Tuck, Thayer Speed Work

AN ACCELERATED SCHEDULE, calling for three full semesters a year and saving eight months' time without any curtailment of the regular two-year course, was announced jointly by the Tuck School and Thayer School on December 15. Dovetailing with the College's speed-up plan announced on the same day, the emergency program of the two associated schools is designed to make engineering and business-administration graduates available to the government and industry at the earliest date consistent with complete instruction.

According to the new plan, members of the Class of 1942 will receive advanced degrees by Christmas, 1942, instead of late in May, 1943. Members of the Class of 1944 and of subsequent classes will receive advanced degrees in September of the year preceding their normal date of graduation from the associated schools.

SUMMER SESSION SCHEDULED

The plan will be put into effect about May 18, 1942, one week after the College's early Commencement, and will continue through the summer. The first semester will end in September, when a ten-day vacation will be given. The next semester will be completed shortly before Christmas, at which time students will have a recess permitting them to spend Christmas and New Year's at home At that time members of the present first-year classes of the Tuck and Thayer Schools and men in the combined Tuck-Thayer course will be awarded their advanced degrees. Following the Christmas vacation, members of the Class of 1943 will start graduate studies, to be completed in two semesters ending the following September.

In recognition of summer conditions in Hanover, it is planned to operate on a fiveday schedule during that period instead of the five-and-one-half-day schedule in effect throughout the rest of the year. With reference to the summer session, the official announcement from the Tuck and Thayer Schools stated that "at a time when every individual and every organization in the country is anxious to make maximum contribution to the war effort, it is believed that the usual summer vacation is not justified in the case of men being trained for participation in the fields of engineering and business administration. It is generally agreed that the most urgent need in these fields at present is for men who have completed their educational training and are available for continued service rather than for partially trained men participating in temporary, between-semester jobs. Students now enrolled in these courses have expressed their desire to continue their studies without interruption in order to be available for essential work as soon as possible, and it is the feeling of the Tuck and Thayer Schools that the most valuable contribution which they can make at this time is to speed up the two-year program of training."

The announcement emphasized the fact that the speed-up plan will involve no elimination or shortening of individual courses. "Acceleration is effected by eliminating unnecessarily extended vacations and examination periods rather than by intensifying or curtailing the subject matter in the curricula," it stated. "During the period of instruction class schedules for the students will not be made heavier than heretofore. There will be no elimination or shortening of individual courses. To do this or to place an unreasonable burden on the student would defeat the entire purpose of the accelerated program."