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TRINITY VOLUME 1, NUMBER 6
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1371
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TRINITY COLLEGE, HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT
JANUARY 1971
Lockwood Asks Study Of Three-Year Degree
A mountain of turkeys, 110 in all, were donated by the 800 students who eat on campus to families in Hartford for the holidays. The students voted to forego their annual Christmas banquet and to purchase turkeys instead for needy families . Shown here (bottom to top) Santa (David Sutherland '72) ; Vic Haas '71, who originated the idea; Tony Loney '73 , who helped with the distribution, and Gerry Lith way, Saga Food Service manager on campus, who arranged for the purchase of the turkeys.
Maintenance Workers End Strike; Education Offer Aids Settlement A week-long strike at the College by unionized workers in the Buildings and Grounds Department ended December 10. Th e 76 m embers of the Service Employees International Union Local 531 , AFL-CIO, which includes the non-supervisory personnel of the B & G Department ended their strike which began December 2 by ratifying a new contract with the College. The College had remained open during the strike with many students taking on housecleaning chores and supervisory personnel in B & G keeping vital supplies coming onto the campus. Food service personnel were not out on strike and supervisory personnel of the Saga Food Service brought food to the cam:,us in cases where unionized truck drivers honored picket lines which were set up at campus gates during the strike. The College and Union negotiators had reached agreement on non-economic issues before the old contract expired on November 24 but an extension of the old contract through December 2 still brought no agreement on disputes over wages and fringe benefits. The strike ended when the Union broke the stalemate over wages by agreeing to accept the College's offer of an average 7% wage boost. The Union's demand had been for a I 0.6% increase across the board. The College maintained that its offer of approximately 7% was "the best offer consistent with the financial constraints under which we operate as a non-profit institution." Many of the negotiation sessions were under the guidance of state and federal mediators as was the last one on December 9 at which a tentative agreement was reached and ratified the next day by the Union membership. One of the developments at the last meeting was an offer by the College to conduct special classes for Union
personnel where there is a need and an interest. One of the classes that had an immediate interest was instruction in English . About half of the employees in the local Union speak Spanish or Portuguese and do not have English as a native language. This proposal was enthusiastically received by many members of Local 531. Classes in other studies will be arranged and the sessions will be held on campus probably at the end of a work day . The new two-year contract provides for automatic reopener annually on wages and fringe benefits. Under the terms of the new contract, the Union accepted the College's offer for an automatic 20 cents an hour increase for new employees at the completion of 90 days of service and a 10 cents an hour increase at the end of one year's service. The latter provision immediately benefits about half of the employees in the Union. The new pact also provides an option for employees contributing to the pension fund . They may elect to continue the 5% contribution or elect annually to add this to their take-home pay. In either case, the College will continue to contribute an amount equal to 6% of the employee's pay to the pension fund. The Union agreed to continue to accept the College's health plan and medical benefits and the College agreed to increase pay for the work on holidays from time and a half to double time. Classes continued during the strike and the students generally displayed an attitude of understanding for the College during the controversy and a genuine interest in the issues although active . support of the picket lines was limited to 20-25 students. As the strike ended students were taking up a collection to provide for a turkey and food basket for the holidays for each Union member in a gesture of goodwill for the loss of pay 路 during the strike.
President Lockwood has asked the Curriculum Committee to consider establishing a three-year bachelor's degree program. In a letter asking consideration of a three-year program option to the Committee, Dr. Lockwood said two reasons prompted his suggestion. "First," he wrote, "I sense that at this time of considerable curricular fluidity, we shall see many experiments to provide far greater flexibility in the pace at which students complete their undergraduate program." He said at one extreme there were students who could profit from interrupting their education - "a prospect which changes in the selective service system may permit," he added and "at the other extreme we have those who could profit most from being encouraged to finish their undergraduate studies more rapidly - not simply acceleration in the accumulation of credits, but as a more rapid acquisition of agility of the mind and intellectual rpastery." Secondly he observed, "The emphasis on specialization has slackened. Now may be the time in which to recognize explicitly the differing paces at which students fulfill these goals." In considering a three-year degree program Dr. Lockwood said, "It should be voluntary ... it should be different not simply acceleration" ...and he added, "my assumption is that it would most likely involve qualifying examinations rather than credit accumulation." He said that such a program might tend "to attract the better student." However, he said, "It is not alone the superior student who profits. What the program recognizes is that students differ
in the 'earliness' with which they achieve the goals we set." In his communicatio n t o the Curriculum Committee , President Lockwood said , "Society may prefer that we provide four years suspension from labor during the ages 18-22; but I would hope we would not plan education in those terms. Therefore I admit that this program should incorporate the possibility of interruption." He also said such a program might take the form of a student finishing his degree in three years and then optionally "pursue a master's degree during the following 12 months." He said that some might view a three-year program as "a contraction and therefore a diminution." President Lockwood said "I do not ; for I feel we have moved away from that kind of measurement in higher education." He told the Committee that he considered the proposal for a three-year degree program "as a logical extension of the philosophy inherent in our new curriculum." Since September 1969, Trinity has been under a curriculum which places maximum emphasis on flexibility of students selecting their course of study , without specific requirements outside the major, in order to fulfill their own educational objectives and needs. While the flexibility of the current curriculum allows for extending study for a degree to five years or acceleration in a three-year program, the latter is not a formalized option to which President Lockwood is asking consideration . He urged that the Committee first examine the philosophical implications of such a program at a liberal arts college, and then investigate the mechanics of implementation.
Miller N .E. Coach Of The Year Don Miller has been elected New England College Division Football Coach of the Year by vote of head college coaches in the region in the annual poll conducted by United Press International. Miller's hQnor, coupled with an earlier selection of the 1970 Bants as New England Champions and Dave Kiarsis being voted Player of the Year in East, (see page 8) made it a banner year for Trio in football . "This is a great honor," said Miller "but I do not look upon it as a personal award. It should be shared by our staff, administration, our entire squad and our loyal
supporters." He again praised the "great attitude and determination," of the members of the squad for the success of the 1970 team which finished 7-1 , the best record at Trinity since 1955. All the more remarkable was the fact that the nucleus of this eleven came from a squad which posted a 3-4-1 slate in 1969, the first losing effort with which Miller has been associated with in 18 years of football . The former Little All-American Quarterback at the University of Delaware paced the Blue Hens to three winning years (1952-54) including a Refrigerator Bowl victory in 1954. He was graduated from Delaware in 1955 and received a Master's degree in Education from there in 1957. He was head coach at Newark (Del.) High School for three seasons where his teams compiled a 31-2 record and he was named Higlt School Coach of the Year in Delaware in 1957. He served as an assistant under Jim Ostendarp at Amherst from 1959-1964 in a period in which the Lord Jeffs were 38-9. Miller came to Trinity and joined the late Dan Jessee as an assistant in 1965 and assumed the head coaching job upon Dan's retirement after the 1966 season. Miller's teams have compiled an overall record of 22-8-2 during the last four seasons.