THE NEW OFFICE OF ASSOCIATE DEAN
At the recent meeting of the Trustees a new office was created in the Dartmouth faculty; — that of Associate Dean. Professor Richard Wellington Husband will be the first incumbent. The reason for creating this office and the nature of the functions to be performed by the Associate Dean are well set forth in an editorial in the Manchester Union, part of which is quoted below. Says the Union:
"The men of Dartmouth for the most part have to make a living. The general culture acquired in the educational course, the lessons in character and the art of living learned at Dartmouth provide a broad and secure foundations for useful, successful life. They are not an end, but are means to an end. While these foundations are being laid, the student is looking ahead to the building that is to be reared upon them, and which is to be shaped according to the ground plan. And often the question is asked: What about the period between the laying of the foundations and the erection of the superstructure; what about the time when the man who has passed through a distinctly cultural college is finding his direction and his appropriate sphere of usefulness? Is there not likely to be a certain amount of lost motion right at this point, motion that is not lost by the young man whose college training is technical or fitted specifically to a clearly defined professional objective ?
"The Dartmouth trustees evidently have been considering this question. Their answer is in the affirmative. And they have worked out a plan for remedying the long recognized defect in the system. No change of educational theory is proposed. Dartmouth is to hold fast to its ideal of amateur scholarship. But a new office is to be performed by the College on behalf of the young men who have chosen the Dartmouth type of education. they are pursuing their studies, they themselves will be studied. Their aims, aptitudes and attitudes will be learned. At the same time, the field of commerce, industry and the professions will be under survey with a view to the obtaining of exact knowledge as to opportuni- ties and requirements. The student will be brought into direct contact with representatives of the various activities to which they will look for occupation and usefulness. In short, an effort is to be made to bridge the gap between commencement and vocation. There is nothing of the employment agency in all this. Instead, there is simply personal, intimate knowledge and interest.
"We have an idea that Dartmouth's new office will appeal to our practical New Hampshire folk who want their boys tc have broadly cultured education and get their direction quickly. It is a genuine service that is offered, and far-seeing parents and practical young men will not be slow to recognize its value.
"It is pioneer work of its kind, and the new associate dean who will do it has a job on his hands. So much the better that our own College should undertake to blaze the way, and that Professor Husband should be called to make the great experiment which will most assuredly develop into fixed practice by all the substantial cultural colleges. It means that the undertaking is starting off right, and that a service is to be done to the college world as well as to the Dartmouth students."
