The Nature and Potentialities of the Senior Fellowship

(.Another of the Senior Fellows reports on his work)

The June issue of the MAGAZINE carried articles bythree of the Senior Fellows who, during the college yearjust closed, were allowed to do their academic work ofsenior year free from all required obligations such as examinations, attendance at classes, comprehensive examinations (customarily required of all seniors), payment of tuition fees, and work in major subjects. Thefourth ofthese reports, that of Jerome Pearre, is printedbelow.

SINCE the Senior Fellowships were instituted at Dartmouth only last year it is quite natural that there should be a good deal of speculation as to how the plan has been working out. The three questions that one finds himself asked the most frequently are somewhat as follows: How have you made use of the opportunities which the Fellowship has given you? Do you think you have profited as much from this year of college as you would have under the regular curriculum P Do you think the Senior Fellowship plan has proved to be a success?

The first two questions can be answered in comparatively few words. Previous to my appointment to a Fellowship my major department was History, with English History as the field of specialization. I have continued the study of English History during the past year under the guidance of Professor A. H. Basye and Professor H. D. Jordan. During the second semester I have concentrated upon the life of Benjamin Disraeli with particular emphasis laid upon the political ideals expressed in his novels as compared with his policies and actions in practical politics. The Fellowship has made possible this specialization, the work has been of consummate interest to me and consequently I feel that I have derived greater satisfaction from this year of study than I could have done under the regular curriculum.

A more satisfactory answer to the third question can be given if we first attempt to locate the Senior Fellowship in the educational scheme of the College. Several years ago the administration instituted a change in educational policy with the introduction of the "new curriculum." Under the new curriculum greater stress is placed on the work in the major department. The material is developed as a homogeneous unit, and the comprehensive examination, covering the whole of the major material, is intended not as a test of the student's ability to memorize and repeat facts, but rather to determine how well he has grasped the unity of the whole and to offer him an opportunity of showing his ability to marshal the material of his chosen subject. In other words, the idea of the new policy is to encourage the individual to work and think for himself concerning a unified and interrelated body of knowledge.

This educational policy was carried further a few years later when the "honors groups" were organized. Men in each major department with a scholastic average of 2.6 are relieved of class routine and certain other academic restrictions with the idea that they will be able to proceed at a more rapid rate than if they were held back by the general pace of the College. The Work is arranged so far as possible to fit the needs of the individual; he is allowed to investigate certain subjects of particular interest to himself, and so on. The contact between the instructor and the student when possible is a personal one. Here again the emphasis is still more markedly placed on the individual and he is encouraged to work and think independently.

We now come to the Senior Fellowships which were instituted last year and which are the logical culmination of the new policy. The individual is relieved of all restriction and is left to work on his own initiative entirely. In the College catalogue for this year the plan is described as follows:

"A Senior Fellow, after his election, must be in residence at Dartmouth College during the academic year following his election and must throughout the year be in good standing as a member of the College. During the tenure of his Fellowship, the Fellow shall be given complete freedom to pursue the intellectual life at Dartmouth College in whatever manner and direction he himself may choose. He shall not be required to attend classes, though he may have the privilege of attending any; he shall not be required to take any examinations; and he shall not be required to pay any tuition fees to the College. At the end of the year of his Fellowship, the Fellow shall be given his degree in course."

From this it can be seen that practically no academic restrictions whatever are placed upon the recipients of the Fellowships, while the academic privileges offered are as wide as the facilities of the College. This allows the Fellow to give all his time to the subject which holds the greatest interest for him, or on the other hand, to branch out into fields that he would not otherwise have been a,ble to touch and so gaining a generalized rather than a specialized knowledge. Frequently under the regular curriculum one must slight a certain interesting field in order to rush along to another point which must also be covered in the course of the semester; the Fellowships make it possible to clear up every detail concerning an interesting topic. Frequently, too, under the regular curriculum, the continuity of study in a favorite subject is interrupted because there is an hour exam coming along in some other course for which one must prepare. The result is that when one returns to the original study, the train of thought has been lost, the loose ends must be picked up again, and the subject has become "cold"; for the Senior Fellows this is obviated. No matter how well one plans his courses for four years of college there are bound to be gaps in his education at the end of that time. There will be various branches of knowledge which the graduate would have liked to have gone into but owing to the restrictions of the College and the requirements of his major it has been impossible for him to get in the desired courses. For instance, it is not unlikely that a student who is majoring in Economics should come to the beginning of his senior year and find, to his regret, that he has never had occasion to take any courses in the Philosophy or Fine Arts departments. The requirements of his major preclude the possibility of his remedying this defect in his education during his senior year; those who are fortunate enough to receive a Senior Fellowship, however, are able to fill in these gaps. These instance are only a few of numerous examples which point out how the lack of restriction can be turned to great advantage.

It is possible, on the other hand, that so much freedom may lead to a less fortunate result: it may lead to disorganization unless the Senior Fellow has a welllaid plan of what he wishes to accomplish during his senior year. To merely go about from one subject to another sampling a little here and a little there certainly will not lead to any desirable result. A body of heterogeneous facts which have no interrelation among themselves are hardly likely to give any lasting satisfaction. A year of study which is correlated and which has an essential unity and continuity from first to last can be attained only through a certain amount of discipline self discipline in the case of the Senior Fellows. The necessary discipline might well be augmented by a little closer relation with the faculty. The College awards eight graduate fellowships; the plan under which the holders of each of these fellowships work is somewhat as follows: A program of projected work must be handed to the Fellowship Committee within a month after the semester starts, and at the end of each semester an informal report must be made as to the progress of work; this report may be accompanied by letters from the principal advisor or professors under whom the fellow is working. Holders of the Senior Fellowships might profit by some such required supervision of their work by faculty advisors. There is little doubt that a faculty advisor chosen by the Senior Fellow is of inestimable aid in directing and correlating a course of study which they shall plan out together. For the Fellowships to realize their fullest success close relations with the faculty should be established; the student with only his three years of previous experience behind him is hardly competent to direct, unaided, his year of study.

I quite realize that the opinions which I hold on the Senior Fellowships may vary greatly from the viewpoint of others; however, it seems to me that the idea is so new at Dartmouth that the whole thing is still in a state of plasticity which permits several different interpretations. During the past year I have attempted to carry on my work in accordance with the principles as outlined above. The year's work has been a source of greatest satisfaction to me and I feel that the Senior Fellowships will become an increasingly important factor in the intellectual life of Dartmouth.