War Program Takes Hold
One-Third of Entering Class Likely to Start College Early; New Enlistment Plans Help Out in Enrollment Problem
A FAIRLY COMPLETE PICTURE of Dartmouth's summer operations under - the accelerated war program became available early in April when the Freshman Office sent out its first batch of letters of admission to the Class of 1946. Within a few days postal cards had come back from two-thirds of the men, indicating that, if the same proportion held for the whole class, the College could count on approximately 250 freshmen starting their Dartmouth careers in July rather than September.
This number of incoming men—about one-third of the class—will be added to nearly 1,200 members of the present freshman, sophomore and junior classes who have already filed electives for the full summer semester starting May 25. Faculty organization to instruct the unexpectedly large number of men adopting the speedup is virtually complete, and one of the bright chapters of the College's adjustment to war conditions has been the willingness of the teaching staff to assume the extra summer load, in many cases at considerable financial sacrifice.
The freshmen starting college studies on July 8 will be the vanguard of another large entering class, according to Dean Strong, but the College is making no effort to swell admissions beyond the approximate size of the present freshman class, which started off the year with 723 members. The Board of Trustees has definitely declined to take up some of the enrollment slack by admitting a larger class at the expense of entrance standards. Dean Strong's admissions task was not lightened, moreover, by the fact that the application list of 2,200 was down about 200 men from last year's total.
The undergraduate character of Dartmouth has enabled the College to fare better than some sister institutions in the matter of enrollment shrinkage, but nevertheless a steady, almost daily, dropping out of students has been taking place since the first 150 men left during the past semester. The great majority of these students are giving up their college studies for voluntary enlistment in the armed services, and through the unending succession of Army, Navy and Marine boards of interviewers and examiners coming to Hanover and working with the Personnel Bureau and other offices, the College is continuing to help the various branches of the service find the trained men they need.
A saving factor in the College's growing enrollment problem is the practice of some of the military services of enlisting students and then permitting them to finish out all or designated portions of the college course. At present, for example, approximately 56 enlistees in the U. S. Marines are among Dartmouth's undergraduates, 41 of whom signed up during the last two recruiting periods in March and April. Of this latter group, 6 are seniors, 11 juniors, 16 sophomores, and 8 freshmen. With 15 previously enlisted for summer training in the Platoon Leaders' Class and 8 others called to active duty at the end of the first semester, Dartmouth's total student enlistment in the Marine Corps this year has been approximately 64 men. Seniors among the en listed Marines will not be called until after graduation, and it is hoped that men in the lower classes will also be able to complete their college work, although all are subject to call at any time that the exigencies of the Service require it.
Dartmouth has also been accredited for the Navy's V-1 program for training freshmen and sophomores as officer material. A message to the College from Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox stated: "Please tell your young men who apply for enlistment and training under this plan that they will be serving the Nation if they continue their college courses no less than those of your alumni who are already in active service. The Navy knows your institution and your V-1 students will do their part."
NEW ARMY-NAVY PLANS
Under the V-1 plan, freshmen and sophomores, or high school graduates about to enter college, are assured at least two calendar years of college education before being assigned to active duty. On the basis of a competitive examination given by the Navy after a year and a half of college work, a certain number of men are able to enter the V-7 program and finish out their college course in training for deck and engineering officers; another specified group are permitted to undertake the V-5 program and start training for the Naval Air Corps after finishing the second year of college; others who pass the examination become Apprentice Seamen, First Class, on the same basis; and the remainder are subject to active duty as ordinary seamen.
The Army, which up to now has not kept enlisted men in college to the extent that the Navy and Marines have, has recently announced a new program which calls for the annual enlistment of 80,000 freshmen, 45,000 sophomores, and 40,000 juniors, who will remain in college for war training as long as their records are satisfactory. Part of the Army's general program is a new Army Air Corps Reserve plan, for which Dartmouth has been accredited and in the setting up of which Dean Neidlinger had a hand. Under this plan, probably to be known as A-1, an unlimited number of college men will be permitted to finish at least one calendar year of studies after enlistment. Men who enlist before July 1 of this year will be permitted to remain in college until July 1, 1943, unless exigencies demand their call to active duty. Each college participating in the new Army plan will have an Air Corps College Adviser, and for Dartmouth this position is being filled by Prof. Francis J. Neef, director of the Personnel Bureau.
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, in a letter to the American Council on Education, also has attested to the value of having men finish as much college work as possible before undertaking active duty. "The War Department," he stated, "hopes that the educational activities of the colleges of the country will be interrupted as little as possible consistent with the Army effort, but it is recognized that very serious interruption may become more and more necessary as time goes on. I want to make it entirely clear that higher education in certain general lines and also in certain specific fields when seriously undertaken and successfully pursued develops qualities which will be a definite advantage to any man in the Army and will be carefully considered as an important factor in determining his qualification for admission to an Officers' Candidate School after he has taken the required basic training in the Army."
In connection with the Army's new enlistment plan for the Air Corps Reserve, it is understood that there will be an expansion of the Civil Pilot Training program and a much closer relation between the two. Dartmouth, which is already offering primary and secondary CPT courses, has made application for one of the new CPT training centers, and if this is granted, the groups receiving ground-school and flight instruction will not be much larger than those at present, although outside students will probably be included and their expenses paid by the government. The CPT courses will undoubtedly continue through the summer and Dartmouth students will receive academic credit for their groundschool work, including navigation and meteorology.
Other war studies during the summer semester will be well attended, according to elective figures. The special course on military mathematics has attracted 201 men, the heaviest enrollment for any course in the summer curriculum. A total of 534 electives have been filed for the various emergency courses, including 89 in the new history offering, "The United States in World Affairs in the 20th Century"; 53 in Democratic Thought, which is quadrupling its enrollment; 90 in two political science courses on power politics and modern war strategy; 52 in physics and electronics; 27 in map interpretation; and 22 in the psychology course on testing military personnel.
ANNOUNCE RADIO COURSE
A new war course being introduced this summer is "Radio Writing and Production" which will emphasize the wartime role of radio in a democracy. It will include some instruction and practice in the elementary principles of radio communication as a help to Dartmouth students entering military or government service, and will deal with the radio as a means of morale and international propaganda. Prof. Almon B. Ives of the Public Speaking Department will direct the course, assisted by Prof. Stearns Morse, chairman of the Dartmouth Radio Council, and others.
An enlarged and intensified physical training program which goes into effect with the summer semester has not been drawn up in all details, but its main features will include physical examinations and physical ability tests for each individual student, the introduction of many new activities of military value, the inclusion of juniors and seniors on a voluntary basis, and an over-all effort to develop coordination, stamina and competitive spirit rather than to become a training camp seeking to toughen students for combat duty.
Recent Graduating Class at Randolph Field, Texas, Included Eleven Dartmouth Men All of the following Air Corps school graduates now wear the William A. Lowry '41, Conrad B. Jordan '43, Frederick C. Lynch Army wings and hold Lieutenants' commissions. They are scat- '41, and Vonalbade D. Oehmig '36. Bottom row, left to right: Nick- tered on assignments ranging from instructors of other aviation erson Blood '41, Henry A. Salm '41, Robert R. Leske Jr. '41, David cadets to fighting pilots of the Army Combat Force on some distant F. Bayle '42, and Benjamin D. Parker '40. Picture not included frontier. They are, left to right, at top: Harold Q. Hillman '40, above: Sanford D. Palmer '41. »
