The History of Unit One

This document has four sections:

  1. A summary description of Unit One composed Fall, 1994
  2. A historical survey: 1971-1985
  3. A "transition statement" composed inthe mid-1980s
  4. The report of the Council on Program Evaluation(COPE), 1983--A campus level evaluation committee

A "transition statement" composed inthe mid-1980s

Student Participation and Residential Features:

Through 1973, UNIT ONE students occupied distinctly separate floors in Allen Hall. To help solve problems created by having two populations (UNIT ONE and non-UNIT ONE) of students, the 300 UNIT ONE students were integrated into Allen Hall. In 1979-80, all students in Allen Hall became affiliated with the program.

Students were self-selecting on the basis of an application made available to all students holding a residence hall contract. Through 1973 the selection process included the advisory board's screening of student essays. This process was dropped after the program's third year. In 1985, selection into UNIT ONE was incorporated into the process of submitting a University Residence Hall contract.

Until 1985, applications usually came close to filling vacancies with some years being quite high and others falling short. With the implementation of the 1985 contract process, applications exceeded vacancies by up to 100%.

Despite lack of specifically designed facilities, UNIT ONE has (or has had) a good variety of equipment and laboratories to accommodate a wide variety of endeavors: Ceramics and photography studios, video equipment, radio station, computer terminals, visitor apartments, offices for staff, and a print shop.

Students have put out weekly newsletters, created occasional literary magazines, performed dramas, musical events, and dialogues, and sponsored faculty lecture series. Workshops are arranged when student demand exists.

UNIT ONE students have tended to be slightly above the campus average in grade point and tend to rank higher than average in verbal skills. This latter datum is reflected in the humanities and fine arts orientation at UNIT ONE. Students tend to be more highly motivated, as reflected by the high frequency of student-initiated activities at UNIT ONE (e.g., faculty lecture series, most workshops, concerts, visitors to Allen Hall, student government, course initiation). The most striking testimony to student initiative and organizational abilities has been their successful campaigns in response to UNIT ONE's four terminations.

These features of the residential component, having highly motivated, self- selecting students, provide the basic framework from which academic and residential innovation can be launched. It provides for the students' ability to assume a greater responsibility for regulating their own residential life (e.g., self-governing floors) and provides a framework where classroom learning is not necessarily distinct from the rest of a student's life.

The sense of community has been expressed in many forms over the years. Its earmark has always involved distinctive and innovative features that distinguishes Allen Hall from other campus living units. Hall government always tends to be strong and active; during 1977-80, it had no executive council and operated by ad hoc committees. Self-governing men's and women's floors were formed by student initiative. Well-known musicians frequently were in residence during their local performing jobs to play for and with students. The level of faculty involvement in discussion series has always been high.

In general, the amount of co-curricular programming at Allen Hall leads all residence halls, and with the added expertise of the UNIT ONE staff, the level of quality is consistently high.

UNIT ONE/Allen Hall has always been characterized as a politically and socially active undergraduate center. Many factors contributed to this including the self-selected students, the nature of the type of faculty and staff that choose to work in this type of environment, and the synergistic effect of giving students the ability to manipulate their setting. Ironically, many of the more invigorating periods at UNIT ONE, in terms of heated discourse and controversy, centered around social and political issues such as race relations, international politics, ideologies of the left and the right, and feminism. The issues raised by these discourses frequently caused students a great deal of discomfort, a logical outcome when freshmen/sophomores' values are challenged. The consequent disruption of the community was severe, in several instances; but the process of reconciliation often served as a creative process, unto itself, with instances of outside mediators (e.g., The Reverend Charles Switzer of the McKinley Foundation) showing the community how it can come together through discord, and the formation of student coalitions to mend fences.

Artist-In-Residence Program and Speaker Series:

From 1971-73, the Artist-in-Residence program had one resident artist per year. These people were brought to UNIT ONE to create a more intimate learning environment between artists and students than normal classroom interactions could afford. Artists' overall experiences were productive and resulted in several long-term UNIT ONE programs (one artist started the ceramic program), but their levels of sophistication were usually beyond the reach of students. This resulted in decreasing personal rewards for the artist over the course of the year.

In 1974-75, the A-I-R program was revised, both in philosophy and structure.
Two main issues addressed were:

  1. accommodation of the needs of the “non-artists” among the UNIT ONE students;
  2. exposure of all students to a broader range of “actively creative, self-employed people.”

The nomenclature of “artists”-in-residence became a sometimes misinterpreted description. Most people unfamiliar with the program expected the areas of expertise of visiting artists to be in the fine and applied arts. Actually, the diversity of A-I-R participants has been quite wide. It includes fine artists, such as dancers, painters, and musicians, as well as writers, scientists, political activists, and feminists. Several participants have national notoriety. The program was re-named “In-Residence at UNIT ONE” to avoid the perception that all guests were fine artists.

All guests are chosen by an all-hall vote on the basis of application. Applications are solicited by students and staff, arrive via the grapevine of past participants, and are solicited from faculty. The Miller Endowment frequently co-sponsors participants.

When at UNIT ONE, artists are given a two-room suite in Allen Hall, board, a stipend ($400/week), and air travel expenses. Artists are expected to interact with UNIT ONE students and with interested members of the University and Champaign-Urbana communities in forums appropriate to the type of exchange with facilitates the sharing of ideas, skills, and talents. An artists' initial presentation is usually an informal talk and/or performance during the first day of residence. Discussion sessions, workshops, clas

Generally, this program has been judged highly successful. It has served as a model for similar programs at other universities (e.g., University of Indiana).

Other visitors also stay at Allen Hall on an ad hoc basis. Departmental and unit (e.g., Millercom) guests frequently stay at UNIT ONE in exchange for "rap" sessions. Musicians, for instance, will hold workshops following regularly scheduled campus concerts. Campus lecturers will hold question-answer sessions. These interactions are usually informal and personalized, giving an unusual opportunity for freshmen and sophomores to directly interact with eminent visiting scholars, political figures, and artists. Eminent visitors have included Henry Steele Commager, Tom Hayden, Vivian Gornik, and Julian Bond.

Outreach programs and formal liaisons with University programs:

One function prescribed for UNIT ONE was to test the feasibility of testing new educational programs for undergraduates. This function was never fully realized, but experiments were initiated during the earlier years.

An exchange program with Parkland College was meant to offer vocational skill development to UNIT ONE students. University crediting problems hindered implementation.

Early proposals for UNIT ONE to present courses and/or workshops in other residence halls met with little success until 1985. Photography instruction was frequently offered, when requested, but the organizational structure of other residence halls seems to have hindered the development of such programs. The same structural features seem to have stifled artists-in-residence working in other halls.

In 1985 a serious attempt at UNIT ONE outreach was begun at Pennsylvania Avenue Residence Hall. A graduate assistant was put into that area to help develop an academic program tailored to that area's needs. Courses, formal workshops, academic advising, and formal tutoring in math, chemistry, and writing are being explored as well as a linkage between formal course offerings and the experimental implementation of personal computers into one of the halls in this area.

Liaisons with other University units have proven to be more successful. UNIT ONE frequently co-sponsors campus activities such as the Feminist Scholarship 1978 Conference, several Miller professors, Millercom lectures, programs with the Afro-American Studies program, Women's Studies courses and lectures, and visiting departmental lecturer/workshop guests.

In most of these cases, UNIT ONE's co-sponsorship is linked to bringing participating guests in closer contact with UNIT ONE undergraduates. UNIT ONE usually provides funds, room and board, and/or organizational help.

Advisory Committee:

Under Director Purves (1971-72) and Acting Director Plater (1972-73), a faculty advisory committee played an active role in guiding UNIT ONE. During 1973-77, the advisory committee's role diminished to extinction. Director Paul Hoover, in conference with LAS Dean Robert Rogers, assumed the duties of the advisory committee. Dean Rogers appointed a new advisory committee for 1978-80 with five regular faculty representing the Colleges of LAS, Fine and Applied Arts, and Engineering, and representatives from the Housing Division. This committee's function was to guide the academic program at UNIT ONE, especially in the areas of course development and staffing. This committee also played a role in creating a proposal for the future of UNIT ONE.

The 1978-80 advisory committee introduced two major changes in procedure at UNIT ONE. They prescribed the method by which courses are proposed and approved for offering under the LAS 110/210 rubrics and under departmental cross-listings. They also prescribed the method by which staff are hired. The latter procedure involved approval by a student-staff selection committee in conjunction with a representative of an appropriate department, approval by the advisory committee, and eventual approval by the head of the sponsoring department.

Beginning 1980, the advisory committee was appointed by the Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs. Representatives came from colleges that serve freshmen and sophomore students (Liberal Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Commerce, Communications, Fine and Applied Arts, Education, Agriculture, and Applied Life Studies), an associate Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and the Head of the Housing Division.

Essentially, this advisory committee was charged with guiding the UNIT ONE program through revisions that addressed the major criticisms of recent evaluation studies and actively overseeing the academic program's maintenance and development. The advisory committee chose to be more active in the academic realm and to be more advisory in the co-curricular realm. It set guidelines for all academic course offerings and instructional academic staffing, but did not choose to play an active role in determining co-curricular issues.

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