100 Alumni Hear Riesman Describe Changes in Academic Atmosphere

"Fundamental change over the past 30 years has given rise to the new-model research professor, very different from the undergraduate-oriented professor," David Riesman '31, Henry Ford II Professor of Social Sciences, told his former Harvard classmates. He spoke yesterday before more than 100 graduates of six alumni classes.

Discussing "Some Experiments in Higher Education," Professor Riesman declared that the academic climate in higher education has changed to the extent that many university professors now feel it "not worth their time" to work with undergraduates other than "apprentices in their field." The new-model professor finds that he must dedicate himself to a field rather than to a department, to keep his mobility and avoid being exploited by the university.

Riesman noted that some research-minded faculty members left the University of California when the administration experimented with a "house system" to bring students and professors together.

As for the smaller colleges with no research facilities with which to tempt scholars, "the only way to keep faculty members is to give them a sabbatical every third year."

He cited the Freshman Seminar program here as one of the many attempts being made to challenge the gifted student as well as keep the professor in touch with the undergraduate. Riesman sees the vote to grant the Reading Period to freshman as a Faculty move to do more with the students even if teaching less in a formal sense.

Commenting on increased academic specialization, Professor Riesman speculated that "the pressure against general education comes more from the students than from the faculty."

"The high-school chemistry whiz will "sacrifice himself on the altar of chemistry" and take the humanities course which least taxes his underdeveloped side; the literary 'Cliffie enrolls in the least scientific natural science--"and does badly in it to protect her femininity."