Concerning an Integral Development Plan for the University of Puerto Rico (1978)

Sit✓L.lOT~.~A TEL CE~1T P'7

DE INVESTIGA

•7y~ES cOCIALES

UNIVERS1OAa U'= PUERTO

EXCESO DE COPA PARA DONAR CPR UPR RP

RICO

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH CENTER FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO RIO PIEDRAS CAMPUS

concerning an integral development plan for the university of puerto rico

IVIILLARD W. HANSEN

DE

B18LIOTE.A DEL CENTR' INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES

PUERTO RICO UNIVERSIDAD DE

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH CENTER FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO RIO PIEDRAS CAMPUS

Concerning an Integral Development Plan for The University of Puerto Rico

by

Millard W. Hansen

November 1976

BIBLIOTE'A DEL CENTR2 DIET INVESTIGACIONES SOCIALES UNIVERSIDAD DE PUERTO RICO Introduction

Thé''~óTlowiñg'"pápers, ~ari'f'ten á~ter"Missioñs áf'a'iJiaCfversY.Cv r ; máké ' `i~ab prbpógnlá'rélevañf tó any iíntegr'al devé;.bpment' pián. $máY'f Coiíl~t~ The first proposes the establishment at thé'ltfó`PíédYas campus''of'a gradugfe fac`ulf Y . ' ' The "secohd PfóP'oses mó"r`e 'attention 'to the pú*poses ~ ' ' ~of tl4'e unive

Lty estábli'sh`edt 'in ¿hie bá'sic ' sCatutes of 1'903; 1942, añd 1966.` yearsagó the Couticil`'on Higher Educatión directed' a ha1't` on the "

estáblishcnéiit' of ai►y g`rác3uaté' program until á coherenti"pl~trr for the universit~i'' syé"tek had béen"fnade:

(C'ertificgtlori Numbér 40, 21 0ctob~r 1974)

the Cóurici"I:' diréctéd t6e 'üniver'sity Presidelat tó aubafit to it' a plan f'r►t the :ii..Nb intégrál déirélópmént óf the univéraityf. (Certification Number'42, vember 1974) ' LY~is` has nót 'been` dóne Thé iiniversi'ty is' á huge', spx'áwliüg conglomération` of units with very little' planning fó`r the asstgniaerit's' 1of staff, 'students, •and resources. Ma j'ór univérsities are at Hfó Pied as and Mayaguez. at'e' at' Sán'Juan.

The médica'l faculties

UniveriityC .légés are at' Cayey 'and Ñ macáo.

A number

of two gear `regional colleges have been established in' various cities.

`

A

budgét of $171 million must be distributed' w1 hin 'thi's` systéin. ' There'aré no

lequáte criteria for good judgments as to próper shares' toy be 'aSsi'gned 't'o

these units, faculties, student bodies, and their research and currícüla. The crucial deterrinát'ión to be made''i's the áz`ticulation•'of the major uníversíty at Rfo Piedras with"the university colleges and the regional colleges: For more than tét;'yeárs, chancellors at .fo Piedras'have advocated more emphasis bQ upper div eión'instiüctí''on, 'graduate instruction, ' and research, leaving for the regíónal'ánd u'niversít) colleges more responsibility'fór undergraduate ánd'especially' lower dfvi'sibñ instruction.

But the advocacy has not been followed by plans for this development.

Rio

Piedras continues year after year as a sprawling institution with inadequate graduate instruction and research. fl

The university President and the Rio Piedras Chancellor are responsible to the Council on Higher Education for a plan for integral development and, as part of it,

a plan for graduate study and research at Rio Piedras.

The basic statutes o£ 1903, 1942, and 1966 specify the development of a university with adequate research, graduate and professional instruction, and arts and science instruction.

Other university purposes should not

frustrate achievement of these missions assigned by public authority.

The

assignment of university funds for remedial basic study by students from low income families not capable of standard university curricula frustrates the specifications of the public authority.

Provincial standards of per-

formance in research and graduate instruction frustate achievement of the kind of university specified in the basic statutes.

The use of university

resources for individual purposes such as youthful identity searches, pleasure with one's peers, political adventures, and looking for husbands and wives frustrates the development of the university needed by the people of Puerto Rico. Establishment of a strong graduate faculty at Rio Piedras would be a long step towards the kind of university specified by the basic statutes. Only a considerable concentration of those members of the faculty capable of research and graduate instruction at world performance levels can transform the sprawling institution at Rio Piedras into the peak of the university system which it alone can become. ií

A similar concentration of the

best graduate students is equally essential.

The dispersion of these highly

competent faculty and students among mediocre masses of professors and students stunts their performance. A

plan for the integral development of the university is long overdue.

The shift at Rio Piedras away from undergraduate and especially lower division instruction towards upper division and graduate instruction and research, so long advocated by its chancellors, is long overdue. papers are relevant to these long dormant questions.

iii

These

The University, lacking an indispensable graduate faculty, not achieve its proper, necessary, and. legal obligations.

Gan

The graduate faculty

The grad-

uate faculty should have been established 20 years ago, when it was . strongly recommended by the ;late Frank Bowles and others.

Instead,

however, the University of Puerto Rica/Rio Piedras expanded its undergraduate programs and faculty even while undergraduate instruction in regional colleges also expanded.

24 departments now offer pro

grams•;for. the master's d,egree in Rio Piedras.

In 1973, 51-2 such de-

grees were granted - 15'. as many as the 3400 bachelor's degrees also.. granted. (Report of the chancellor, 1973, p. 45)

But in 1973, only

7 Ph. D. degrees were granted. The proper, necessary, and legal obligation of the university is often stated and almost never disputed.- The master of Clare College

Cambridge University, Sir Eric Ashby, for example, in the first

study made for the :Carnegie Commission on Higher Education stated that it was commited "to the preservation, transmission, or extension of knowledge ; by rational thought - whether to acquire a professional skill or for love o£ learning." (Ashby, 1971, p. 29)'

This learning

and professional preparation provides "the thin stream of intellectual excellence on which society. depends for innovation, for wise.judgment in unforseen crises, for management of highly complex systems." (Ibid, p. 31) The few competent for this learning and for this contribution can only gain this e$s@rtial learning, in a good university's graduate school and professional schools.

-2 Walter Lippman in 1971 concluded his lecture on the university and the human condition wit#i the proposition. that .the university was the last and possibly .the only in;stitutiop competent "to _use .known and reasonable procedures :to ,state the truth. as well as :it can be stated at a given time ,and place."

He: spoke at the Center for the

Study. .of ,Democratic Institutions at Santa Bra.rbara, CaliforrUa', .,under, .Chancellor of:.The the chairmanship of Robar M.Hutchins,: formerly . University,of Chicago.• .(ádansen, 1975, Missions, p. 19) He was one of the most adept thinkers of h:i-s . time, speaking at one, of.. the centers of world intellectual work. ; José: Ortega y Gasset forty, years earlier, upon considering the mission of the university in Spain, stated that it should "transmit culture, teach candidates for :the professions, engage in scientific research, and educate new members of ;the scientific community." (Ibid.:, p

19) Beyond this mission, he wrote, "Hay que hacer del hom-

bre medio, ante todo un hombre culto, situarlo a la,altura de los tiempos."

(Ibid, p, 19)

Sixty years ago, Ortega was attacked by

Unamuno for preferring-Europe to Sapin, and he replied that' his fascination for Europe was permanent and that in, the word europa "comienzan y acaban para mí todos los dolores de Espana." (Ibid., p. 2O),:' Julián Marías.in our generation cgntinues the advocacy of ; many of Ortega's ideas and like :Ashby, Lippmann,:'and Ortega assign to the university the mission of "Maintaining .increastng, criti cizing, and disseminating';.the best statements of what:.Is true-and.:what is false which can presently be made.", (Ibid.; p. 20)

-3 Professor Caws,..a much younger.,man, participating in,the extensive.inquiry ab.out higher education published in 1974 and 1975 by the American Academy of Arts.and.Sciences.,.not only reiterates the accepted, standard proposition about the university but also notes the.haxmful intrusion of other, improper missions. into, the university agenda.

He defixaed the .university mission "as preserva-.

tion, incre se, and communication of the peak of human knowledge, not intermediate products and not, providing remedies for.. inequalities o.€ whatever sort." (Ibid., p. 38) , University administrators.in Puerto Rico accept.this.central proposition about the university mission.. The first Commissioner of Education, Samuel M. Lindsay, proposed the establishment of ".a.university like the. great universities of Europe and the United States." (Ibid. p. 50) In 1942, Governor Rexford G. Tugwell, only.the previous year Chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico, stated the necessity of raising the university to the intellectual level at which it could perform its necessary work.

(Ibid., p. 65)

In the

serve, The

People,of

ty to enable it to achieve "its obligation

to

same year, 1942, the Legislative Assembly .reorganized the universi-

Puerto Rico: To impart higher learning; To make scientific research in the .various fields . . of learning; To study the fundamental problems of Puerto Ricb." (Hansen, 1975, Missions p. 10a)_ Jaime.:Benftez was. appointed university chancellor under the ..

- 4 reorganization of th' statuté of"194$. "tú 196b, 18 years'aftet'the statute fór the new universitV became law, Chancellor Benitez deplored' thé admission of stadétits`without the necessary "minimum óf knowledge and• skillé

He''dep'l red the' consequence: "án'important

part of'the university program is and'perforce must be remedial`ín character and below cóllegLáte natÜre." (Ibid., p. 69) On 24'Septembér' Y974, 'a few' months after his appoíntmeí't"as Chancellor of the Univers'i'ty of Puerto Rico/Rfo`Piedz`as, Ismael Ró drfguez Bou reported to a general meeting of the Claustro:' The re-

at this meeting, begins as

follows:

port of the study group conée'rned with grádúate studies,"pteseñted

"Principios Generales

el

Conviene adelantár las siguientes advertencias, a manera de principios prácticos para que orienten " desarrollo de los''estúdios graduados en la Universidad de Puerto Rico:

.'

1. Los estudios graduados deben responder a dos necésidades complementarias. Por ún lado, ló's requisitos de crecimiento intelectual y cultural de la Universidad misma,'én términos de diversidad y de conquista creciente de,las fronteras del saber. En ese sentido son esenciales al crecimiento propiamente universitario. Pero por el otro lado, deben responder ala necesidad de la comunidad circundante, en sus exigencias de líderes, de expertos, de investigadores y de agentes de producción y de innovación sociales, al máximo nivel de destrezas obtenibles." One perceives the reitérátion'of authorities of-this'century in many places - Ashby, Lippipann, Ortega, Marfas, Caws, Lindsay, Tugwell, and Benitez.' 'The úniversity miist provide scholarship, research, and instruction'at the péák level of our civilization

not`at'intermediate

-5 or lower levels.

By now it is clear that this principal mission of

the university can be achieved only in the graduate faculty. The Council on Higher Education, it seems evident, has decided that the necessity of a graduate faculty of some kind can no longer be postponed.

On 21 October 1974 in Certificación número 40, the

Council prescribed a halt on the establishment of any graduate program until a coherent plan had been made. On 12 November 1974, in ~• Certificacián:ndmero 42 ::th council prescribed, that the university president prepare the: pian .for:the integral de.ve'lapment of.:the university and submit it to the Council not later•than 3'Q.Juhe 1975.

Sincer 1903, the University of •Puerto Rico has grown into a huge institution..supported by over:$100 million, about 107 of the revenue

of the Free.. Associated State of Puerto Rico.

It has repeatedly

been. advised to undertake the. proper, necessary, and legal function of such an institution - the preservation, criticism, dissemination, and expansioh..of knowledge at the highest.level of our'timC, "a la altura.,de los tiempos."

As.. part :of the integral .p-tan for universi-

ty development which the Council has requested by 3.0 June 1975, there

should be a plan for a graduate faculty competent for.this first: and necessary::university mission.. :I_ believe that the Council ón Higher Education,r in the light: of the constantly: reiterated proposition about`a university a:la aitura de: los. tiempos, is: obligated to establish a graduate faculty.

.

The decline in efficiency and public acceptability of most of. our: prinaipal inst.ituti,ons is notorious.

The•quality.of life as well

-6 as of the habitat becomes progressively worse.

The university un-

happily declines at least as swiftly as any other major institution. One wry critic said that the business of higher education was probably the railway business of our time.

David Riesman, first a stu-

dent and now a professor of Harvard University, now finds this great institution precarious. "Thus what now exists seems to me precarious, sustained by a minoritj► who possess deep :instituticnal loyalty_:. ..:_ ;: and whose caring and sense of responsibility are moderately contagious.....Cynicism,and loss of faith, however, are also contagious. Under these conditions, . the,;future of Harvard, as of most major institutions of higher education today, seems to me impossible to predict." (Hansen, 1935, issipne, p:. 7) The, public `•seems to, lose confidence in the leaders .of: major insti,,tutions.

Between .1966 and 1972., when a sample of the public were

asked; about their confidence. in leaders in .16 major institutions, 48°!. on the average rep Lied that:they; had "a great deal of confidence" ,(Chronicle. of Rieher'Educat,ion, 4 December 1972) in ;l9x72., 27% on; •the average bad .such•. confidence.

The decline, In

'confidence in educational leaders was more marked;

from.61%.,in .

.

.

..

• '1966. o 33% in 1972.

Asked again

.It is ironic as well as::tragic that :the decline of.:univerai,ty competence and of public respect for education are to.so►ne eactent rooted in.-a.hopeless .attempt tot satisfy..what some:believe to be.,'., widespread public demands.

And to do so while..sacrificing Ghe an-

cient, necessary universi.ty.commitment to. the peak of knowledge. . it became more évident::that;:the.upper places in p;o€essional..and;, technical work were usually held by university graduates, a

As

- .7 growing public demanded access:tº.the .university, presumably .in tie expectation that passage, through the university led to.;these..bigher. professional places.

Such demands in :our time are habitually deemed

just and .imperative.

And so .the enrollment:.tn the U.S. o.f fewer

than.3 milUori in higher; education after the •Second World War became an enrollment of almost 9 million within 30 years.

It has become

blatantly clear by now,.of; course, that only the competent pass through the universities to. the :higher professional places while the less competent.drop out along, the way and find disappoínting,.ordinary employments. In the same years, especially in the Sixties, there was a :. strident demand that inequalities should be eliminated, often .by schools and universities.

In the United States, blacks, Hispanics,

women, and, the children of parents of low income or reliance on welfare attacked university gates to pass through towards more equality. When standards of competent intellectual work were applied, these groups' demanded quotas of admission without regard to such standards. Once admitted and confronted with failure in their courses, they demanded and usually got more benevolent grades.

So far there has

;been no notable. change in the status of these gxoups despite the quotas universities have, with uneasy consciences, ;been :giving theip. Furthermore, large numbers, of young persogs and ; their, parents perceived •the universities as cgnvenient places f-or unemployed young men and unmarried young .women .to congregate in attractive buildings, ample grounds, and with,: it was thought, more safety than -,was to ,be

-8 found :in .the streets.

The young persons often had little decision

about their ,adult identities and work and welcomed a few years for self contemplation without having to make commitments.

Also, large-

ly segregated from both children a:d adults, these youth (the cohort 18-22) often found their own company more agreeable than work with adults. These new claimants for university services - for social: mobility, for redress of ancient inequalities, fora resting place for gratífication;.and.self inventories before the plunge into adulthood did not perceive that large sums of money and the time of large numbers of faculty .and service personnel were absorbed in trying to satisfy .their claims.

And very few of the faculty, about half of

whom were gratified during the Sixties to get university appointments which depended upon the enormous enrollment increase, found it necessary to explain the drastic change in the universities.

(For

discussion of these questions;;:_see Hansen, Education for competent participation, 1975, and also .Missions of a university in a small country, 1975. Meanwhile, the concern with learning, both for its own value and also for its use in gaining a, professional competence,, was harder and harder pressed to gain :a proper hearing among those with .the authority and .funds which ,shaped the universities.

It is not, there-

fore, very surprising that while. pronouncements about the deep university commitment to the highest learning were. routinely made, ín fact the universities.- and especially the University of Puerto Rico -

-9 drained funds and:energy into . channels to:.sattisfy the.'new claimants. Eloquent ~Sronouncements about university -commitment to the highest learning`?ere not matched by necessary funds,.by.:essential policies. . about the entry of faculty -and students into lower and higher levels of higher education; and those`profesaors`who'were 'competent for the °'„

highest learning were thwarted-endle3sly by lack of funds::and by work assignments to the new claimants for university services.

To.

pursue;the highest learning; at world levels of performance,:requires the entire time and energy of the professor .as. wéll as-money: The university may be a pleasant refuge fór.youth before fihe ardors of adulthood.

It may strive to lead those of low status:;apd..

income'to'higher status and income, although by now the .renord.of.° achievement here is not• encouraging..

It.may.strive to eliminate

ancient inequalities, perhaps by entrance quotas,'.perhaps also by benevolent'gradíng, but there is as yet no evidence that much change occurs atong thosé whó-are unequal. seat b€ the highest learning.

And the úniversity may bé a.

If all these missions are to be under-

taken, the seat of learning -'will reqúíre adequate organization,: facúlty, and money td protect its professors from-claims which waste their tirt~e;. ,

..

If thé argument could be granted for the necessity.of including a gréduaté`faculty in the dtáft of the plan of integral development.:= of. thé university which the Council. on Higher Education has prescribed •fdr='3Ó 3uné 1975, then the first issue is the structure of tha.t.fac. ühty.

The-usual structure in -United States'universiaies.is

- 10 departmental.

The departments responsible for undergraduate in-

struction simply added programs leading to the master's degree and, when they could, prograasleading to the Ph.D.

The University of

Puerto Rico, however slowly and unevenly, has begun this kind of development.

A better structure for Puerto Rico is a graduate fac-

ulty separate from the departments although, obviously, necessarily related to them. There is objection in the United States to the departmental structure, which Jacques Barzun at Columbia calls "the amiable anarchy".

(Berleson, 1960, p. 120)

Even in the departmental

structure, however, the dean of the graduate faculty usually controls the granting of the Ph.D. degree despite conflicts with the departments and without controlling much else.

Much more important,

fewer than 40 universities awarded 94% of all the Ph.D. degrees, and in these institutions the excellent quality of the professors and theír capacity to dictate the terms of their work make questions of structure almost irrelevant.

Professors like John Kenneth Gal-s

braith, retiring in June 1975 from Harvard, and his colleagues preserve, disseminate, criticize, and extend knowledge in their fields pretty much as they wish.

Their energy and time are not at the

command of any claimants in the university whom they do not choose to Serve.

In fact,'they work almost entirely in research and Ph.D.

instruction.

Attempts to foster the highest learning do not always

include the departmental structure.

The great centers of the highest

learning in Stanford, Santa Barbara, and Princeton not only disregard

- 11 departments but universities and:s.tudents as well.

Many professors

have left their departments to work mere freely in the Russell Sage Foundation..,

Suggestions are often heard to estábiish.a wholly neck

university in Washington :D..C-.: >exclusively at the 'Ph;D. and post Ph.D. levels.-, :

..

"a :dramatic experimental modél.;starting de novo without the restrictions of established traditions, ,established practices, or established personnel would be free to do what operating institutions cannot now.try." (Berleson, 1960. p.. 251) I have asked 24 select professors of the University .of Puerto. Rico, of:clearly,demonstrated competence fo.r the highest learning,about the question of departmental structure in contrast.,with`a new Ph.D.:facu~ty autonomous of:the departments. of 16 years service ,here,

They have an average

LL .have written learned papers and .more

than hat -have written, learned books;'ánd:.a'll' but one reported attendance .to read papers at learned meetings. to 1.1 different.-departments.

They are now assigned

Fifteen: prefer a Ph.D. program¡:placed

in the departments, on top of pragrams for the master's degree, when and only: when. the, department has assembled enough competent .pro-Les

s to 4o:-the Ph.D. program.

Nine prefer a new Ph.ID, faculty

autonomous from the departments. ..To some extent the fifteen are more: satisffed.with master's programs, and: in. one:instahce•a Ph.D..: prograin,. now in their departments. :iMany.said:ánd implied that they „had. wonslender advances against heavy obstacles and. were reluctant to put in: risk these advances.

Most of these professors' simply an=

swered my questionnaire and had not .heard any description of a Ph.D.

- 12 graduate; faculty or argument advocating its. need. Almost all the 24 select professors have Ph.D, degrees from United States universities (all have the degree from some university). It is natural for them to prefer a departmental structure like that where they were educated. tion.

But one can dispute this natural predilec-

Puerto. Rico differs markedly from the United States so that

a structure which may be ,suitable there may be ;less so here.

The

University of Puerto Rico also differs markedly from United States universities, and especially so from the 40 or so responsible for nearly, all the Ph.D. programs.

These differences may persuade one

that a departmental structure would not serve Puerto Rico as well as a new faculty for the Ph.D.

Widely different circumstances at

least make it prudent to consider different ideas. :The participation of the labor force is formative in any society. Productive capital is unlikely to be moved to or remain in places without an adequate and sufficiently skilled labor force.

The level

of technology used, where of course the more advanced technologies permit more labor productivity, is also restricted by the adequacy and skill of the labor force.

A.gross sign of the effectiveness, of

a labor, force is the degree of its use.

In the United States, 6l/

of the population works in the labor force.

They support themselves

and, with their taxes, they also support the public institutions and those on welfare who are not working. p. 180)

(Associated Press Almanac,. 1975,

In. Puerto Rico, fewer than 3Q% of the population works in

the labor force.

(Informe económico,al Gobernalor

1971._ See also,

-

Hansen, 1975) Missions, p.; 113.) • .(In: 1974, the population- was 2,•993,200 of 775,,00O were working, which means that; 26`7. of the

total

and a

population was empioyed,) (Informe económico al'0obernadot 1974, First, even with-

Puerto tUco.cannot pay for

inputs,.

immense federal,

rhere:are:two consequences.

at

tions and we,l•fare

public

pp. 238 and 245)

institu-

a.,very. higb:'level.: Second`, school and=Universi-

ty shoui.d • be assigned as a:prinCipa1 mission 'education for' work at.:....::..

tion np,t::.werking

in

higher levels; of technology ansl* inquiryabout the 70%r. of the pbpula- •` 1971 and the 747. nat working in 1974

Not only

is labor participation small:in contrast with that of'the United

compared with the private sector differs:

297. of the Puerto

Rican`

States, but ;also the proportion of workers in thé public sectór•as -:-

work force is on thepub'Iíc payroll in contrast with 167. in the United States. -(Helfeld et al, Relaciones del trabaio en el servicio $blico, problemas y recomendaciones,:Vol. l,`p. •Z3-24, 1975) `With` such a contrast in the'.adequacy of thelabor force, it would seem prudent to assign work to each individual at the Jighest level•of ` productivity within his competence.

At the peak of the university,

professors competent for scholarship at world performance levels ought not to be assigned to work at lower levels - instruction for the .. master's and the bachelor's degrees. F• ,

.. .

The University of Puerto Rico like its supporting society differs considerably from the general pattern of higher education in the United States, and especially from the pattern found in the 40 institutions which grant almost all the Ph.D. degrees.

Different

- 14 circumstances sugges,t che prude,nLe of considering .different .ideas. As to size, the Ca4.negie Commission on Higher Education recommended a range from 5000 to. 10,000 for comprehen5ive cdLleges, i.e. for universities which do. not grant the Ph,. .li.. The, University, of Puerto.. IULO

is a, comprehensive college, pursuant to this d.efiniition;: yet

its .enrollment at itío Piedras. alone is 26000.; (.Hansen, 1975,.• Mission , p. 42:)

Furthermore, the distribution of. this huge enrohl-

ment .is; slanted heavily towards undergraduate .instruction. In 1971, enrollment of full-time: students was 95% undergraduate,. 3% law, and only 2% graduate.

(Hansen) 1975, Mi-ssions, p. 41) The distribution

of degrees granted, furthermore, differs from. the United States° pattern,as follows:

.

bachelor's.

524,000

77

3400 .:. . . . 86

master's. .

14.1,000

21_

- 512 ..

Ph. D.

18.000 683,000

.3 .. .

7. 3919

Tótal

13-

; .

Puerto. Rico

r

United States

'

Degree

.18

(Spurr, Academic degree structures, p. 17; and Report of the Chancellor 1973, P. 45). Despite important contrast in manpower, higher education enrollment, and distribution of degrees granted, the public university in Puerto ítico/'Río Piedras has been developing graduate studies on the departmental pattern of the United States. By 1973, according to the inventory presented in the report to the Middle States Association (September 1974), 24 departments enrolled

- 15 students as: candiáates for the..master's .diegcee~: , ;.(agpendies b.-2iJ: and appendix 2)

The enrollment was a total ,af .2415., 0f ; these; ; 559,

were students ;in :the; Law Shool; so that:-,-1856 were: possibly -cjandidate€; for :the mastex.' s degr..ee.. . :Most were part-time students, .:f B ..in;:; 1971 there were only 503 full-time.graduat,e•students. ; (Hansep

1975,;

Missions. p. 41) :::Furthermore,: candidates for the Pt .D..:degXee - of course there were ifew - were. ,also included in the .;total,,:._ .!lMe statistics are also.in some exror because enrollment in all courses with a:uumbex '40.0 .or higher was .included: ,whe,reas, not all,.such.:courses are at the graduate level. he , same report listed .2,79 professors ; giving . this .instruction: It is ,evident: that most law professors and, a few .others gi.ving;. instruction:at tie P#:U, level were not assigned,to:a master's instruction,. and.:it=,is also evident ,that many of these .279 pro-. . fessors probably also gave instruction at..the undergraduate level. Under':these :circumstances, it is not. possib.ie..t ;deacr:ibe.. the. enrollment and .faculty :assignment :to instructi©n for the master',s ..d.eg~tee precisely.

.,

;The:l856:students.(excludin

those in the ,Law School) :were .dis,.;; :

tributed:.;primarily in three fields:.

Education (secondary education, : ientatiop, and counselling, supervision and • 506.i.e, .27741. administration, and home economics.) . .:'Public.administration r. .

Sgcial work

.,

_.

353 i.e.,l97e .. ;1.197 i.e.. 1Ú7a ,aA56, i.e. 567,

- 16• Almost all the graduates of these programs would find their employment in the public sector.

•

nistribú°tion of theses graduate students in'• the `faculties •n€

ministration and sdcial =wort

)

humanities,' natural sdiéríce,'tid social science (except public 'ad-

was as follows:

humanities

145 i.é. 7% of-1856

natural sciéncé

103 i.e. 5% of 1856

•sdcial sciérice

•71 i.e. 3'/0 of 1856

In summary;' while graduate sttidy•is slowly being established::in the departments, the number of students and faculty in'the arts and sciences remains small.' Om á basis of full-time study and instruction, the number would be'much smaller still. 'The conclusion is that the university has moved so little beyond undergraduate instruction in the arts and sciences that there is no reason to advance to the•Ph.D. level on the departmental plan. The arguments for a Ph.D. faculty autonomous from the departments are persuasive.

Only the'most competent professors assigned

tion

can

to work at the highest level of knowledge for scholarship and instrucput Puerto Rico a la altura de los tiempos.

Only' such a

faculty will be capable of providing a nodel Of the role of the professor for guidance of younger or .less

ompetent members of the

faculty. •Only such a faculty will be & le to produce the research and scholarship which are almost universá`lly named as the first mission of the university.

Only such a faculty will be able to pro-

vide'the best available understanding of the basic problems of the

- 17 soc

tg .d :PUorto Rico - and the basic, problema,, ;too,. . Of the Uni-

versity of Puerto Rico.

Only such a faculty is likely to.produce..

esséntial learning materials for instruction at lower levels, .learning materials based often on the .Puerto. Rican situation, valid in gai►ing-`insights about this society, more persuasive for,students than learning materials based on: different places and circumstances. . Whérí professors competent for these purposes are assigned to work in departhents where. the overwhelming burden is :undergraduate.. : , instruction and the instruction of small numbers of candidates .for... ; the master's degree, they lack energy and, stimulus and. support fpr work at their highest competence.

They are few.

The University of,..

Puerto Rico should be:prudent,, even miserly, in using. them only at ;. the highest levels of scholarship and instruction. The plan for the integral development of the university which should be ready on 30 June 1975 .for the: consideration of. -the Council on Higher Education should provide for the prompt establishment of the graduate faculty.

If such an establishment were approve4 P.9w,...

the coming:academic year could b:e dedicated to the recruitment.,.pf. the faculty and the organization of the new unit. The dean and professors should be appointed fNll-ti new faculty.

.o.the

No other assignment will concentrate ,theix ~erv$ce.,on.

th&highest level of scholarship and instruction withczut,,which the ühi ersity of Puerto Rico will continue ,tp be.a. comprehensi

cp .

lege dependent on universities ;in Europe and. the United States.

No

other esSignmen-t will protect these professors from work at lower.

- 18 levels. which keeps them from this high service, a service which they alone,ean give. Funds, supporting personnel, and space exist in t e university. It is only necessary to assign them to the graduate faculty.

Where

additional funds, supporting .personnel, and space are necessary,, they should, be provided as soon as possible. The most convenient space for the graduate faculty is the central quadrangle at Río Piedras.

With the exception of one department of

instruction, the space; on the east side adjacent to the library is . now used by administrative offices.

It does not seem essential for

them to be located at, the center of the university.

If the graduate

faculty is to serve as model and guide, it should be .easily visible to all the faculty and students.

It should also be located at the

center ,for convenient access to library and laboratories. Appointment to the graduate faculty should specify certain qualifications.

Appointment should be restricted to scholars who

thgmselves have the Ph.D. and who have, by publications and attendance at meetings of learned groups, demonstrated their competence ~ for scholarship a la altura de los tiempos.

Competence foX scholar-

ship at world performance levels is the only entitlement to an appointment to the graduate faculty. The new faculty should provide higher salaries than those at lower levels of instruction.

The income will relieve the ,professors

to some extent from earning money outside, the university.

The higher

salary will mark the distinction between them and professors at

- 19 lowex ~l.e~els..

•The.hi.ghex salary will encourage pro.fess~ora in oth~r

facu,l;t3es to. ,improv~e ;their .4p.epa.rativn and. :pexformance in order •,-to becopne . eligible

for appointment ,to

[The semigar instead of the credit :hour should.; be. theunit ,:of work in this faculty along with researeh:and ttle: disaertation,, ; ;The Ph.:D,.. .:increasjrtgly;is: .defvned as a selection device .and as training for ,3vc~holtaxship.;

More: advanced work .increasingly is. •provided ,in

peat-Eh..A•.; programs. ,.Wi.thin such a definition,

it. ; is:more and wore

frequant.,to, recommend completion .of the degree in four years of, full.-;tima stu,dy.,.

On these premises, one could.specify a study pro-

grain of,twoor.two,and a half years leading to the.Ph.1

with a4-

mission to candidacy following one and a half or two. years .of prior . graduate study. ;The candidate, should be admitted pursuant.to his• . achievement as undergraduate and graduate in thefieLd ;of his se-, lected study and, according to, a general exaanination.:. :tüs curriculum should be research resulting in the dissertation and ..two seminars: ;:,: during at least two years - i.e. four seminars of or eight seminars, of a semester in •length.

year in.length.

The degree. would be

ferred after successfu1. defense, of his disser.tat4pn by the candidate before, a .•pane'l. of . a.t .least three. members of.. the;t graduate; . faculty,.: . •;, . Probably members q.f the new graduate; .faculty.. should retai

: . .^,;

appointments in:thQir, present departments. = ad hororem - to permit their close association with colleagues dedicated to work at .the master's and the bachelor's level.

. -

Their counsel and example would

be valuable. They would, also, be in a position to observe the

- 20 development ofprofessors in their special field and able, therefore, to prapose new appo±ntments to the graduate faculty. Their advice on the department:curriculum would be valúabie, especiáliy for the master's curriculum which;-often, would serve to prepare and select candidates for the Ph.D. program. Many professors have stated a desire for instruction of candi dates for the'master's and the bachelor's degree.

It is natural.

They háve given such instruction as a majór part of their university service. -'It might be suggested, however, that instruction at these lower levels would' deprive them of energy and time for their more ' proper work at the highest level.

It might also be suggested that

short series of public lectures attended by candidates for lower degrees as well as professors might satisfy the inclination for' instruction at the lower 'levels. Without such a faculty the people and the University of Puerto Rico cannot reach la altura de los tiempos.

Until at least a few

professors reach this level and become citizens of the world communities of art, philosophy, science, and technology, the people and university of Puerto Rico must remain dependent on those corn munities.

Such dependence like any undue dependence debilitates

and harms.

Whatever else the University of Puerto Rico .finds it

wise and possible to do ,it must also become a seat of •the"highest learning.

. a

.

- 21 The graduate faculty

Part II

Tie: paper on the. graduate faculty was sent on 20 June of scholars and others.

Thirteen replied.

1975., to a number

The following continuation of the

paper: reports the comments in general and considers the most serious issues,. Thole, who responded are the following:

•

J~tan D. Curet, chemistry, UPR/RP . Géórgé Delacre', 'philosophy; IJPR/aP Charles F.rankenhoff, economics and planning, UPR/RP Carl J. Friedri'cá', politidal science, Harvard Laura Gallego, education, UPR/RP Eli Ginzberg, economics, Columbian Nathan,„Glazer, education and social structure, Harvard i(áfáel Hernándéz 'Colóri;''Governor Humberto López Morales, linguistics, UPR/RP Eugene 'V`. =kbhr, ' English, UPRCRP Luis A. Passalacqua,. Social Science Research Center, UPR/RP bavid- Riesinan, sticiology, Harvard" .Jos Arsenio Torres, political.science, UPR/RP There .was .neither covert nor overt opposition to the objective of raising

performance standards in scholarship and graduate study instruction at the Univers.tty„ of Puerto ,Rico.

Quite the contrary.. The comments and questions

were addressed to issues of structure and policy of the graduate faculty. Tt~e.principal criticism of the original paper.questioned the separation of the iaculty,:f or ' research. and instruction at the. Ph.D. level from the existin

departt~ents:where there is research.,and instruction at the LA. and

B.A.._levels.

One critic thought the department association was essential to

control the performance quality of the sez}ior professors.

It was. argued that

departments of, peers ;i.n the.same.specialty diminish the possibility of quackery. (A quack was defined as a, professional who can persuade clients about his qualifications but not his colleagues and peers.) It was also argued that departments of: special-;study fields are needed for the training and later

- 22 placement of professional scholars and professors.

It was asked whether a

strong graduate dean might achieve the highest work assignments and quality control aimed at while leaving the top scholars in their respective departments.

An association between instruction at the two graduate levels - Ph.D.

and M.A. - was thought more logical than the association of M.A. and B.A. instruction.

Finally, the issue was raised of what might be done with a

professor who should be assigned to the graduate faculty but for whom there was no suitable program in that faculty. As to excluding quacks from the highest faculty levels or research and Ph.D. instruction.

The UPRJRP is a huge college of more than 26,000 students

with only 1856 graduate students, many of these part-time and only a handful at the Ph.D, level.

The large departments which staff classes for this huge

enrollment are in the majority professors with modest preparation (the majority without the Ph.D.) and few with scholarly performances acceptable at international levels.

They are, furthermore, burdened with large classes and coü-

siderable counseling and committee work.

The very few senior professors in

these departments who should be reassigned to research and Ph.D. instruction at the new graduate faculty are not midst peer colleagues in their present departments who are in a position to foster and monitor high performance.

I

suspect that if there are quacks among the top research professors, their peer colleagues in a select Ph.D. graduate faculty would be more likely to identify and denounce them than would the large departments burdened with extensive undergraduate instruction.

Indeed, the principal argument for the non-depart-

amental graduate faculty is to separate the top professors from the lower work assignments in departments so heavily dedicated to undergraduate instruction

- 23 and also::from_.the:.relaxed.,Perfgrmance. standards of these departments, „ One . •commentator ,inquired whether, tl ere ,would . be ;''a critical mass", for the new graduate faaukty~r:;The.answer is .that such a.critical„mass, can be.assembled. only.,in:=a:facultywh_ich cgnccntr~tes., all : thpse at. the. .UPR/RP,, capable, of per- formance a;t:-;w.orld._.achi.evement, leve.ls,; f:Zt..~.s unlikely that;a single..profe.ss.ar who should join. the new faculty would :bei:alone,' ;in his :fiei4.-(as-.may be: .suggested in the discussion to follow bélow),.::but.were :this so;.: them hs. should ;be appointed to the faculty.

The re-

s8aunh: hes.3aowld dor.mght alone justify the assignment, for the heart of the a1attev is they necessity for more sound .research at ,the uniyersity. most. ilikely:to be

This is

ound in the graduate faculty c,.omp.osed_ of the top pro-

fessore>_c:f the university.,: : :A further=..,suggestion.was made about quality control.

Scholars in the

particular : di'scipline involved could be invited .to .serve, ad hoc, both on éouhit€ee's:io approve the Ph..D.:idissertations and to approve appointments to the faculty.

This is a powerful device at Harvard which maintains the level

of quality at that preeminent university.

In addition,, appointments should

be'*eceded by searches by the exist-ing.faculty and widespread announcement of openings so that the competition for, appointment would include the world óf scholars; and: not there ly:.the •

ediate, small environment in Puerto tüco.

Another criticismwaa that the' segregation .of :the top scholars and research prófessors of the university in thin graduate, faculty would constitute an s`líte.

Of'course it.would. . Of course it would be a target for those who

oppose elites`:' Hota::can this .be. avoided?.

In education, there is an inevitable

- 24 hierarchy according to the difficulty of the task and the number available for the assignments.

School teachers number thousands, there are more availa-

ble than are needed, and the work is not too difficult.

The instruction and

counseling of lower division college students can be done by a faculty with modest academic preparation and accomplishment, if they are reasonably gent.

The materials of instruction have been prepared by others►

dili-

Upper divi-

sion and first level graduate/professional instruction clearly require more competence and a more extensive academic preparation.

This is rarely routine

instruction, and some research is undertaken by both instructors and graduate students.

The numbers of capable candidates are not many.

Finally, universi-

ty research and Ph.D, instruction at international performance levels is possible by only a few in small places like Puerto Rico. difficult work.

It is complicated,

At any of the lower of these levels, an incumbent could

grumble about the elite above him, but if he is competent and highly motivated, he might accompany the grumbling with hard work to prepare himself to join

the elite above him. It was also noted that segregation of these top professors would deprive

M.A. and B.A. candidates of their instruction.

That is inevitable.

a primary reason for the establishment of the new faculty.

That is

If a university

has only a few top professors for its research and highest instruction, it is uneconomic and imprudent to assign them to work below their highest skill. Some inquired about employment for graduating students.

Perhaps after

five years operation the faculty at best might be able to graduate about 20 annually.

Education, government, and industry and commerce would clamor for

these few highly trained, competent individuals.

- 25 ' Tt is premature to satisfy those asking for mora information about the strúcgure ana.-poliey of thé graduate faculty.` The faculty •itseTf and thóse `tó whom" it is respbnsible"will h'av ~iolicy issues.

to deter~irié :most Of: the structtiraLºand

gut Y can at least make a' few stiggéstions:

Th.' ,primary task óf

the" graduaté faculty will be excellent research and

Ph.D. iYistrtí'ction "of 'small' numbers ;of students who haire' the 'necess.ary'quali'f`iéátiorrs and intentions.

1f these candidates completéd ;basic -graduate. study

in about two years before applying to the graduate faculty,they should .alread•y hsve the basic knowledge of }their field, •a command of the basic procedures andskills

of the field ; aüd •a record of achievemertr% to justify t{~eir

'admissíori'to"Ph:D. candidacy.

Such students should complete their research,

dissértation, and seminars within two years,•

Their'prog'ram

might be the

díssei`tatión; research for 'it and probably'also research apprenticeship with their principal professor, and twó sesünars each semester- a total of eight 'befáre graduation:

This preparation ls about what major universities now re-

qúire for` the Ph.D.

.

.

..

Pérhaps about three profeasors in each of eight fields:could, as a minimum,'tow be appointed to establish the new graduate faculty:

The fields where

this could probably be achieved are the following: •philosophy: .

biology chemistry

.

i' .

psychology

economics

social policy

linguistics

Spanish

,.

With the Dean, this would constitute an initial faculty of at least 25. Each professor wóuld during two years present four seminars in his special field,

- 26 and for students in that field, these should along with their research and dissertation provide them sufficient special education.

They would have four

additional seminars in adjacent or even different fields.

A biology candi-

date, for example, might have four special seminars in his or her specialization, perhaps two chemistry seminars, a seminar in the philosophy of science, and a seminar in social policy.

A sound dissertation, sound re-

search, and study in these eight seminars at the level they should maintain will provide a good education for the candidate. The original paper noted requirements of space for offices and seminars and libraries and laboratories.

The comments emphasized these necessities.

Considerable appropriations will be immediately required to establish adequate library and laboratory facilities for Ph.D. and research work at the level of the new faculty.

There has been considerable advocacy in recent

years for more emphasis on upper division and graduate study with less emphasis in Río Piedras on undergraduate, especially lower division instruction.

If this very appropriate advocacy is effective, some space and fi-

nancial resources could be redirected towards the Ph.D. faculty.

If the

university changes direction towards university work and a lesser emphasis on college work, then redirection of resources must be achieved. Money is certainly scarce.

The possible budget of the new faculty at a

mean salary of $25,000 for 25 persons would be salaries

$625,000

1/4 for overhead

156,250

appropriation for library and laboratory

750.000 $1,531,250

- 27;; _ With the -UPW'budgét excsedtg. $100 million, this taould

natitu_teonlyL53%

of bh& tótál budget, 'a modest item to pay for redirecting: the institution towar-ds:excellent:.réségrch and:Ph.D. instruction.

if: undergraduste,-instruction

t~éré 'diminishéd -(and probably ;enrollments will. decline

4

of the in-

tEritións. óf the uni-versity);,"..then by no means. a11. of the salary item for the department places now held by ..those transferred - to the new faculty. chi ;l: have to be 'pr"ovided=;for.

The net salary bill;

that is, will be much: less -than

$625,000.

.. .

If the people, the public authority, and .the university are at all serious about living a la altura de los tiempos, which cannot be achieved without the research and Ph.D. instruction this new graduate faculty would do, however that research and instruction may be organized, then the office and seminar space, library and laboratory facilities, salaries and overhead needed are an exceedingly modest budget item. Two other comments must be noted.

Some regard the graduate faculty as a

good thing but not now; instead, later after further development of the university and further analysis of present graduate programs.

It is not prema-

ture, it is belated; it should have been established at least 20 years ago, as the original paper argued and as is argued in my forthcoming book, Missions of a university in a small country. than further study.

There is no more classic avoidance device

One remembers the ancient description of policy decision

in the faculty of Oxford University:

all policy proposals were excellent,

only some were obsolete and some were premature.

Some thought the proposal

good but decried the possibility of having it accepted at the University of Puerto Rico.

If this modest improvement at the university is indeed impossible,

-

zs

--

then acute inquiry, is indicated about the program of the Council on Higher Education and of the officers of the university.

If more than a tenth of

the revenues óf the Free Associated State are to continue to be assigned to the university while it remains largely a huge college without proper research and'Ph.D. instruction - leaving Puerto Rico, therefore, dependent upon universities of Europe and the United States, except in a few fields (law, medicine, and a few others) - then the Government should reexamine its budget priorities in this time of shocking economic decline and an inadequate public treasury,

-29 University Missions Assigned by Public Authority

""'Public aútho'rity in this century has, consistently assigned.to the uniw'érsit► three missions:

to !acquire, evaluate, and increase knowledge; to

proviclé é~#ucátion for' the 'professions;, and instruction óf youth in knowledge and the`pro£essions.

These are the standard, anciént university missions in

:th& Western Civil'ization. . . These traditional,'

.

necessary university missíons .have been'weákened :and

frustratéd by other missions assigned or permitted by, publ:ic.authority.

(1)' Throughout"the century there has been a tendéncy to:have"the university work at school levels, either to provide education for craft and trade occupátions'which do not require knowledge of university level or to provide remedial basic education which some studénts failed•to acquire in the-schgols where it is properly offered.

(2) There has been a,tendency, also to con-

centrate university attention on what is locals in some measure shutting out what ís found throughout the civilization:

a provincialismswhich lowers

performance.. levels, at'the university.

Political and individual de-

(3)

sires have been operative at the university whenever its autonomy has been

weakened or breached.

Again, as with work at school levels and provincialism,

performance levels of university work suffer.

(4) Lately, in the extremely

legitimate movement to give just rewards and opportunities to the less fortunate in the society, especially to the poor, the university has been asked to admit students not qualified to study the curricula; students who must receive'compensatory, remedial' studies to enable them to do university work. The remedial-study_is at lower school .levels-:in.performance level but at

- 30 university levels in cost.

Many students in the age cohort 18 to 22,

(5)

more nor less, use the university as a staging place between adolescence and final adulthood, a place to define idéntities, to seek mates and friends, and to experiment with and to enjoy living without the constraints and responsibilities of family and work.

Unless public authority protects the

university against these non-university missions - and unless, of course, the officers, faculty, and students of the university understand the nature their pursuit - the

to

of proper university missions and are committed

levels.

At the heart of the University of Puerto

Rico

proper university missions cannot be achieved at- abceptable performance in this century, as

at all the universities of the Western Civilization, this confrontation tests the will and competence of both public authority and the universities. Upon the change of sovereignty in 1898, the War Department briefly held the public authority in Puerto itico.

General order Number 108, Headgiiárters

of the Department of Puerto Rico, United States War Department, established It closed the instituto

di-

Cívil`whvs'e

the Insular Board of Instruction.

ploma, bachiller de artes permitted its graduates to gain a higher educa-

d on in a university outside the Island. The new Insular Board of Instruc-

for university study in education

in

tibh`established' a high school of the United States kind to prepare students the United States.

A' terminal insti-

skilled in industrial arts.

It

was

tution was established in Fajardo to prepare school teachers and workers expected that the schoól`' ►ould

in

general, follow the pattern of the Carlisle Indian School áitd'the Hampton Institute (€or blacks) it the United States.

(Apuntes Ilistóricos sabre la

Universidad de Puerto Rico, Archivo General de la UPR/RP, p. 102.

The

- 31 missior~.s here assigned. were at such modest ,performance levels. that i:t .is obvious the public authority, assumed that higher education far .the .people of Puerto Rico would be found outside the:Islaud.

.

Public authority. after .the Foraker Act of .1900 :was m

a civil: govern-

merit, where :the Commissioner of Education, appointed by the. President o£ the United States, was the. responsible officer for education..

Professor Samuel

M. Lindsey, of .Columbia Un}versity, Commissioner of Education, proposed instead of normal and industrial arts training a university, like those in the United States,

.

'las cuales, a su vez, participan del tipo de las inglesas y, en lo concerniente a sus escuelas postgraduadas, del de las .universidades,alemanas, adonde se dirigían casi siempre los aspirantes a cátedras en Estados Unidos, para la especialización de las materias a que.intentan dedicarse con mayor asiduidad y devoción." (La Universidad de Puerto Rico, Archivo General de la UPR/RP, p. .2 La Ley para Establecer una Universidad de Puerto Rico,(approved 12 March. 1903 by the Legislature of Puerto hico) established the foundations for such a university, to provide the people .of Puerto Rico "los medios de adquirir cuanto antes .el perfecto conocimiento de los diversos ramos de literatura, ciencia y artes útiles, incluyendo agricultura y oficios mecánicos, así como cursos profesionales y técnicos en medicina, derecho, ingeniería, farmacia, y en la ciencia y arte de la pedagogía," (Sección 2.) The missions include knowledge and education of young persons in knowledge and the professions, but also they include preparation of young persons for work at lower performance levels than science, art, and the professions required.

Artes útiles and oficios mecánicos, and also the primary emphasis

on training school teachers, suggest more an image of the Carlisle Indian

- 32 School or the Hampton Institute than of Columbia University, Oxford, the Sorbonne, or the Universidad de Madrid.

The immediate necessity of school

teachers and persons apt in mechanical and agricultural arts was presumably seen by Professor Lindsay, and education in these two departments was given

ficient authority for the usual range of university work as' ta de Síndicos thought this feasible. ; neering

as'

But the law of 1903 provided 'sufsoon

the first priority to be established.

the Jun-

Departments of natural science and engi-

liberal arts, medicine, law, and pharmacy were to be established:

"y los demás departamentos propios de una universidad bien montada, que la Junta de Síndicos pudiere de tiempo en tiempo establecer." (Sección '10) Not only was teacher training the first work of the new university but also íts importance was defined by the fact that instruction in this department was without charge.

In only ten years, however, the Úniversity came to have

a liberal arts colleget(19l0)-y a.3aw eol4ege' ( 9i ) •-án& n •pharth cy `có'11ege (1913). (Benner, 1965, p. 3) In addition to sufficient authority for a proper university, the 1903 law led to the acquisitions of'land, buildings, and the appropriation of funds for the modest beginnings of' the 'institution.

A measure of university

autonomy resulted from governance by a ten-member Junta de Síndicos rather than direct administration by the government.

But .this autonomy was tightly

circumscribed by having the Governor as honorary president, the Commissioner of Education as president, and having also as members the Treasurer, the Attorney General, and the Speaker of the House of Delegates (Sección 3). The assignment of lands and fixed money sources such as 50% of the fines i'mposed

in the courts were a measure of autonomy to permit the faculty to maintain

33 .integrity. in their, .study and .teaching.

But making the presidential, appointee,

the,Gommissioner,:of Education,. chancellor of the university s;ever;ely constrained the institu;tiona,l autonomy ~ Twenty years; later, Act.No., 67 to Reorganize the University of Puerto Rico (approved 28 July 1923) again assigned the usual, university missions mixed, as in 1903 with lower level educationinagricultural and mechanical trades.

.

:

"The university shall be an institution of higher learning, and shall ... provide the inhabitants of Porto t(ico with the means of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the various branches of literature, science, and useful arts, including agricultural and mechanical trades, and with professional and technical courses in medicine, law, engineering, phar.:macy and ,in the science and art of pedagogy." (Sections 2 and 3.)

The principal change, a crucial one, was the provision for a professional chancellor of the university.

(Section 9)

Thomas . Benner. was a professional

educator (B.A. .L914 and Ed. D. 1924, Harvard University). who served as university chancellor from 1924 until 1929. (Benner, 1965) . In addition to authority for„the departments listed in the 1902 .law, the 1923 law provided for those of philosophy and letters, eugenics and social welfare, architeCture, journalism., and dental surgery.

(Section l0)

The missions of 1923 continued to be the standard higher learning.,.professional education,, and a general arts and.sciences education.

They.'also

inc;lud.ed, those' of training in agricultural, and mechanical arts as well as teaching, which are not always included in institutions of, higher learning. This mixture of .traditional universíty missions with school training ;for work in agriculture and trades brought the professional chancellor and the

- 34 gobérning political party into collision.

Senator Santiago Iglesias _pr.o-

posed: transferring $10'0,000 annually of the 'university budget of '$675,000 to cover the cost of a special school of arts and trades. -p. --'137)

(Benner, 1965,

Such an assignment of university funds for education at school

levels

could only-weaken and postpone the proper university functions.

The

'prc9posal was defeated, to some extent because of argument by the profession-

the

party

al chancellor and university students; but the displeasure of leaders of in power forced the hand of Antonio Barceló,.the principal leader

of the Alianza, who asked Benner to resign. (The professional, young chancellor did resign and spent more thati three decades as professor and dean of the College-of Education at the University of Illinois.

He returned to the

UPR/RP in 1962 as an aid to Chancellor Jaime Benitez and, fortunately, wrote a brief history of his time at the university.) Senator Barcel6 and Chancellor Benner in the 1920`s expanded research -and graduate/professional education in the. arts and sciences, and these beginnings remained to serve in the Forties and Fifties as foundations for

still further expansions. ` Such was the Department of Hispanic Studies where distinguished Spanish scholars taught and where young local students who became distinguished came after education at Columbia and; 4adrid.

The first

advanced degree at the university was in. this:department' in:1929,-'the M.A. 'being conferred On Carmen"Gómez Tejera for her study., La:Novela.en Puerto Rico. Federico do Onís of Columbia University was for a time ..chaiuman.of

this depártment. '(Berner, 1965, p: 89-90) Later, along with the: chemistry departtiént, the first Ph.D. -degrees were awarded 'students of .the :department of hispanic studies.

'

- 35 the _other achievement: in g..z dua.te/professio.nal, education and research was thefoWnding:, in.coallaboration with Columbia.University., of .the. School of Tropica:l•Medicine in 1.925.

A quarter of a century later, it became part

of the new medical school at the university.

Barceló received an honorary

LL.D. from ColumbiaUniversty for helping found this school, and the citation praised: him for :: "warmly.supporting.the institutions for education and research in the :island." The public authority had established the usual university missions, although the. necessary emphasis.on.research and scholarship was lacking and. teaching was the principal work of the institution.

This meant teaching

curricula with learning materials largely prepared by professors at other universities in .the United States and Europe. in other words, had been incomplete.

The work of public authority,

But the more serious threat to higher

learning in the public university of Puerto Rico resulted from ;the lack of a proper autonomy. After the professional university chancellor was forced out in 1929, the politicians in power for the next decade used the University .of. Puerto Rico for their own interests and that of their friends and children .to such an. extent, according to:Rexfo.rd G. Tugwell, who .examined the institution in 1941 and accepted the invitation to be its chancellor, that. in many departments there was "no better than a parody of the educational process." (Tugwell., 1949, .p. 109) Politicians intervened extensively in .faculty appointments, curricula, and standards of student performance to the grave. detriment'of the institution.

Under .such conditions, the recruitment and

retention of well qualified professors became exceedingly difficult, and•

- 36 those who came to the faculty and remained there were in dispair by 1940. Furthermore, a colonial and provincial desire to escape performance standards of the world outside the Island presented the serious question of whether Puerto Rico "was to remain a small independent principality, entirely• provincial, filled with false pride for achievements which were not recognized elsewhere but protected from exposure by insulation from competition; or whether she was to become part of the larger world, accepting common standards, contributing and receiving as part of the whole," (Tugwell, 1946, p. 481) This escape from world performance standards was often concealed by a defense of the Spanish language against the intrusion of the English language. Without a thorough command of English, obviously, students and professors would be seriously isolated from world science, art, philosophy, and technology - and thereby impoverished - and they would also be shielded from world standards of academic performance, frustrating the development of the kind of university for which the people of Puerto Rico provided public authority and funds. Sometimes, but not often the time is favorable.

It was favorable in

1942. `' In the great war, the Germans in that year were turned back at Stalingrad and in North Africa.

The Japanese were turned back at Midway.

In Puerto Rico, in a legislative session of three days and three nights in the spring of that year, with the leadership of Governor Tugwell, a man of far greater intellectual and political competence than the usual men sent down from Washington to sit in La Fortaleza, and with the leadership of Luis Murioz Msrfñ, who had just founded the new Partido Popular:Democrático and with it captured control of Puerto Rico's legislature, the basic institutions

- 37 néce$sáry for the' 'ibódern-izat1'on of Puerto . Ri.co were ;created.

As to,.the

inst tn`tiót -óf the modem university,: Tugwell and. Muaoz:,were .joined by, one of hé' host Cót}pe'tent- persons oii. .;the facultyf, soon :to benamed ,chancellor, Jai~sré B'éñi'te+z'. Piigw:ell i i 1941 had presented the university .trustees ;'a program :and. ce'rt áin 'regiiiremettts fcrr :himself as requisites. •for • accepting the, .ir vit :t on... .bécomé chancellor.- His'aim was more competence i•n=h gher.learning t

a:'Pedres.

Hier proposéd junior colleges apart ; from the .Río .Piedras

catpüs to bé concértted more with the student than with the subjects.,of scholars: ' he"cential institution.was to be

.

'~ferr.:serious.training in the intellectual pursuits. This,is.,. also vocational, even if it is labeled law, politics, or philosophy, and it should be carried on under rigorously qualified . instructors in a professional way." (Tugwell, 1946, p. 123) For himself, he requested a ten-year contract and a right during the time of the contract to two years of leave. Tugwell just afterwards was appointed by the President of the United States to be Governor of Puerto..Rico.

A newspaper and a clique of.activist

students collaborated in their opposition to.Tugwell,•and the-point of the lance was the dual appointment as chancellor and..governor.

Senator Munoz

Marín spoke to a student assembly in support of Tugwell,.but his ..reception was unfrieádly and a -shock,?to him.

Tugwell wrote :that

"The reception he got at the hands of what he toad ideal isticallyconsidered to be future Puerto Rican leaders thoroughly convinced him that l was right. I never doubted from then on that he would support University reform." . Tugwell, 1946, p. 148) Whereupon Tugwell resigned as chancellor.. The modernization of Puerto ,Rico required public agencies,capable.of

- 38 the task.

Industrialization was essential, and to foment it the government

needed a bank, a development company, a budget bureau, a planning board, and

professional and technical persons for the new institutions of Puerto Rico.

a

a university capable of acceptable research and the education of competent modern

All the major statutes to put this institutional system in

place were legislated in 1942 except the civil service law for establishment of a merit system.

(Tugwell, 1946, p.228)

For three days and nights, the

legislative session worked to approve the new laws.

Not a single Popular,

in view of the balance of power between parties, could be spared.

Some had

even gone to a hospital for rest and were brought to the legislature on stretchers to vote.

(Tugwell, 1946, p. 301)

The university law was some-

what less than Tugwell wanted, but he found it acceptable, especially because it provided sufficient autonomy from politicians to permit a competent faculty to be recruited, retained, and left free to their intellectual work with commitments only to that work. "the University of Puerto Rico as it was could not be recognized by other universities as worthy of the name. The new act was intended - and went a long way toward - enabling us to carry out the purges, establish the standards and insure the independence necessary to enable it to take its place in company of genuinely dedicated institutions." (Tugwell, 1946, p. 318) Law No. 135 approved 7 May 1942 was "To Reorganize the University of Puerto Rico; to Establish its Purposes and to Determine Its Responsibilities Towards the People of Puerto Rico ..." The law began with a declaration of purposés which clearly instructed the new university in discharging its responsibilities to the people of Puerto Rico:

to pursue higher learning, at levels of excellent performance, to

educate persons interested in and competent for the study of the higher

- 39 learning, and to prepare professional and technical persons, "Declaration „o.f Purposes There are hereby declared as cardinal purposes of the university, in its obligation to serve The People of Puerto Rico: To impart higher learning, ;;, To make scientific research in the various fields of . learning; To study the fundamental problems of Puerto Rico; To extend to the people.the.benef,fts of culture; To prepare public servants. By public servant shall be understood every person, who, rhaving availed himself of the opportunities that The People of Puerto Rico furnishes through its university, is graduated therefrom. In this sense, a public servant is not only the one who works;•in• the instrumentalities of the government, but every person equipped with a university education, in any position, profession, public or private activity, or kind of productive life that uses: :the intellectual equipment furnished by the university ... The aim of the university, as a center of education and as a center ;of ;research, is to point out the truth and to instill the methods of knowing it, of testing it, or of doubting it ..." Government of the university was by the Superior Educational Council with seven members. members.

It was to be independent, with 10-year terms for its

It was expected to reflect.:higher learning in the world outside

Puerto Rico - two of its, members were to be "eminent educators identified, by their,-history, with7the cause of democratic culture." Four members would be, Puerto. Rico residents:. : :The President of the Council was. the C.ommjs,sioner of Edí~catio t,: still, an appointee of the President of the United State , ,,and thusij- I suppose, thought of as protection against unwise policies and ._,Ar;o.grams of the new institution. (Two distinguished Columbia University professors, where Tugwell had been on the faculty, were appointed:

Lindsey

- 40 Rogers, a prominent political scientist and connected with the International Labor Office along with his university post; and Adolf A. Berle Jr., a law scholar and later a diplomat.)

The Superior Educational Council was assigned,

also, the research mission of continuing study of the educational process. (Section 3 and 4)

Its authority extended to the appointment of the chancel-

visions within the university, and approval of the budget (Section S)

"in

lor, approval of university regulations, establishment or revisions of dia lump sum."

This circumscribed its authority to that of general supervi-

sion, leaving to the chancellor and other university officers the management and work of the institution. The chancellor was given great authority, presumably to make the extensive changes Tugwell in 1941 thought essential to create a proper university.

He appointed university faculty and other personnel, including

the deans who sat with him as the University Board to make the budget and other guides for the institution.

(Section 9)

"The professors, associate professors, assistant professors, and instructors in each college or faculty shall constitute a body to work for the improvement of the academic standards and the cultural progress of the University."

(Section 18)

Their authority as a faculty included the pro-

posal of curricula to the University Board, the proposal of programs of faculty work and the proposal of necessary regulations.

They were' to receive

permanent tenure after three years of approved service.

(Section 16)

An

autonomous chancellor was to work with an autonomous faculty to do university work of an acceptable level. The autonomy needed for university work guided by the integrity of the

- 41 faculty without outside, improper interference, was also .guarded.by the provision of fixed funds not dependent upon annual appropriations by the . legislature.. Fixed provisions were made - a share .of the fines in the courts, for example, for a permanent fund to be invested in interest-bear in

securities.

(Section 21) A steady 3% of taxes on alcoholic beverages

was assigned• to the university.

(Section 22) A fixed share of .property

taxes (20/100 of 1%) were assigned to the university. tuition and fees would also provide funds.

(Section 20.) . Student

(Section 19)

And special, ap-

propriations, especially for construction, could be made:

the. Act of 1942

appropriated $400,000 for plant and equipment.

(Section 22)

The 1942 law provided proper purpose, autonomy, and funds for the university to fulfill its missicns and to become the "universidad bien montada" which Professor Lindsey of Columbia University, like Professor Tugwel,l .of the same.institution, thought Puerto Rico needed.

It failed, however, to

plan for the university in order to keep the Rio Piedras campus at

a

provide for the junior colleges which Tugwell included in his development proper

size to. permit a proper level of concentration on high level intellectual work, including,research and .graduate education. For a decade, the university grew and fulfilled its .missions reasonably well.

It.s difficulties were an .insufficient attention to research and

graduate study while accepting a rapid increase.of.undergraduate enrollment in Río Piedras, an increase which Tugwell had hoped to forestall by the shield of the junior colleges..

In the academic year ending 1941, when Tugwell be-

came Chancellor and proposed a reform plan .for the.university, there were. 4228 students.. Ten ..years later., there had :been an increase of 85% to

-- 42 7846.

In the next half decade, to 1966, enrollment

(Nieves, 1965, P. 223)

grew to 19,063, a 537 increment.

(Hansen, 1975, p. 149)

The two problems of provincialism, shutting the university away from the currents and standards of the world academic community; and of such emphasis on masses of undergraduate students that research and graduate education suffered, remained to cloud the university missions.

The legislature

in 1942 had provided the necessary autonomy, funds, and clarity of purpose. It had not, however, and perhaps it could not, guard the university against lowering performance standards. Both Lindsey in 1903 and Tugwell in 1942 proposed legislation to the end that the University of Puerto Rico would become like the great universities of the world.

But the provincialism which Tugwell feared flared into

activity after 1953.

Governor Muñoz Marín started it by chiding the owner

of a rural bar for naming his place Agapito's Bar.

The use of English be-

gan to become a mark of disrespect for Spanish and everything Puerto Rican. And when Chancellor Benítez removed the requirement of studying the literature of Puerto Rico, a new dimension to the movement was added.

Some de-

picted a fierce battle between those who favored an occidental culture and a university based on it while their enemies wanted a Puerto Rican culture and a university based on it.

Midst this din, few heard or responded to

proposals for the establishment of a graduate faculty and the encouragement of more and better research. The lack of adequate research for the modernization undertaken by Tugwell, Muñoz Marín, and the new men of the Popular Democratic Party was serious.

Three years after 1942, a group of government men of the new

- 43 motremettt, w;h t

previously had been university _profess,ors, sought. a;:rem~edy,.

bLishmhnt 'at ..the Unipers-ity of a Social `Science-.R,esearchCe,nte-r..:

Túgwell, whc3. gotrer.nó

ad 1~~g~;elc~~.çi.xtg,:-tfia ..f` .~s4.. wo--wM • . .

n3ento#: 'a °Puprtw Rs<san r.+:-ir~+-awecuwn+a~va.•r~...~_... : ._

'f.irsty and..then' the. election of a locaf;. governor, -was: preper: ed_ to

head the tºeW re'séarch division.

The research center was established an4

given a.;re•as•onabl.e' budget ,(`$100•, 000 annually) to study the _ba,aie-, prnb'iems. of Puerto ::Ri.co, :a rtriission° included . in the 1.942 law. Tugwell,: h;owever.,;

..

_ .

left the Island to accept a university positian..:at.

the• Unl:ve'tcsity of :=Chicag.o in 1946..:

The center was directed, ins.tead, by. .

Clarence Sé'ní,or.until :1948, by Simon:Rottenberg untiL..i94 •by MiTlard W. :Iiansen.

.

.and.until 1964

During these 18 years, . a reastanable-number.:.of. , . _ re.

search books and papers were written and published, most of them about.i portant problems.in the Puerto Rican:.society.

The: average publication rate

with an annual budget which ranged from the initial $100,000 toCan.average of $150,000 was more than two boóks and. five articles per .year.

The work

was, as Tugwe.11 proposed, "part of the larger world.,: accepting common standards, contributing and receiving .as part of the,whole."

The trouble

was,'however, that -,with painfully few exceptions - the research was,done by United States scholars.

..

The present university law of 1966 did little' to restrain. effectively thé provincialism or the immense increase of. und.ergraduate,enrollment at; Rio Piedras which kept academic performance at levels much be'ow those. of the world outside the Island:

The five commissioners chosen in: 1965 to .

propose a new university law wrote thatithe difficult.ies..at the-.university had two primary sources:

lack of understanding between administration and

- 44 impórtant sectors of the faculty and student body; and the university attempt to provide services demanded by a mass society.

(Cordero et al, Informe de

la Comisión de Educadores sobre la Reforma Universiaria, 1965.

p. 3) Un-

fortunately, the statement of the two problems was itself highly provincial in that the two sources of trouble were defined as "estrictamente locales." On the contrary, as anyone aware of developments in higher education in the United States and Europe in 1965 should have known, both these sources of trouble were epidemic.

And had they been aware of the epidemic force of

the problems of university government and of higher education undergoing change from elite towards mass institutions, they should have known about policies, programs, and studies already treating these grave disturbances. There is nothing in the report of the five commissioners to suggest that universities existed outside the Island, that the University of Puerto Rico was one in a world of universities. A notable example of the provincialism of the 1965 report was its complete disregard (or ignorance) of the growth of university systems in many states of the United States, notably the largest, California and New York.

Five years before the 1965 report, the State of California established

its university system on the foundation of segregation of missions among three kinds of institutions:

the university (ultimately with eight branches),

the state colleges, and the two-year community colleges.

This had been,

perhaps, the direction of Tugwell's ideas about university planning in 1941, when he proposed junior colleges to guard Río Piedras for higher level work, especially for research and graduate education.

It was superficially touched

by the five commissioners in providing for regional colleges.

But their

- 45 ::report"arnd the 1966 law wh th very closely'follówéd'thé repórt'did nñt confront 'the .;issue' df dffereritial atd

missions between university, státe có1"1ege,

As a résult, the vagué spectficátrdn§ fdr the region-

mun ty'éollegé.

al cdllegés ábou

two years of university education and'edücati`on for '

carretas "cortas í

k . nó useful definition 'of the d'if'f 'fence beta é`é i'these

- 'college's snd` the` Rio Piedras campus.

Irr' contrast,~ `the 196(3 California' Taw

specified `that the 'university would be restricted to 12 1/27 "df al1'hi'gh school graduates, the state 'olleges to 33 1/37 of"the'sé graduates, and the cbmuninitytcolleges would accept any high school graduate.

Research and

preparation of professional persons were to be done only at the university. Asa re'sul't, the'unzversity was not overwhelmed by amass of undergraduate students and could give adequate attention to research and to'graduáteíp'rofessionel' ed~tc'a•tion:.

The. University"of .Califor iia:.could;: with...this protection,

continue to be one of- the few`great universities 'of the world.

The 1965 re-

port and the 1966 statute, however, failed to maké the distinction.'' '-The Río Piedras university, in conséquence, continued its huge incréaée in`^undergraduate enrollment

from a total enrollment of 18,006 in the yéár'áf

the 1965 report to 26,041 nine years later.) (Hansen, 1975, p. 149)

The

proportion of regular students at Rio Piedras éngagéd in gradúate•education in 1970 was only 317 or less, and practically no study 'at the Ph.D. 'level existed. The 1966 statute tried to resolve the first source of trouble the' five commissioners identified (lack ^f understanding in communiéatíon between the university ádministratión and important sectors of faculty and students) by in~creas'ing the top administration from one chancellor to a president;

- 46 chancellors at Mayaguez and the medical sciences campus, and providing f.or a director of regional colleges.

It is hard to estimate whether there

came to be better understanding between administration, faculty, and. stndents.

But it is at least obvious that in the eight years following

enactment of the reform law, two presidents have been fired, with little time for the usual courtesies, and four chancellors have been fired.

After

the 1942 statute, Chancellor Benítez had held his post until he became president under the 1966 statute. As to the impact on the university of a mass society, the new law had no useful provision. The 1966 law continued the university missions included in the 1942 statute, although according to the five commissioners, these were "reformulados y aún repensados al prepararse la nueva ley." (Cordero et al, 1965, p. 9) The question of style is not easily answered.

I find the

language of 1942, however, much more clear and pointed than that of 1966. (The translation of the 1966 law into English, furthermore, suggests that the resistance to that language which has been growing since the time of Agapito's Bar may have unhappy effects.

The Spanish version states that

the missions of the university "implica el más amplio goce de la libertad de cátedra y de investigación científica," whereas in English the phrase reads "with which is consubstantial the fullest freedom of professorship and scientific research." .Not included among the missions proposed by the five commissioners, .f :a new mission which can be used, as in 1975 it had been used, to skew the university away from the best possible learning towards entrance

G

- 1, 7 discriminatiqn,favorable .tp the . less fortunate.. • The missión is found i<u .' ~

Section 2 (Bh ''. t41y _ta develop the i_ntellectual..and spiritual wealth .' latent in our people, so this the values of the intelligenae and .sprit, of:the exceptionah p'ers.onalities-that arise from all social sectors, especially those least favored in economic resources., may be pt to the; ser~vice;-j. of the Puerto Rican community;" The question is how to define "exceptional personalities."

i. ._ '

If they are

intellectually exceptional, there is little probability that, given 12 years of free education, they will Lave low scores on the entrance examinations.

If that is true, then special discrimination for them in the

scores would be unnecessary.

If exceptional comes to mean potentially

exceptional, however, then the law can be put to the use of lowering entrance requirements for poor students.

This can only mean that such

students will be given compensatory, remedial help at the university to acquire intellectual skills and knowledge they failed to acquire in 12 years of public school education.

That compensatory, remedial work is

not at university level although its costs are. The public authority in collaboration with the administration, faculty, and students of the University of Puerto Rico has done an incomplete job.

The necessary, standard university missions have been

announced and included in legislation throughout this century: knowledge, professional education, instruction in the higher learning.

But missions

which weaken and frustrate the achievement_ of these necessary missions have, also, been proposed and permitted:

school work at the university,

provincial avoidance in academic work of world performance standards,

- 48 breaches of university autonomy permitting political and individual uses: of the institution, discrimination for the poor in entrance requirements, and student searches for identity, friends and mates, and personal pleasure instead of searches for knowledge, professional education, and the higher learning.

The task remains uncompleted.

References Ashby, Eric, 1971. Any person any study - an essay on higher education in the United States. New York: McGraw-Hill. Benner, Thomas E. 1965. Five Years of Foundation Building The University of Puerto Rico 1924-1929, with a preface by Chancellor Jaime Benítez. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: UniBerelson, Bernard. 1960. Graduate education in the United States. New York: McGraw-Hill. Cordero, afael de J.; Millas, Jorge; Morales, Juan E. Illich, Ivan; Cintrón, Jorge N. 1965. Informe de la Comisión de Educadores sobre la Reforma Universitaria. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Asamblea Legislativa. Hansen, Millard W. 1975. Education for competent participation. Cambrige, Mass.: Schenkman Publishing Co. 1975. Missions of a university in a small country. Río Piedras: University of Puerto Rico. Helfeld, David M. 1974. Informe de la Comisión del Gobernador para estudiar relaciones del trabajo en el servicio público en Puerto Rico. 3 volúmenes. San Juan. Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico. marzo de 1972. Informe económico al Gobernador 1971. San Juan. mayo de 1975. Informe económico al Gobernador 1974. San Juan. Nieves Falcón, Luis. 1965. in Puerto Rico 1940-1960. Universitaria.

Recruitment to Higher Education San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial

Rivera, Pedro José. 1973. Informe anual 1972-73. Río Piedras: Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Río Piedras: 31 de Julio de 1973. Spurr, Stephen H. 1974. Academic degree structures: innovative approaches, principles of reform in degree structures in the United States. New York: McGraw-Hill. Tugwell, Rexford G. 1946. The Stricken Land. University of Chicago Press.

Chicago:

The

The Archivo General of the UPR/RP has several papers in the history of the university, usually without date or author. I have used two of these papers, namely: Apuntes Históricos sobre la Universidad de Puertr Rico and La Universidad de Puerto Rico.