Central Florida Future, Vol. 04 No. 22, April 7, 1972

              We live 'm the Present,
By the Past, but
for the. .
Senior Seminars
Abolition Sought
A resolution calling for the abolishment of the senior seminars a
required courses, received its first reading at yesterday's senate meeting
The resolution, sponsored by Debbie Hanshew, a candidate for SG
president, and Lee Constantine, a
We Live in the Present
By the Past, but
for the. .
candidate for SG vice president is
being supported by a petition also
calling for seminar abolishment.
According to Miss Hanshew, two
committees that researched various
aspects of the seminars found that
their value was debatable, and her
reaction to them is along the same
lines.
"I don't think anyone should be
forced to take a seminar. They
should be elective courses," said
Miss Hanshew.
The presidential hopeful noted
that the seminars could be
beneficial to freshmen and
sophomores who are undecided
about their major. "They could be
taken as elective courses to broaden
the student's ideas on what other
colleges are like. But for the average
student, the Environmental Studies
program is sufficient," she said.
The resolution reads as follows:
Whereas the senior seminars are
overcrowded, which causes no end
to confusion in scheduling, and
whereas the eight hours needed to
complete seminars could be better
spent in courses in the student's
field of study, and whereas the
value of seminars as required
courses is debatable, therefore, be
it resolved that senior seminars be
offered as elective courses instead
of required courses."
"I am interested in securing the
sentiments of the student body
concerning the seminars in order to
presen the results to the
administration," said Miss Hanshew
in explanation of the petition.
"Most students are acquainted with
the requirements of the seminars
even if they have not taken any,
and I feel that every student is
capable of juding their worth for
themselves," she added.
Miss Hanshew hopes to secure
3,000 signatures on the petition.
Petitions will be posted on bulletin
boards on the first floor of every
building on campus by today and
will be up for 2-3 weeks.
Student Government president
Frank Santry said he had "mixed
emotions" concerning the seminars.
He noted that he had finished his
seminars over a year ago and, at
that time, felt that they had been
"a complete waste of time."
However, he added that more
recent reports of the quality of the
seminars showed that they had
"apparently improved."
"I prefer to allow students who
have had more recent experience
with the seminars recommend steps
to be taken," said Santry.
DOT Okays
Additional
900-Car Lot
A temporary parking lot with
spaces for approximately 900 cars
has been authorized on campus by
the State Department of
Transportation (DOT). Fred E.
Clayton, director of university
physical planning, said the lot,
which will be of better quality than
stablized lot 200, is expected to be
ready by next year.
Clayton met with Department of
Transportation officials in Deland
last week and was told DOT has
begun plans to help relieve FTU's
parking problems. Although no
date for commencement of work
was specified, Clayton said the
department indicated work would
begin "before long." No costs for
the project were mentioned.
(Continued on Page 16)
THERE IS NOTHING HERE! The space once occupied by a large
print valued at $300 (a twin to the small once shown here) is now
vacant as result of a daylight theft which occurred sometime Monday.
Instructional Media photographer Lorran Meares is pictured above with
one of many prints he is currently displaying in the Library lobby. Six
prints valued at a total of $550 were stolen from the collection.
Campus Security is currently investigating the thefts.
Daylight Thief
Steals Photos
From Library
Photos valued at more than $500
were stolen from a photo display in
the library lobby Monday.
"My first reaction to the loss,"
said Instructional Media
photographer Lorran Meares, "was
to ask for the largest reward
possible for the return of my
prints."
Six prints were stolen, one a 35"
x 42" print valued at $300,
between noon and 8 p.m. Monday.
All the prints were insured by the
university for the amount they
would bring if sold by the artist.
An unidentified girl witnessed
the theft of the large photo and was
able to give a detailed description
to Campus Security, which has
begun a complete investigation.
"The real value of these prints,"
explained Meares, "is to the artist.
Many people think of a photo as
just a reproduceable piece of paper.
To the photographer, however,
they are as important as a fine
painting. In fact, one print may
represent as much as a year's work
and experience.
Of the six photos taken, two
were black and white, the one large
print valued at $300 and a small
fish-eye shot of a girl in a shack.
Four color photos were also taken,
three of them a series of fluorescent
renderings of a nude. The sixth, a
photo of a girl knee-deep in water,
is irreplaceable (according to
Mearse the negative was lost).
"My feelings about the
incident," said Meares, "can best be
summed up in the words that now
appear where the large print was
orginally on display." "Art has
three values - in reverse order of
importance, it represents the
creator's soul, it is laden with
altruism because it is shared with
others and it is a considerable
monetary investment. The
individual that deprives us of these
intrinsic qualities is NOT a child of
the new world."
Women In Literature Course Offers New Dimension
By Linda Carpenter
Beth W. Barnes is a young,
personable assistant professor of
English who has been teaching here
for four years and who will return
this fall to graduate school to work
on her Ph.D. But before leaving, she
will have had the pleasure of
introducing one of the most
controversial courses ever offered.
With some argument she was able
to convince the English department
to let her offer it as a special topics
course, so it is not an official
addition to the curriculum, and
may not be offered again after she
leaves FTU. It is listed in the class
schedule as English 491, Women in
Literature, but it is essentially a
course in women's studies or in
feminist consciousness.
Course materials vary from
current articles on women's
liberation that deal with female
sexuality and psychology, to short
stories by D. H. Lawrence and
Doris Lessing. Some of the
absorbing books for the course
include "One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest," "Women in Love,"
"The Golden Notebook," "The
Female Eunuch," "Sexual Politics"
and "The Prisoner of Sex."
Students interested in women's
issues or who just enjoy
controversial discussion, are invited
to sit in on Ms. Barnes class every
Beth W.
Thursday evening.
The following is an interview
with Ms. Barnes which took place
at her home.
Q. You seem to have a relaxed
friendly attitude toward students.
Is this part of your philosophy of
education?
A. Oh yes, I think the time is
past when we think we can have all
the answers and come into class and
deliver these answers to students.
Barnes
You get a lot further by sitting
down and talking with students.
Q. What inspired you to create
your Women in Literature course?
A. I have been interested in
women's issues for some time. I
attended a Women in Literature
workshop at Alverno College in
Milwaukee last summer and found
Florida is pretty far behind in
Women's Studies. Alverno, for
example, has an entire Women's
Studies program, with probably the
only Women's Studies Library in
the country. I decided I would like
to try something similar at FTU.
There is a real need for the course.
Ivory tower esthetes have to
begin looking at life from a
different perspective. Education is,
in so many ways, irrelevant to real
life. There is a strange idea in some
university departments that what is
modern is unworthy, and a subject
has to be a hundred years old
before a professor will touch it.
I can't give students answers, but
I can provide them with some of
the problems they will encounter.
For example, women have been put
down for years, and have rarely
developed their full potential.
Q. Do you feel the course was
successful last term?
A. I'm really pleased. Students
worked hard and independently.
They did far beyond what was
required of them, and that is what I
think education is all about.
Students were educating
themselves.
Also, the course has generated a
lot of excitement on campus. All
sorts of people have been asking
about it. I don't know that we can
measure what was accomplished,
but I hope that it increased
awareness and developed a new way
of looking at literature. I wanted to
expose students to reading
literature from a feminist's point of
view.
Q. What is a feminist's point of
view?
A. If literature professes to be
about human beings, it has got to
include women. We are not all
virgins or tramps. Literature has in
many ways failed to show our
humanness. It has either
romanticized or degraded us, and
women in particular need to be
aware of this. It is difficult to find
admirable women in literature.
Often, the stereotypes have been
enforced.
Women, particularly in American
literature, have never been worthy
characters, and when they are we
seldom notice it. I'm not suggesting
that feminist criticism should
replace all literary criticism; it's just
another way of looking at
literature, and I think a valid one.
When you reread things from a
feminist's point of view, you see
things you didn't see before. For
example, I never completely
understood the source of Dorothea
Brooke's unhappiness in George
Eliot's "Middlemarch." She is
trying to play a role she thinks she
is supposed to play (that of wife
and helpmate) and you feel her
(Continued on Page 16)