A LESSON IN ADAPTABILITY
College and Faculty Equal to Demands of V-12 Program
DARTMOUTH HAS THE LARGEST V-12 UNIT of any college in the country. It is quite certain that if the College hadn't been forehanded and the faculty so cooperative about a year ago, Dartmouth wouldn't have half the number of students she now has: approximately two thousand men in uniform dominating the scene. The civilian enrollment is about 360 men, half of them freshmen, the smallest enrollment since 1894, when Dartmouth was in the doldrums.
Now, after two months, the program is beginning to shake down into some smoothness of operation and it is pointless to use space recapitulating the problems of these two months; in the launching of such a large new venture in education problems inevitably have been numerous and complex. The Registrar's Office was a mad- house for the first three weeks of July as the Deans and Registrar undertook to discover what courses the 1300 transfers wanted, were required, and were prepared by previous study, to take. They finally barricaded themselves behind locked doors, disconnected the telephone, and went to work night and day with additional volunteer helpers to make an analysis of the transcripts and elective cards which they completed by July 11.
SUDDEN EXPANSION CREATES TURMOIL
On the basis of this analysis, facilities had rapidly to be expanded, on top of the utmost stretching of facilities already painfully accomplished, for instruction in Math, Naval Organization, Engineering Drawing, History, and English. (Laboratory space limits simply ruled out further expansion of Physics.) Additional sections had to be arranged for many courses, in both the Navy and the liberal arts curricula. For example, rooms and instructors for thirteen additional sections in Engineering Drawing were found on short notice. For every additional section of every course, it was necessary to draft an instructor and find a classroom of the proper size for the necessary hour. It was almost the end of July before the Parkhurst Hall turmoil, of endless queues of trainees waiting to get, discuss, or change their course assignments, subsided.
Of the 2000 students in uniform, twothirds are transfer college students from 109 institutions, pursuing in the main Dartmouth liberal arts courses with Dartmouth teachers in Dartmouth classrooms. Of these 1300 "transfers," over a quarter are Dartmouth boys who on July 1 lugged a few belongings across the campus from fraternity houses and other dorms to the "decks" of Navy dorms and now, as apprentice seamen and Marine privates, are again making the familiar rounds of Dartmouth classrooms. (The 108 other colleges, although predominantly New England, range geographically from Middlebury and New Hampshire to U. C. L. A. and the State College of Washington; the second and third largest delegations are 105 from the University of Wisconsin and 82 from the University of Chicago). So, counting both civilians and V-12 students, there are over 700 products of the Dartmouth Selective System enrolled, very close to a third of all students in Hanover. The Dartmouth liberal arts curriculum remains the core and chief content of the instruction, the Dartmouth library its center, the Dartmouth faculty its evangelists, a large nucleus of Dartmouth men among its recipients; and there are signs that the ageless influences of Hanover are going to work on the others.
About eighty members of the faculty are teaching outside of their regular departments this term, in a striking demonstration of the adaptability of the liberal arts college to an all-out war program. These 80 "associates" in the various V-12 courses represent 45% of the 176 faculty members teaching in the undergraduate College at the present time.
When our V-12 unit turned out to be the largest in the country, and to contain such a large proportion of transfers from other Colleges pursuing advanced liberal arts courses, it developed that some of these hard-working, "converted" teachers had to take on unanticipated work in their own departments. The general mix-up completes the full cycle when we find that with one German professor teaching Aeronautical Ground Training, Graphics and Math, a professor of the Classics has to step in and teach German. When Professor Meneely reported to the faculty that his staff for the special Navy course in History included only one historian, along with three economists, two political scientists, and one instructor each of English, Education, French, Sociology and Chemistry, it was because, of the twelve-man History Department staff, three were teaching Physics, two Math, one Naval Organization, and two Naval History and Strategy.
The whole story is an epic of adaptability, industry, and good will.
PHYSICS USING MOST MEN
Among the departments using associate teachers, Physics leads with 25 men. This is not a surprising number considering that about 900 students are taking Physics 1. Professor Leslie F. Murch is in charge of V-12 instruction in this department.
One of these associates is a professor who gives a course on the French novel and who didn't really want to teach Physics. But now that he has taken the refresher course and is teaching Physics (in the laboratory), he talks about it all the time, even at card games. He has become tremendously excited about it and this kind of excitement makes a good teacher.
Some years ago, Clark W. Horton came to Dartmouth as an expert and consultant in examinations. He is now an associate in Physics and devotes nearly all his time to making out V-12 examinations which may be corrected by machine. If you consider the numbers taking Physics, or the course in Naval Organization, this is an immensely important job and saves innumerable deadly hours of the instructor's time, not to speak of the saving on his eyes and nerves.
The following faculty members are associates in Physics: Michael E. Choukas '27, Henry M. Dargan, Allen R. Foley '20, Joseph B. Folger '21, Gordon H. Gliddon, James W. Goldthwait, Ernest R. Greene, Ralph P. Holben, Clark W. Horton, Theodore F. Karwoski, Roy H. Lanphear '25, Churchill P. Lathrop, Fletcher Low '15, W. Stuart Messer, Frederick S. Page '13, Maurice Picard, Eugen Rosenstock- Huessy, Lauren M. Sadler '28, John B. Stearns '16, Wayne E. Stevens, George F. Theriault '33, Andrew G. Truxal, Leon Verriest, W. Randall Waterman, and Elliott A. White. Mrs. Mildred Brode of the Library is also assisting the Physics Department.
Graphics i (now called Engineering Drawing) has eleven associates headed by Professor Fred F. Parker '06 who, together with the regular instructors, take care of a few over 1,000 men. This is not an easy course to give and the associates spent many hours a day for many weeks mastering its intricacies and exactitudes. For the coming November term when Descriptive Geometry will be given (the second part of Engineering Drawing) seven members of the faculty including three members of the Mathematics department are now getting ready to assist. They are studying many hours a day, besides doing their regular work, for this is a difficult subject to learn in a few weeks.
The following men are associates in Graphics: Chauncey N. Allen '24, Jose M. Arce, Walter C. Behrendt, Louis P. Benezet '99, W. Wedgwood Bowen, Merle C. Cowden, Ellsworth D. Elston, Artemas Packard, James P. Poole, Harry W. Sampson '21, and Elmer Smead.
Mathematics i, directed by Professor Bancroft H. Brown, a course especially designed for men in the armed forces, has around 540 students. There are eleven associates teaching this course. One of them was a full professor in a decidedly different department (Philosophy) and since he has been teaching Mathematics, he has asked Dean Bill's permission to teach nothing but Mathematics for the duration. This permission was granted, I am sure with immense gratitude on the Dean's part. Mathematics instructors are hard to get.
The following are associates in Mathematics: Edwin M. Bailor, William W. Ballard '28, Robert K. Carr '29, Merle C. Cowden, James F. Crow, Robert H. Denison, Charles J. Lyon, Warren E. Montsie '15, Robert E. Riegel, Philip E. Wheelwright, and John R. Williams '20. Two additional instructors from the Clark School are Frank M. Morgan, and W. Cutting Johnson '33.
Last summer, the faculty prepared to teach N1-2 (Naval Organization)' and the enrollment in this course is around 1070 men. Professor Richard H. Goddard directs this course which, I believe, is the largest in the history of the college. No other college offering a V-i 2 program could do this, and the fact that Dartmouth could, was of real benefit to the College. It was one of the factors which made possible the sending here of around two thousand sailors and marines.
The following associates teach Naval Organization: Harry P. Bell, Albert S. Carlson, Sidney Cox, Clyde E. Dankert, Thomas J. Dent, Joseph B. Folger '21, Richard H. Goddard '21, Ramon Guthrie, Harry L. Hillman, James D. McCallum, Allan H. Macdonald, William D. Maynard '11, Ray Nash, W. Benfield Pressey, Anton A. Raven, Lloyd P. Rice, Kenneth A. Robinson, Elmer E. Smead, John B. Stearns 'l6, Donald L. Stone, W. Randall Waterman, and Herbert F. West '22.
One of the courses desired by the Navy Department was Naval History, which has around 450 students enrolled in it at the present time. There were many who volunteered to teach this course but not all could be used. Altogether there are twelve associates in History, and the special courses are directed by Professor Herbert W. Hill and A. H. Meneely.
It happened that one of Prof. Louis P. Benezet's hobbies has long been naval hisTory, so he fitted in perfectly with this course.
It also is not a coincidence that L. B. Richardson 'oo, long famous as a Dartmouth chemistry professor, is teaching naval history and strategy. He got interested in the subject when he was writing his life of Senator Chandler who was at one time Secretary of the Navy.
The following men are associates in History: Charles B. Arthur '34, Harry P. Bell, Louis P. Benezet '99, Robert K. Carr '29, James F. Cusick, Howard F. Dunham '11, David Lattimore, Leon B. Richardson '00, Kenneth A. Robinson, William A. Robinson, Earl R. Sikes, and George F. Theriault '33-
For the last two years one of the most valuable of the war courses has been the map reading course originally designed by Professor Goldthwait but now run by Prof. Hugh Morrison '26 of the Department of Art.
The marine officers especially want this course taken by their trainees, for hundreds of men have been lost already in this war because they couldn't read a map. One of the men who have helped in this course is Major John Howland, USMCR, a veteran of Guadalcanal, who is in charge of the Marine unit here. Ramon Guthrie, a veteran of the last war, is also assisting in this valuable and important course.
Another valuable war-born course is Aeronautical Ground Training IA, the aim of which is to prepare students for some of the work which they will be called upon to do later in the pre-flight programs of the various service flying schools. The subject matter of the course comprises varying proportions of Civil Air Regulations, Meteorology, and Navigation. Each member of this particular staff passed the regular government examinations and holds a license to teach his special branch of the subject. Prof. Merle C. Cowden directs this course.
The present staff of licensed instructors comprises, besides the director, Chauncey N. Allen '24, Herbert W. Hill, James F. Crow, and Robert Denison. This course has about sixty students.
Nine faculty members, representing five different departments, are helping with the oral (public speaking) part of Naval English. This is directed by Prof. A. A. Raven. These men are: Charles R. Bagley, Harold R. Bruce, Martin L. Lindahl, Joseph L. McDonald, W. Stuart Messer, Royal C. Nemiah, Alvin L. Pianca '23, Andrew G. Truxal, and George C. Wood.
POST-WAR COLLEGE INFLUENCED
The results of all this will undoubtedly have a lasting effect in the post-war college. Professors who have to learn the problems of other departments, and who have to adjust themselves suddenly to the techniques of science, will have more understanding about other departments and will probably become better teachers in their own.
Some of the courses now given as temporary courses may well be continued in the post-war college. It seems possible that the oral part of Naval English might be made a fixture of future English 1 sections and it also seems reasonable to assume that naval history might well be made a regular course in the Department of History.
I have not meant to draw too perfect a picture. Unquestionably some men are under too great a strain teaching a new subject, and many are carrying far too heavy a teaching load. One professor is teaching in three outside fields, and fifteen others are teaching in two. This can be done for awhile but with the College on a twelve-month schedule some of these men will certainly have to have relief.
The campus is colorful, especially between classes, and during reviews, when men in khaki or olive drab mingle with men in blue and white. College Hall serves as Navy Headquarters, as it did for the Indoctrination School. Stell Hall (the dining room at Tuck School) is closed and has been used for examinations and may later be used for a drawing class. The dormitories Chase and Woodbury are closed altogether, as are the fraternities and senior societies (with the exception of C & G which is open as a Hostess House). Middle Fayerweather and Smith are closed.
Dartmouth will never be the same again. She will be better, and is learning much from the V-12 school that will be helpful in the future.
TWO OF MAJOR DEPARTMENTS involved in V-12 training are Mathematics, directed by Prof. Bancroft Brown (left), and Physics, supervised by Prof. Leslie F. Murch.
MASTER JUGGLER of schedules during the hectic start of the V-12 program was Registrar R. O. Conant 'IB, shown cheerfully free of his office barricade.
THREE V-12 DIRECTORS: PROFS. A. A. RAVEN (ENGLISH), F. F. PARKER 'O6 (GRAPHICS), AND A. H. MENEELY (HISTORY)
