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Western Newsletter (1955-71) Western Michigan University
10-1961
Western Michigan University Newsletter, October 1961
Western Michigan University
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WMU ScholarWorks Citation Western Michigan University, "Western Michigan University Newsletter, October 1961" (1961). Western Newsletter (1955-71). 41. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/western_newsletter/41
This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the Western Michigan University at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Western Newsletter (1955-71) by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact wmu- [email protected]. :>ctober 1961 1 1 Vol. 7, No. l 1.. 1~ '1 '1 I~ ll
UNIVERSITY BROADCASTING CONTINUES TO EXPAND FM Radio, TV, Airborne TV Face New Challenges
WM K-FM, We tern Michigan The challenge is to take this unusual ed that seventy-two per cent of the Univer ity's owned and operated communication channel and turn it students thought the television lec- radio station has been, since 1951, into a u eful teaching tool. tures were generally interesting and the niversity' only link with the Last February Western, with the stimulating. broadcast world. It has ser ed faith- aid of several grants, took its first The students listed many advan- fully over the pa t eleven years both giant step into the complex world tages in the TV classroom. Among the community and the University, of television through two courses them were that classes were available rightfully claiming for itself the title taught over a closed-circuit line. to a larger number of students. They "educational voice of Western Mich- A survey of the first courses taught also felt more ground wa covered in igan U niver ity." over television showed that 67 per less time and that there was a better Although it is till the sole link cent of the American Government use of audio-visual aids. In general, with the community, WMUK-FM is students found the TV lecture ses- most of the student felt televised no longer alone in the field of broad- ions better than the regular courses. instruction was superior to normal casting at We tern. Last February, Forty-nine per cent of the Human- cla e . educational television came to our ities students also found TV instruc- Western's venture into classroom campus, and this fall MPATI made tion better. Eighty per cent of the TV was not a haphazard arrange- it fir t appearance. American Government students ment. even years elapsed from The roving eye of television which thought the television sessions were Western's first interest in ETV until ha caught, if not commanded the well prepared and clear. Sixty per Jun of 1959 when the dean of the attention of this generation of stu- cent of the Humanities students list- School of Graduate Studie was as- dent, ha given Western Michigan ed TV lectures over normal classes signed the responsibi lity to determine niversity an unique challenge and in regard to preparation and clarity. Western's role in educational tele- opportunity in the decade ahead. A composite of the two classes how- vision. educational television has made on the face of Western's campus the whole approach of student-teacher relationship has experienced a face lifting. Instructors have found that TV classes require more preparation, longer hours spent in research, and more use of visual aids. Television STORICAL SOCIETY OF MICHIGAN also demands that the instructor pre pare thoroughly and organize well. John Woods, pioneer Humanities instructor on ETV at Western, feels PRESENTS THIS mm OF COMMENDATION television classrooms have been very
to successful. "I miss most," states Woods, "the feedback of the students Radio Station WMUK while delivering the lecture, but find TV instruction most stimulating and rewarding." Students, even without the observ Atfesled by/_ oK. "•v ing eye of the professor, find that the TV class is one full period of in Attested by struction. Gone are the opening
Attested by jokes, commentson the current sport, or happenings on campus. In their
Sepiemlxr 53, 1W1 place is an uninterrupted lecture that requires the attention of each in dividual. There is no chance for Conferences were held with repre building and other areas. something to be repeated, or oppor sentatives of the Joint Council on Western's educational television tunity to distract or divert the in Educational Television, Educational program also received a financial structor from the main theme of his TV Center, National Association of boost with two Ford Foundation topic. Educational Broadcasters, and the grants totaling $58,000. From the A second phase of television at Detroit Educational Television Foun Fetzer Broadcasting Company came WMU goes under the title Midwest dation. Long range plans were organ the large contribution of $40,000 Program on Airborne Television In ized and in February of 1960 the worth of equipment, including two struction, better known as MPATI. State Board of Education approved camera chains. The Brunswick Cor In this capacity Western serves as Western's step into TV. poration and WOOD-TV also gave Southwestern Michigan regional re With the long range plans designed equipment for Western's new studios. source center. It is one of twenty and approved the next step was the Operating under extreme press of such resource centers in the Midwest establishment of facilities. Closed- time, limited staff members and and acts as the liaison agency for circuit television received the first equipment, WMU turned its first Southwestern Michigan schools with attention. A committee, chaired by television cameras on in February, the sponsoring agencies. Martin Dr. Robert Limpus was set up to 1961, for classes in American Gov Cohen, station manager of WMUK, develop a teaching program that ernment and Humanities. Duane is MPATI area coordinator. would make effective use of the Starcher took over the assignment MPATI is an experimental pro closed-circuit system. of the studio's producer-director, as gram, financed by foundation and Building space was the first prob sisted by two engineers and eight industrial grants, and has its head lem confronting the committee on part-time student helpers. quarters at Purdue University. In TV instruction. This was solved with Now in its second semester of operation it is a "school-in-the-sky." the selection of a part of Waldo operation, the closed-circuit tele Each school day one of two convert Library first floor to be used as tem vision classes have reached four. ed DC6AB passenger planes takes porary studios. Glen Bishop, chief Foundations of Western Civilization off from the Purdue University air engineer of WMUK, designed the and General Literature joined the port, reaches an altitude of 23,000 new studios. Classrooms, especially initial two programs and Garrard feet over the town of Montpelier, equipped with TV monitors to re MacLeod, chief announcer for Indiana. It then begins a three-hour ceive the taped programs, were ob WMUK, assumed the duties of the orbit, flying in a 20-mile diameter tained in a series of rooms on the second television director. circle while sending a TV signal to main floor of the Administration Beyond the obvious changes that five million students. The school-in-the-sky is not aimed John Pruis Named at replacing the regular classrooms, but rather to act as a supplement. Presidential Aide, The system is for the class to watch the monitor for twenty or thirty min Summer Director utes and then have the teacher take Dr. John J. Pruis, a 1947 graduate, over and conduct follow-up instruc has been appointed assistant to the tion. president for the University. In this way small school systems Dr. Pruis taught in the campus can benefit from a variety of 128 school one year following graduation, lessons in 28 different courses from earned advanced degrees in speech first-grade to college level, each at Northwestern University, and re taught by one of the nation's best turned to the faculty in 1955 as an qualified TV instructors. associate professor of speech, after Western has been very active in having taught at Iowa State Teach this program, conducting workshops ers College and Southern Illinois on the instructional uses of television University. to help schools and teachers in South In addition to his teaching duties, western Michigan in their use of he has also served as director of the lessons and courses presented on summer session, assistant dean of MPATI. the School of Liberal Arts and Sci WMU's own campus school was ences in 1960, and was chairman of equipped with a Philco gift of twelve the inaugural committee for Presi 23-inch classroom receivers and has dent James W. Miller last spring. been receiving airborne programs While continuing to teach one since the first of the school year. class during the present semester, Brunswick has also given the Univer Dr. Pruis in the future will direct sity a model classroom to use in this the summer session and will work experiment. closely with President Miller and The third phase of broadcasting at the two vice presidents. Western is the oldest arm of the system. WMUK-FM, formerly WMCR-FM, has been in operation since April, 1951. WMUK-FM, lo English professor Charles Smith's cated at 102.1 on the FM dial, is a program, Under the Spreading Met noncommercial educational outlet aphor. John Freund and Arnold with 36,000 watts ERP and a cover Nelson of Western also received a grant-in-aid from the NAEB for age of about fifty miles. Notice the bare branches at the center of Recently Martin Cohen, MPATI the picture! Like much of the United States, their program, We Mean to Say. coordinator for Western, took over the campus is being hit hard by Dutch Elm WMUK also features daily news and the duties of acting station manager. disease. This picture along Western Ave. is participates each week in offerings of heart rending, for this tree shaded street a Michigan educational network in Glen Bishop, who installed the first may soon lie naked without its shielding transmitting equipment and has been rows of trees. Physical plant officials are un cluding similar stations at the Uni with the station ever since, is chief happy in predicting that many of these versity of Michigan, Michigan State engineer. Garrard MacLeod, who stately giants will soon have to come down. University, and Wayne State Uni doubles as television director of the versity. new closed-circuit television stystm, WMUK this year will feature is chief announcer. taped re-broadcasts of lectures de Its audiences range from Grand Association of Educational Broad livered on campus. Plans are also Rapids on the north to northern casters, British Broadcasting Cor underway to involve the station in Indiana on the south, Battle Creek to poration, American Chemical Society. more University activities through a the east and Lake Michigan com Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, series of remote broadcasts. munities on the west. The broad French Broadcasting System, and the Closed-circuit educational televi casting day is from 3:00 P.M. to Broadcasting Foundation of America. sion, Midwest Program on Airborne 11 :15 P.M., Sunday through Friday. WMU faculty members often appear Television Instruction, and WMUK Music is the center of the daily on the station as well as distinguished Radio then make up the broadcasting programming. Transcribed programs guests visiting on campus. Recently world at Western Michigan Univer come from such sources as National WMUK received two awards for sity. Winifred AAacFee, Education Library Head, Succumbs Mrs. Winifred Congdon MacFee, director of the Educational Service Library of the School of Education from 1942 until her retirement last June, died Oct. 31 at Berrien Springs. A WMU graduate, she had dedi cated herself for 19 years to the task of providing the best available cur riculum library to students in educa tion. During her period of service the collection was improved and expand ed greatly and larger quarters were obtained. She had begun her teaching in Winifred C. MacFee Roy O. Mesick Allegan County, and later taught in Otsego, Jackson, Allegan and Kal partment of Kalamazoo Central high amazoo before moving to the cam Mesick Lost to school that year. His prior teaching pus. Physics Faculty had been in Allegan County, Bellaire Mrs. MacFee was an indefatigable high school and St. Joseph high traveler and found great pleasure in An alumnus and veteran teacher school. who came to Western following re While at Central high school he bringing the story of her interesting tirement from the Kalamazoo pub was honored by the University's Fac jaunts to her friends. lic schools, Roy O. Mesick, passed ulty Science club as the "outstanding She was also interested in many away Oct. 18 in Kalamazoo. science teacher in Southwestern community activities, belonging to He had joined the physics faculty Michigan." several local organizations, and was in 1959, and would have retired next Besides his wife, Mr. Mesick leaves an active member of the First June. A 1927 graduate of Western, two daughters, Mrs. Martha Mein- Church of Christ, Scientist. he became head of the science de- zinger and Mrs. Mary Higgins.
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY
! LETTER
Second class postage paid at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Pub lished eight times a year—October, December, January, March, April, June, July, September—by Western Mich igan University, Kalamazoo. Russell A. Strong, Editor