative arm of the university. Higher Education and Television To say, as was said above, ’’television is higher education1s latest and perhaps most effective vehicle for developing and maintaining a society of free men,” is to assume that a free sooiety is American educa­ tion’ s main business — its primary goal. It would be hard to find an educator today who would dispute that statement. Education for a free society entails two types of programs not necessarily separate: one, the training of each person in some vocation, and two, the development of each person as a humane citizen of the world. The so- called ’’Harvard Report” puts it this way, . .the aim of education should be to prepare an individual to be­ come an expert both in some particular vocation or art and in the general art of the free man and the citi- 3 zen.” Perhaps it is ’’the general art of the free man and the citizen” that is the more basic of the two educational aims. Vocational skill means little in human affairs if held by an individual imprisoned by ignorance and pro­ vincialism, with his aesthetic tastes and creative abil­ ities stunted or twisted. Mr. Harold Taylor, President of Sarah Lawrence College says: The purpose of liberal education is to make people free and to keep them that way. I do not mean free to do anything they wish, but free from the handicaps 3. Harvard Committee, General Education in a Free Society (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, T555TTp « 65* 6 of ignorance, intolerance, and illiberal- ism, and free to enjoy their own lives and to enrich the lives of others.!}. The general art of the free man and the citizen is what has become known as "General Education." More specifically, for general education is a most inclusive term: General education should give to the student values, attitudes, knowledge and skills that will equip him to live right­ ly and well in a free society. It should enable him to identify, interpret, se­ lect, and build into his own life those components of his cultural heritage that contribute richly to understanding and appreciation of the world in which he lives. It should therefore embrace ethical values,scientific generaliza­ tions and aesthetic conceptions as well as an understanding of the pur­ poses and character of the political, economic and social institutions that men have devised.5 There have been a number of efforts to spell out in more detail the specific types of learning and experience !}.. On Education and Freedom (New York, N.Y.: Abelard Sc human, 195!}.), p. 30." 5* Higher Education for Democracy, A Report of the President’s Commission on Higher Education (New York, N.Y1.: Harper and Brothers, i§!{.7), I, p. !}.$• ?- I' that constitute general education. The President’s Commission on Higher Education and the well-known "Harvard Report" have set forth