THE COLLEGE IN KHAKI—WHAT THE S. A. T. C. IS AND HOW IT WORKS

The colleges of the country to the number of more than five hundred are combined in a great cooperative project, under the direction of the War Department, to make their plants, personnel, and traditions, of maximum avail to the Government for the purpose of joining their resources in the general mobilization for bringing the full force of the country to bear to secure a military decision at the earliest possible moment.

This organization is known as the. Student Army Training Corps, and it operates under the direction of the Committee on Education and Special Training appointed. by the War Department and sitting in Washington.

The patriotism of American educational institutions had been demonstrated in the most striking manner possible from the very day of the declaration of war, and even in the days preceding this. As time went on the flow of men from the college to the military camps continued and even became accentuated. Meanwhile each college was more or less under the necessity of formulating its own logic and determining on the basis of this as to the specific kind of effort which it could make most profitably to the general cause. Hardly any college was in a position to know all the facts or all the needs, and the result was that there sprang up procedures widely at variance with each other from institutions whose patriotic impulses probably differed in no degree at all.

It was largely immaterial, so far as the colleges were concerned, whether the man-power bill specified a minimum age of 21 or of 18, for the spirit within college men was so strong to take the most direct action possible that the numbers enrolled in entering classes rapidly shrunk by attrition until a mere handful of the original number was to be found pursuing the regular college work, or even specialized branches thereof, excellent as the argument for so doing was in many cases. As evidence of this I need only to cite the fact that the present senior class in Dartmouth entered with 486 men three years ago, of whom this fall only 68 were in College. The figures for the preceding year were only a little less striking, there being 130 men in the senior class which had entered 443 men three years before. Meanwhile the 130 were reduced during the year to considerably less than 100.

It is desirable that we keep these facts in mind in thinking of the project on which the colleges are now embarked, in order that we shall realize that it was not a choice between full colleges doing regular work, or even colleges able to do regular work in any degree at all, and such a standardized and militarized proposition as we are engaged in at the present time. The option, in short, was between preserving the continuity of the college in its work and being of maximum service or of being so depleted in students as to be of little service and no significance in academic effort.

Understanding of this will explain fully the motives which led to the formulation of the plan for the Student Army Training Corps even before any discussion had been had in regard to the new man-power bill which reduced the minimum age of the selective service draft from 21 to 18 years.

Meanwhile the National Administration was really solicitous on the one hand to avoid any action whatsoever that gave to college men opportunities which should in any way establish them as a privileged class and on the other hand to safeguard continuity of educational, processes and the perpetuation of educational establishments which' had rendered and were capable of rendering such marked and distinctive service in this war.

The Student Army Training Corps was therefore established, and as operated at Dartmouth consists of two sections : the collegiate and the vocational section. The collegiate section consists of a membership of those men who are candidates for the bachelor's degree and who under normal circumstances would be pursuing the regular collegiate work.

The vocational section is made up of enlisted men assigned to the College by the Government for special work, this work at Dartmouth consisting of short intensive courses for carpenters and cement workers, motor truck drivers and repairers, telephone electricians, and radio operators.

This latter work was inaugurated last spring, after consultation between the College officers and representatives of the Government, and has been pursued with marked success now with two successive groups, with a third group due about the first of November. So far as Dartmouth was concerned the development of the instruction corps and the formulating of the curriculum for this vocational section was devised mainly under the guidance and supervision of the Thayer School organization, and is now in charge of Professor C. A. Holden, the Acting Director of the Thayer School.

The collegiate section is of particular interest, of course, to the,men who have in mind the question as to how much of the regular college work is of military advantage and how much of the normal college program is being preserved under this innovation.

First it should be said that the Committee on Education and Special Training has recognized that the reorganization of curricula to meet the requirements of war training is obviously a problem wThich required a period of constructive experimentation. It is impossible, of course, to give all the details of the system as set up, and some of these will presumably be subject to change as weaknesses are demonstrated, but in the main it is safe to assume that the plan is operating along the general lines that are likely to be permanent throughout the war.

The curricula as prescribed by the War Department are to be based on quarterly courses with terms, of twelve weeks each, including examination periods. It is essential that each term be made a unit in itself in view of the fact that students of appropriate age will be withdrawn at the end of any term.

In general students who have reached the age of 20, whether previously in college or not, will be allowed but a single term of twelve weeks in the college; and they, of course, must be given the essential subjects in order to utilize that time to maximum advantage.

Students who have reached the age of 19 will be in college for two terms; and they, therefore, can take a more comprehensive course, extending their work over double the time of the 20 year old group.

The 18 year old men are expected to be in college for three quarters, and are, therefore, able to take within the restriction of subjects authorized by the War Department a course not largely different from that which they would take under normal circumstances as members of the freshman class.

So far as the present divisions of the college go, therefore, class lines have completely disappeared and the college is classified solely on a basis of the respective ages of the different groups, for each of whom a definite program is arranged.

This is all based on the fundamental, however, of military training and military discipline. The men are enlisted in the Army, are uniformed, equipped and armed. They arise and retire at the call of the bugle, pursue their military and academic work alike under drastic schedule, eat in a central mess hall, study under supervision, and room under barrack . conditions with barrack allotment of space and barrack paucity of furniture.

Meanwhile the college life is modified in all its social aspects to conform with the needs of the military situation, in which athletics as they have been known are largely precluded and fraternity life and activities are held in absolute abeyance.

For instance it is specifically directed that no athletic games involving absence for a night shall be played before November 1 and that after November 1 not more than two games involving overnight absence may be permitted, provided that no such furloughs shall be granted to soldiers not maintaining satisfactory standards of military and academic work.

In regard to the, fraternity life the directions are explicit that houses shall be closed and that meetings of fraternities shall not be held under any circumstances, either formally or informally, except in cases where a meeting is necessary to maintain the corporate existence of the fraternity.

In short, the fundamental principle upon which the Student Army Training Corps is established is the principle of hastening the mobilization and training of our armies, with particular reference to the selection and training of men capable of being considered eligible for officerships or non-commissioned officerships. By the use which is being made of the colleges men are being brought into training earlier than would be the case if they waited for call under the selective service law. Furthermore, men from the cantonments showing aptitudes which would make them especially desirable in technical work are being given the opportunity of training: in the colleges on the college side. The potentialities of instruction and of plant are being utilitized in the most advantageous way for the immediate purpose in hand, and the Government is compensating to a degree which will in large part save the colleges from the enormous financial loss that would have accrued if it had not seemed wise to the Government to protect the college financial interests in this way while at the same time serving Government interests probably more economically than they could have been served on any other basis in the process of securing such material as the colleges are equipped to develop.

The course is a rigorous one, and men are working harder than they have ever worked before in their lives in most cases; but there is a seriousness of purpose and a definiteness of aim on the part of the student body, together with an openness of mind on the part of faculties and administrations, which augur well for the advance of the college standard in the immediate future when it resumes its own work over anything that has hitherto been known.

The so-called allied subjects to be taught by educational institutions, from which election may be made by members of the Student Army Training Corps, are as follows: English, French, German, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Psychology, Geography, Topography and Map Making:, Meteorology, Astronomy, Hygiene, Sanitation. Descriptive Geometry, Mechanical and Freehand Drawing, Surveying, Economics. Accounting, History, International Law, Military Law, and Government.

Moreover, permission may be granted for the recognition as an allied subject of one subject outside of the above list, provided that it. occupies not more than three hours per week in lectures and recitations with corresponding time for study. It will thus be seen that the aspects of the college remain to a considerable extent even though the military features and requirements necessarily are predominant. We like to feel that the college is in this work showing its flexibility and adaptability for emergency need, and that it is doing its military duty as an extension of its regular work rather than as a complete substitution for it.

Justification is given for this view when one considers that the enrolled men—that is to say, the men who are under 18 years old and are not allowed to enlist, though they are allowed to take the military training—are in the main taking a course equivalent to the regular freshman year work, and that there are a few men in the College who for one reason or another cannot qualify for military service and therefore are candidates for degrees in regular course.

In closing perhaps no more significant statement could be made than to call attention to the daily routine of a student of the college of the present time as printed in the College News section of this number of the MAGAZINE.

Ernest Martin Hopkins, LL.D., President of Dartmouth College