INSIDE Big Business! Majors continue shifting to­ THE UWM POST ward professional fields. Page 3 Financial aid: Competition for loans will; increase as cutbacks in federal grant prog­ Focus on. Higher Education rams hit home. Page 3 S&Sl Twenty-Five years after Port Huron, we look at the group's history. Pago 5 Freshmen; UWM administrators question Wednesday, September 2.198/ their preparedness. Page 11 New student minds fail to bloom r? fits Critique of education 113 highly controversial \1 W* A University of Chicago professor, special­ iMWM izing in social thought, says higher education is impoverishing the souls and minds of to­ day's youth. Few recent books relating to the state of American universities have drawn as much critical response as Allan Bloom's "The Clos­ ing of the American Mind." Despite Bloom's insistence that Story by Michael Szymanski his book is for students, many may Illustration by Mike Thompson feel slighted by his appraisal of them. In his book that has headed the New York I * i Times list of bestsellers for more than three months, Bloom warns that American univer­ sities are churning out a generation of non­ thinking cultural illiterates. Dloom, a respected J>6-year-old philosopher, charges that the cur­ rent move away from traditional liberal arts studies to vocational, tech­ nical and professional education is dimming the faculties of college stu­ dents. The book, a philosophical narrative that takes the reader on a con­ temporary cultural journey, uses great thinkers like Plato, Rousseau, Socrates and Nietzsche as guides. According to Bloom, the failure of higher education to require more liberal ai e failure of students to choose them is causing educational quality to spiral downwj Bloom calls the present state and trends < most urgent problem. "The crisis of liberal education is a re i •'5 a crisis at the peaks of learning ... an intellectual crisis of the greatest z magnitude, which constitutes the crisis of our civilization." I he "openness" college students express to differing ideas illus­ trates one problem in our current educational system, according to - z Bloom. < The university has responded to student demands for the democra­ tization of educational disciplines and Bloom interprets this as aban­ donment of scholarly tradition. Dloom sees a generation of college students who have been given no basis for making intellectual, judgements in their education and >- in lifestyles. Instead, they flounder in an abyss of alternatives without a Q I z Turn to page 13 CO Z < •s . Ul Percentage of total cost of instruction UW Budget mandates cuts paid by resident undergraduate students enrollment by 2,007 students, bringing the num­ by Michael Mathias ber of students in the UW System down to 1981-82 1982-63 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 162,511 students. he Legislature approved it, Gov. Tommy If the System reaches its enrollment manager Thompson signed it and UW System stu­ ment goals, it will receive full funding for 341 dents will face a budget that calls for in­ new faculty positions. However each of the T campuses receiving new faculty must use them to '«* creased tuition and continued enrollment reduc­ tions as they enter school this fall. relieve bottlenecked courses. The total operating budget for the UW System "The UW System is basically being held hos­ is $T.7 billion — a four percent increase over tage," said David Suchman, an analyst for the last year. Legislative Fiscal Bureau. "The university cannot System officials also will be more accountable release any of the money to those campuses that to the Legislature under the 1987-'88 budget. did not adhere to the enrollment targets." Monies alioted for increased faculty positions The Legislature requested that of the 341 new won't be allocated until the System shows satis­ positions, five percent be filled by minorities. A factory progress in restricting campus add/drop proposal by State Rep. Spencer Coggs (D-Mil- procedures, managing enrollment and tightening waukee) that would require 12 percent of the admissions policies. new positions to be held by minorities failed to get into the final version of the budget bill. System President Kenneth Shaw also is di­ % of total cost of instruction paid by students. rected to provide a report by Sept. 1 of each year The budget provides for a 9.2 percent tuition until 1991 detailing progress of the enrollment increase for resident undergraduates, bringing the cost of attending UWM for a year, with fees, UWM Post Graphic Source: UW System Fact Book 1987 management plan. This semester, the UW System has to cut Turn to page 13 1 Wednesday, September 2, 1987 The UWM Post Focus on Higher Education Page 3 | Legislation triggers increase in student debt Higher Education Act have A revised definition of an "in­ Prior to the amendment there Johnston said. "Grant money has by Lisa Lien raised the maximum dollar dependent student" included in was no age provision for inde­ leveled off as a result of the bud­ amount students may borrow, the new law requires that a stu­ pendent status, and any student • get crisis and many students are hanges in federal higher ed­ but at the same time stricter pro­ dent qualify as one of the follow­ whose family earned under finding themselves ineligible for ucation spending and legis­ visions have narrowed the pool ing: $30,000 automatically could be loans. The options are to go o C lation have prompted stu­ of eligible applicants, said Janet • A 24-year-old student. included in the program. other sources." dents to seek new resources, ac­ Hansen, director of policy analy­ • An orphan or ward of the A student who does not qualify Johnston noted a drop in the cording to financial aid and lend­ sis at the College Board of Wash­ court. as an independent student must total number of students partici­ ing institution officials inter­ ington, D.C. • A veteran of the United now document financial need in pating in loan programs in Wis­ viewed recently. "The real impact will come this States Armed Forces. order to participate in the GSL consin from 108,600 in 1986- As available aid dollars fail to fall," Hansen said in a telephone • An individual with legal de­ program. '87 to 95,000 this year — a 12 increase with education costs, interview. "The bottom line is pendents other than a spouse. The change in independent percent decline. and more stringent requirements that under the new eligibility • A graduate or professional status requirements has triggered But at the same time, Johnston limit the number of students eli­ fewer students are borrowing, student who will not be claimed a shift away from GSLs toward said, the average amount bor­ gible for Guaranteed Student but they're borrowing more." as a dependent. supplemental loans and the Pa­ rowed has increased. Students Loans, observers note several The new education act allows • A married person who will rental Loans to Undergraduate will borrow a total of about new trends in financing a college students to borrow up to $2,625 not be claimed as a dependent. Students program, according to $235,400,000 this year — an av­ education. for each of the first two years of • A single person with no de­ Dick Johnston, vice president of erage of $2,500 for each student, As borrowing increases, ex­ school arid $4,000 for the fol­ pendents who was not claimed the Wisconsin Higher Education compared to the average of perts are also beginning to raise lowing two years. A student may as a dependent by his parents for Corporation. $2,150 last year. questions ab$ut the impact of borrow up to $54,750 for gradu­ the two previous years and is "Students are not necessarily UWM has seen a 20 percent student indebtedness on career ate school — more than twice the self-sufficient — having earned at voluntarily going away from the drop in financial aid applicants choices. amount allowed under the old least $4,000 in each of the last GSL program, the federal laws Amendments to the 1965 legislation. two years. are forcing them away," Turn to page ~ The quick payoff Future income important when selecting a major "It also can be a lucrative field if you by Maureen Moore get into the right business," Breuriig said. tudents across the nation are opt­ ing for vocationally-oriented majors Dianne Sinnwell, director of the Ca­ Sthat will ensure jobs and high in­ reer Development Center, said she has comes, said a recent study by the High­ found more students are choosing er Education Research Institute of the vocationally-oriented majors like busi­ University of California at Los Angeles. ness and accounting than in past years. "Students pick what majors they The study, a random sample of think jobs will be opening up in," 300,000 freshmen in 600 colleges, in­ Sinnwell said. dicated that 25 percent of the students chose business over other traditional Students hear from the media that fields such- as the health professions there are opportunities in business or a v$mess You have iob and education. shortage of teachers so they pick that legreeand as Kenneth Green, associate director of major, she said. 10 anywhere in the Higher Education Research Insitute at UCLA, said in a recent New York Sinnwell has also noticed that stu­ Times article that students want a ma­ dents straight from high school are jor that will have a quick payoff be­ more interested in liberal arts than cause of rising tuition and difficult eco­ older students who want a majqr that nomic times.