The Communication Patterns And The Structure Of Social Relationships At A Large University

By R. Lance Shotland

FROM THE ABSTRACT: Within the literature produced by several student movements some very specific complaints pertaining to the social structure of the university appear. Two student movements on two different campuses were viewed with regard to complaints about the social structure of the university. The activist students complained that they were socially separated from the faculty, from the administrators and from other students. It was hypothesized that students would be connected to other students, faculty members and administrators by the longest informal communication channels. On the basis of Leavitt's (1958) study, it was also hypothesized that administrators would have the shortest informal communication channels to other administrators, faculty and students. The technique used in the present study to measure the length of informal communication channels was first used by Milgram (1967). Milgram called the technique the "Small World Method."….”

Michigan State University. Ph.D. Thesis. 1970. 148p.