Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2009 - 11

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top down or bot tom up by Beeb Salzer
When our daughters were teenagers, a colleague from my
days in New York visited us. He got into an argument with my
daughters about a now long-forgotten matter and was bested
by them. In desperation, he used his last remaining ploy and
said, I'm a professor so I am right." My daughters laughed
and one replied, "Our father is a professor and he is always
wrong."
My wife and I allowed, no, encouraged our daughters to
think for themselves and disagree with us, as long they weren't
cheeky. I did the same in teaching. I found that students who
disagreed and argued were most often the brightest. Rather than
being penalized, they received the best grades. Word must have
gotten out that I liked the give and take of ideas and sometimes
students made silly arguments just for the sake of arguing.
Not all students liked my methods and in a five-year post
tenure review, the chair told me to stop using the Socratic
method. It seemed absurd then, and still does, to abandon a
four-thousand-year old pedagogical technique. I never did.
but there are people who are uncomfortable with controversy. A colleague once told me she so hated arguments that she
couldn't watch Meet the Press. What my chair asked of me was
my first inkling of changes in the academy.
Now and then a student contested a grade and if a good
reason was given, I would sometimes raise the grade. Then the
student from hell came along. He was often late, did not take
directions or suggestions, and if his work had been excellent
those things would not have mattered. but his work was terrible. being generous, I did not flunk him. When he came to my
office demanding an A, I, of course, denied his demand.
When I received a message from the university ombudsman that an official inquiry about this grade was in progress,
I was incredulous. There were many months of meetings, testimony, messages back and forth. It was time consuming and
disagreeable. I was worn down and finally agreed to a pass/fail
grade. I have often regretted this.
When I was in college in the dark ages, it was said that
a college needed only professors, students, and a library. Administrators were not in the equation. In fact, being an administrator was not a profession but an obligation of a reluctant
professor who served for a period of years and then went back
to teaching and research. The "them against us" mind set did
not exist. let me digress and come back to this later.
K.C. Cole is a friend who makes me remember the last
lines of Charlotte's Web. " It is not often that someone comes
along who is a true friend and a great writer." K.C.'s many
books and her science columns when she wrote for the LA
Times use down to earth examples to explain complicated

physics. Her latest book, scheduled to come out when the
economy improves, is a biography of Frank Oppenheimer, the
founder of the San Francisco Exploritorium. A working title is
"THE MISCHIEF MAKER: How Frank Oppenheimer Survived the
bomb and the blacklist To Create an Exploratorium of Wonders (and Teach Us the Meaning of a Fruitful life)."
The book is fascinating because Oppenheimer, the younger brother of Robert Oppenheimer and also a physicist, was a
character whose life was filled with problems and triumphs.
Sometimes they happened at the same time.
Even though the Exploritorium was a great success, the
board of directors objected to Oppenheimer's management
style that was a loose egalitarianism. Artists as well as scientists
worked with craftsmen and everyone's opinion was considered.
Heated arguments were sometimes part of staff meetings that
everyone attended. While the budget was important, it was not
primary to the operation. At board meetings, Oppenheimer often had to run interference for his staff who created the magic
of the organization.
At a recent lunch with K.C., she mentioned that when she
talks to heads of corporations they say they have come to value
the style of management that Oppenheimer used. The top down
system of the business model ignored many good ideas from
below. The irony of this shift is that the academy is increasingly
using the business model.
Universities now cater to students who are seen as customers while professors have become salespeople. Administrations have grown faster than faculties. And professors know
that administrators, fearing to offend students or precipitate a
lawsuit, will side with students most of the time. Fearing professorial autonomy, administrative control declares FTEs sacrosanct. Student evaluations become scripture. And out-come
measurements are the stock price of the institution.
The poor arts where classes are necessarily small, where
evaluations can be imaginative, and out-comes can be best
measured by the success of graduates twenty years out. Moreover, art classes are expensive, theatre programs maybe more
than others when new equipment, often complicated, expensive, and quickly out of date, breaks budgets.
While universities become more business-like, there
are, of course, exceptions. I have been lucky to have had
deans who supported the arts. but there is still little chance
in big institutions of good ideas percolating from the bottom
to the top. Smart people take good idea from wherever they
come. What humility I have came from my children telling me
I was wrong. Who tells deans, provosts, and presidents when
they are wrong? v

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