The Midpeninsula Free University

MFU Articles Published by The Stanford Daily
1966

‘Free’ University Sets Up Shop

It is an old American custom to build counter-institutions that claim to be more free than their predecessors. In this way the Free University of Palo Alto is in part a criticism of existing institutions, Roy Kepler said in an interview with the Daily.

Kepler is one of the founders of a Free University being established in the Palo Alto area, which has no prerequisites for admission, no system of grades or credits, no grants or degrees, and a tuition of only $15 per semester.

"Discuss and Learn"

It is partially a response to the growing demand for education as seen in the universal development of study groups and adult education, Kepler said. The university is planned to provide a center in which people of the community can come together to discuss and to learn, unencumbered by the restrictions found in conventional educational structures.

The Free University's immediate roots go back to the FSM movement at Berkeley when people thought there should be a free university, Kepler said, adding that the experiment is a response to the nation-wide situation of student unrest and skepticism about present society manifest in the development of the New Left.

Registration

Registration will take place on Sunday, February 13, at East Palo Alto Women's Club. Felix Green, authority on China, will speak and lead an open discussion at 3 p.m. Registration will occur between 2 and 6 p.m.

The university will allow any person of any age to instruct. The only qualification required of teachers is that they draw a class of students willing to investigate the topic presented. Teachers and students will meet and work as equals at all times. The founders of this new university believe such a fluid structure will encourage radical questioning and the pursuit of truth in subject areas felt essential and relevant to life by both students and teachers.

Radicals

Most of the founders are graduate students at Stanford who have been active in civil rights and peace movements. They are radicals of various kinds who feel social injustice, a whole range of people taking a radical look at society, Kepler said.

An important part of the Free University is the establishment of a study center in or near East Palo Alto. The center will provide a learning situation for the citizens of this community who are primarily Negroes. Negotiations are now underway for the purchase of a house to be used as this study center. Until facilities are acquired, classes and seminars will meet in private homes.

Fluid Organization

The fluid course organization of the university, determined solely by student demand, will, according to the founders, allow the presentation of practical and higher education topics that are thought essential by the members of the community themselves. Kepler emphasized that the university is open and free to studies of almost any problem from any approach—right or left.

Such opposite doctrines as Marxian dialectical materialism and nonviolence and its social organization are among courses presently planned. More conventional subjects, Creative Writing, The U. S. Economy, and History of Mathematical Thought, are also included.

A special feature of the Free University is a weekly forum entitled Behind The News. This seminar is an open discussion of contemporary events such as the Vietnam question and appraisal of Far Eastern policy. It is presently meeting on Sunday afternoons and is open to the public at no charge.