Sangamon Magazine, Spring 1973

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Sangamon Magazine, Spring 1973 SansamonSPRING 1973 Vachel Lindsay's signature on the cover is re- produced from an original poster "The Map of the Universe." The poster contains both art and poetry by ~indsay,portions of which illus- trate the article, "Vachel Lindsay: Work in Progress" by Dennis D. Camp, an associate professor of literature at Sangamon State Uni- versity. He holds the Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin and he taught in that system before coming to Sangamon. His ar- ticle is based on research under way into the life and artistry of Vachel Lindsay. Other articles in this issue are written by: Thomas B. Littlewood, a member of the Wash- ington Bureau of the Chicago Sun-Times. Be- fore going to the nation's capital he spent a number of years as the Sun-Times Capitol correspondent in Springfield. He holds the master's degree from Northwestern University and is the author of a biography of Henry Horner, the depression years governor of Illi- nois. Paul Simon is on the faculty of Sangamon State University and directs the program in Public Affairs Reporting. He is a former lieutenant governor of Illinois, legislator, publisher of a chain of weekly newspapers, and author. He presently divides his time between SSU and the John F. Kennedy Institute at Harvard where he is lecturing this semester. P. Douglas Kindschi is the director of Aca- demic Planning at Sangamon State University and was among its original faculty. A mathe- matician, Kindschi earned the Ph.D. degree at the University of Wisconsin and at one time attended the divinity school at the University of Chicago. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Secretariat for Science and Theology. Table of Contents Page An Introduction A Salute to Alumni This magazine is about Sangamon State Robert Spencer .............................................................. 2 University: its programs, its plans, its buildings, and most important, its people. Our concern is the university; our audience, those who in some way are involved with the Vachel Lindsay: Work in Progress university. This magazine will be published Dennis Camp ................................................................ 4 quarterly to keep friends informed of the events and intellectual life of the campus community. Our subject may be a poet or a politician, an Statehouse Journalism academic program or a public issue. The Thomas B. Littlewood .................................................. 8 topic may be serious or frivolous, the author a dilettante or an expert. Whatever the subject, whoever the author, we have one goal, honest writing about Sangamon State. At times SA NGA MON may seem eclectic, but central Public Affairs Reporting: What It Is and Why It Is to all that we publish will be the university. Paul Simon .................................................................... 8 This magazine, being primarily for former students, is open to them. If you have items for the news notes section, letters to the editor, or suggestions for articles, let us Academic Planning at SSU know. And if you move, tell us so we can Douglas Kindschi ........................................................ 12 keep in touch. A I1 of us share one thing: we have attended Sangamon State. The school will always be part of us. So it is important to us that the Results of Alumni Survey .............................................. 15 school succeed. Conversely, how well the university is doing its job will be measured by what we gained from our experience at the school. These pages will record that success and growth, and some disappointments The Capital Campus: a Pictorial ................................... 16 as well. We believe it will make a good story- sometimes exciting, sometimes frustrating, but always intriguing. News Notes ......................................................................18 SANGAMON, Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1973 Editors: Philip Bradley, John Garvey Photographers: Dale Coleman and Michael Thomas. Phil Bradley SANGAMON is the alumni magazine of Sangamon State University. It is published four times yearly by the Office of University Relations. Third class postage paid at Springfield, Illinois. Send all correspondence and changes of address to Alumni Office, Sangamon State University, Springfield, Illinois 62708. Printed by Authority of the State of Illinois 1 M copies, February 1973 Although it is flattering to be asked, without question No, the best available analogy to describe the it is difficult to bring a meaningful message to the alumni during their first year "out" is to describe them alumni of a new institution. This is particularly true as veterans. Veterans who took up their university when these alumni have just barely forgotten the education first at a church in downtown Springfield, memorable words uttered to them 'by the assembled then at an unfinished campus during very muddy dignitaries on that clear, coot day in June 7972 when weather, Veterans who out-waited or at times out- the first 400 or so graduates received their degrees. witted an enthusiastic and overburdened faculty who But it is difficult for other reasons, too, and these were trying to settle themselves and their families in relate to the nature of the SSU enterprise and the Springfield, starting classes without sufficient lead- peculiar timing of its entrance upon the American time for preparation of challenging new courses, and higher education scene. who were trying to innovate all at once in teaching What loyalties has the SSU experience generated in and public affairs in a turbulent environment of the hearts of its graduates? In answering this questior. governance. we must exclude at the start the traditional loyalties Indeed, for some graduates of last year, their cultivated by many college and university alumni loyalties to SSU center about the battles within the associations: those associated with life on a residential university itself. For the first time hundreds of students campus with its panoply of clubs, Greek societies, were introduced as participants and spectators to undergraduate activities. dining hails and dormitory the inner workings of an institution-inner workings life. Neither can the SSU experience evoke loyalties brought into the public arena by the many agendas of related to another characteristic of state university life: the Assembly, its councils, and committees, and by intercollegiate athletics, winning teams, and the color the wide spectrum of conflict between administrators and pomp associated with marching bands and and faculty, each struggling for direction of the bouncing cheerleaders. In addition, because it is a institution with, it seemed at times, as many Master new institution, SSU is unable to summon memories Plans for Higher Education as there were contestants and loyalties of kindly deans and senior professors for influence and decision-making authority. whose lengthy presence give substance to the student Never before in the history of an Illinois institution mythologies linking tweed jackets, aromatic smoking had studenrs been asked to participate as equaFs of tobacco, and the leisurely pace of a bucolic campus faculty in evaluating teaching, in joining curriculum environment to ideals of scholarship and learning. and program committees. in providing significant contributions to SSU's intellectual goals and in developing academic standards and procedures for graduation. This experience, together with the distinctly different signals being received all along from the governing board and coordinating board concerning SSU's mandate, produced the environment which might be called the "Battle of SSU from 70 to 72." Amazingly enough the involvement and A Salute to the Alumni turbulence of those first two years deepened the significant. As instruments of that intellectual growth loyalties of its veterans far more than it shattered and personal change, the university fac~lltyand staff them. Those loyalties will be important in the have received in turn the warm support of its years ahead. community and the continued keen interest of its It is not the purpose of this brief comment to graduates. This is, perhaps, the real stuff of alumni examine the issues of those battles or to single out loyalty-their memories and respect for the character their "decorated" veterans for special mention. and quality of the intellectual life which SSU brought However, it is important to note that underlying to them and their companions in the classroom and many of those issues and disagreements was some the community. These "veterans," then, are older and of the purest idealism found in the world of higher wiser, less from combat than from study, reflection, education. That idealism, together with a variety of and the vigorous treatment of ideas which have agendas for "reform" which many people brought characterized classes at SSU from its inception. with them as students, staff. and faculty, each trying So the first order of business in participating in to contribute to the design and building of a new the inaugural issue of Sangamon is to salute and better institution than they had experienced the graduates and ask for their continued involvement before, have made solid contributions to the growth and participation in the development of the institution of the new institution. And, by and large, many of through the pages of this journal, through direct these concerns materialized and now characterize service to the institution on committees and councils, the curriculum and operating style of SSU. and through continued study and personal But, for many of the alumni, those first two development. If this publication helps sustain those years at Sangamon State did not make them veterans interests and refine those commitments, the finest in the sense of "comrades at arms." For them, many of all tributes can be paid to the new university- of whom were older, employed full time in businesses that students came to learn, and that the university and state agencies, or managed a household of young assisted them in their lifetime goals of learning and children, the study for their degree at SSU was an problem solving in a difficult and troubled world.
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