Word: riesmans
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...view of David Riesman. Ford Professor of the Social Sciences, the countercultural revolution has "made the Houses less attractive to older faculty." The "cult of spontaneity" espoused by young people, he says, meant that "anything could happen." Riesman cites an incident to illustrate his point. "A couple of years ago my wife and I invited a group of Radcliffe students to come over for tea. Not all responded to the note we sent out, so we called them. Several told us on the day of the tea that they were coming. In the end, only four of eight telling...
Another inheritance from the late '60s. Riesman feels, is the "democratization" of the Houses. As an example he cites the Senior Common Room gatherings in Quincy House, with which he is affiliated. "We used to eat on the dais in the dining hall for lunch." he says. "It gave tutors a chance to talk with me. Then it was thought wrong to have senior faculty cut off from students." Now the members of the Senior Common Room are expected to mix with students in the dining hall. As a result of such changes. Riesman says, many professors view the Houses...
...good thing, but it certainly is time-consuming." John L. Clive, professor of History and Literature, agrees. "If you look at the calendars of faculty members, there's meeting of this committee or that committee. There just isn't much time left for other things." Riesman says that the democratization of the University has increased the obligations of all professors to non-teaching matters. The question that must be asked, he says, is, "Do students want more committees or more attention...
Similarly, Riesman talks of the "unrealistic expectations" of students at Harvard. "They want all the advantages of Harvard combined with all the advantages of Swarthmore," he says of the persistent demands for contact with faculty...
Rooming is certainly an important factor in undergraduate happiness at Harvard, but the degree to which the Oxford-style House system will affect a student's four years here is uncertain. Riesman speculates that a small House with a lot of community feeling would reduce the anxieties felt throughout the College. Harvard he said, "has done much less than it might have to respond to the sense of anomie and alienation that students feel...