THE PLAN OF A CONTINUOUS SESSION FOR THE COLLEGE

The following statement is a brief synopsis of the report made by a committee of the faculty after the question of a continuous session for the College had been referred to the faculty by the Board of Trustees. [EDITOR],

In his report to the Trustees on March 24, 1917, President Hopkins called attention to the question whether "colleges, which purport to fit men for life, should not do their work contin- uously on the basis of an all-the-year- around program." He said: "It has seemed to me for a long time, as I have watched men beginning their life's work, whether in the professions or in indus- try, that they had derived no benefits, and in many cases had derived distinct harm, from the college procedure which accepts precedent in continuing the long summer vacation I bring 'the matter up at this time, however, be- cause it seems to me certain that, amid all the sterner conditions of life which are certain to follow the economic wastage of the present war, time will be reckoned of greater value than ever heretofore; and a program which denies the man the opportunity of working continuously to get his college degree is going to be open to serious indictment by thinking men in days to come."

On this question the Committee on Instruction at the request of the faculty presented a report on June 11, 1917, and recommended "that the faculty express its belief in the educational desirability and practicability of the four-quarter plan described in its report and that the adoption of this plan would be for the best interests of the College." This recommendation was adopted by the faculty by a large majority, though it should perhaps be stated that before the vote was taken the phrase "the best interests of the College" was explicitly interpreted to refer only to the educational interests of the College.

The report of the Committee covered 18 printed pages and is, therefore, too long to give in full. The most important features of the proposed plan are given below; arguments supporting various features or answering possible objections have been omitted. The proposed plan contemplates the division of the calendar year into four "quarters" of 11 weeks each. The Autumn Quarter would begin about October 1, and extend to the beginning of the Christmas recess. The Winter Quarter would begin early in January and extend to near the end of March. The Spring Quarter would begin early in April and extend to about the middle of June. The SummerQuarter would begin during the latter part of June and end during the first week in September.

The calendar can be so arranged that all quarters will be of equal length and that it will provide for a vacation of two and one half weeks at Christmas, recesses of one week each at the ends of the winter and spring quarters, and a vacation of about three weeks at the end of the summer quarter.

This program allows for a session of about 44 weeks in every year. Subtracting four weeks for examination periods, there would remain in each quarter ten effective weeks of teaching. (For purposes of comparison, it may be noted that our present semester contains about fifteen effective weeks of teaching.)

The unit of instruction would be the "Course," which would be the amount of instruction received by a class meeting six times a week for one quarter, or three times a week for two successive quarters. When necessary or desirable, "half-courses" could be offered, the class meeting three times a week for one quarter.

The quantitative requirement for a degree on the basis of this unit would be the equivalent of thirty-three courses (two half-courses counting as one course). A student would normally take the equivalent of three courses in every quarter during the first half of his course, and an average of two and one half courses per quarter during the second half of his course. A student carrying the normal amount of work would then be enabled to graduate in twelve consecutive quarters, i. e. in three calendar years.

The advantages to be secured by the proposed plan may be briefly enumerated as follows:

An ambitious student would be able to graduate in three years, without taking more than the normal amount of work at any one time; a student could enter in any quarter, instead of only in September as under the present system; he could drop out at the end of any quarter and resume his work in any succeeding quarter and could thus avail himself of the most advantageous time for securing remunerative employment in case he found it necessary or desirable to interrupt his college course for this purpose; he would lose only one quarter if he were forced through illness or other circumstances to discontinue his college work. Moreover, the plan provides more frequent checks on a student's work.

In order to secure the above advantages a sufficient variety of courses would have to be offered in every quarter to make possible a desirable selection on the part of each student. Courses with very large enrolments would under the proposed plan be offered in every quarter; all courses of a basic character, such as are prerequisites for subsequent work in a department, would have to be offered at least as often as once in two quarters. All departments have reported that they can provide for the desired flexibility; moreover, it appears that in the great majority of cases this flexibility can be secured without great disproportionate expense.

The proposed plan would make possible a more economical operation of the College plant and, consequently, an increase in usefulness without anything like a proportionate increase in expense; it would utilize fully the exceptional climatic conditions of Hanover; and, owing to the flexibility with which vacations can be assigned to members of the faculty, it would offer increased opportunity for the College to render public service to the community, state, and nation through the service of its faculty.

It is believed that certain educational advantages would result from the proposed daily recitation and the fact that a student would take only three courses at one time. These are not advantages peculiar to a continuous session, however, and therefore need not be elaborated here.

Professor John Wesley Young,, Chairman Faculty Committee on Instruction