Smyrna times., 1961-01-26
III. of d. President
Declares Faculty,
Machines Needed


curricular adjustments demand
ed by the virtual explosion of
knowledge may be more import
ant to higher education than
expanding enrollments, DR.. John
A. Perkins, president of the Uni
versity of Delaware, declares.
Writing in his annual report
for the l959-60 academic year,
DR.. Perkins cites electronic COM
puters as key instruments in
the scientific revolution of the
twentieth century.
He observes, To-day, students
who would be properly educated
in agricultural production, engi-
neering, business administration
as well as accounting, mathe-
matics and physics need course
instruction in the use of these
computers. Social sci e n t S s
with masses of data and many
variables also need to be more
than vaguely familiar with COM
puters. Hours should be found
in the instructional pr ogra m,
and money in the instructional
budget, to accommodate teach
ing the needed courses. Not to
do so is to fail to educate ad-
equately the able young people
so much sought after by our
complex industrial society that
struggles to lead the world in
economic growth and at the
same time to maintain adequate
defenses."
The acquisition of proper
equipment is but a modest ex-
penditure compared to the funds
for new faculty who must be
added if Delaware is to be up
to date in the fields to which
the university has been COM
mitted for many years, DR.. Per-
kins adds. He points to two
specific areas in which the uni
versity must enlarge its faculty
as we'll as its curricular offer
ings. In both the school of edu-
cation and the department of
economics and business admin
istration, the growth of know
ledge and larger enrollments
make expansion necessary, he
reveals.
DR.. Perkins writes, From the
time our instruction in peda-
gogy began, our relatively small
enrolment in the school of edu-
cation, the small number of
school systems in Delaware and
their size, and the limited num-
Der of school specialists each
required have all made it i'm
practical for the university to
try to meet the diversified per-
sonnel needs of the schools. 1t
is one thing to train general
elementary school teachers re-
quired by the h dr. d S and
quite another to support separ-
ate curricula to train special
lists for teaching the handicap
ped, with job openings for half
dozen a year. For these rea-
sons a teacher-training program
embracing all these specializa-
tions has not heretofore been
possible.
THE super fl cial observer
might jump to the too-easy con-
clusion that the university has
not been deeply interested in
teacher-education. Such a con-
clusion could not be more
wrong. There is every desire
here, especially now that under
graduate enrollments and grad
uate work for teachers already
in service are fast coming to
warrant it, to staff our school of
education in some of the more
essential Specifications such as
guidance and counseling, prepar-
ing teachers for the handicap
ped and gifted children, prepar-
ing business and commercial
teachers, and school administra-
tors and supervisors. Obvious
ly, the funds for these develop
ments are the responsibility of
the people through the Della
ware General Assembly"
"As for the second area, en-
rollments in economics and busl-
ness administration are growing
faster than in any other field
of the university's endeavors.
Last year there were over 24O
students majoring in these sub
iects. Furthermore, this area OF
knowledge rivals education as
the one in which the largest
university extension enrolment
is found. Obviously, as more
students enroll more professors