Education: Pipes and Old Jokes

University of California’s faculty ranks as one of the Big Four among U. S. universities (with Harvard, Chicago, Columbia). Few years ago the American Council on Education rated California “distinguished” in 21 of 35 departments (Harvard: 23). Among California’s distinguished professors: Atom-Smasher Ernest Orlando Lawrence, French Scholar Haakon Chevalier, Chemist Gilbert Lewis, Spanish Scholar Rudolph Schevill, Biologist Herbert McLean Evans, Paleobotanist Ralph W. Chaney, Legal Scholar Max Radin.

But California students can now use more specific ratings of their professors. Last week undergraduates on California’s Berkeley campus thumbed a handy guide to their faculty. The booklet, called Guide to Courses, was compiled by an anonymous group of students, sold for 10¢ a copy by a leftist campus bookshop. Candid, irreverent but informative, the Guide to Courses quickly sold 515 copies. Sample ratings:

Ernest Orlando Lawrence: “Prefers cyclotrons to lectures.”

Ronald L. Olson (methodical, oldtime anthropologist) : “Interesting material, old jokes, detailed memory examinations.”

I. B. Cross (economics 1A): “Grandstand lecturer; lots of talk but facts creep in.”

Robert A. Brady (famed economist, a popular teacher who talks through his beard): “Can be exciting but is guaranteed hard.”

Herbert E. Bolton (history department chairman): “Excessively dull lectures; study the outline and you’ve got a pipe.”

Charles E. Chapman (history): “What American came to what river in what year? Gets his politics in (Rep.).”

Major General David Prescott Barrows (political science chairman, onetime president of the university): “Entertaining, irrelevant and 200% American.”

Having had fun writing their report, the authors of Guide to Courses announced that a move was afoot to publish a bigger & better one, on the scale of the university catalogue, ratings to be based on a general student poll. This week the daily Californian began to publish results of such a poll, conducted by German Professor Franz Schneider (no rating). Said Guide to Courses: “Such student-controlled criticism might help the teaching staff considerably.”