V-12 COURSES LIBERAL

Navy Broad-Gauged Program to Begin July I

Dean of the Faculty

ON OR ABOUT JULY I Dartmouth will change its calendar to one that synchronizes with that of the Navy College Training Program which is to consist of a continuing series of sixteen-week terms, beginning approximately on July 1, November 1, and March 1. With the adoption of this new calendar, Dartmouth will operate for the duration virtually as two colleges: one, the regular Dartmouth College for a relatively small number of civilian students, and the other, a college for the education of Navy men in uniform, training for commissions.

Although the civilian college is completely unpredictable as to size, it will nevertheless be the college of which we are all so proud. The student body will consist of freshmen—the number of whom Dean Strong prophesies will be "some multiple of fifty"—and students scattered throughout the other classes, all of whom will be pursuing the traditional Dartmouth College training. Courses will have small elections, but their quality will be preserved. Unquestionably many courses now on our books will not be elected of given, and the writer—always an optimist—hopes that one important educational change that may come out of this business is a considerable reduction of the number of courses offered by Dartmouth College. This result can be accomplished both by amalgamation of materials—now the bases of separate courses—and by stimulating conviction on the part of the faculty that Dartmouth is and will be an undergraduate college proud of the fact that it has few courses either in content or conduct which smack of the graduate school flavor. With fewer courses—and the writer believes that before Pearl Harbor Dartmouth offered more courses than any other college in this country—our faculty will be freed for more individual student programs, capitalizing the motivations and interests of the undergraduates and resulting in a more exhilarating educational institution than Dartmouth has ever been.

Dartmouth as a Navy college will furnish all the teaching for the student apprentice seamen who will be sent here to be educated as prospective officer material under the extremely intelligent and liberal policy adopted as the Navy College Training Program V-12. Apparently the Navy believes in the validity of the usual college educational program; and after it has picked and sent its men here, the College is given a free hand in carrying out the Navy Program. As these sailor students will be tested regularly and any evidence of incapability or unwillingness to handle the college program will result in its discontinuance for such men, the writer prophesies one of the most satisfying experiences in teaching that the Dartmouth faculty has ever had.

The First College Year of the Navy Program consisting of two sixteen-week terms has two basic curricula, I and II. The first is for such types of officer candidates as:

Aviation Candidates Civil Engineer Corps Candidates Construction Corps Candidates Deck Candidates Engineer Candidates Engineer Specialist Candidates a. Mechanical, Steam Engines b. Mechanical, Internal-Combustion Engines c. Electric, Power and. Electric, Communication and PreRadar Supply Corps Candidates Pre-Chaplain Corps Candidates.

This curriculum consists of Mathematics, five periods (five hours) per week; English, three periods; Physics, six periods; Engineering-Drawing and Descriptive Geometry, six periods; History, two periods; Naval Organization, one period; and Physical Training, six periods. The Mathematics will consist of two courses depending on the amount of secondary school mathematics presented by the candidates. The object of the English courses is well described as follows: "The aim of this courseis to teach the student to say and writewhat he means concisely and with a purpose, and to read and listen with preciseunderstanding and discrimination."

If this can be accomplished, it would seem to the writer that many of the problems and difficulties of the usual college education are solvable. Physics will be about the same course that has always been so successful at Dartmouth with more emphasis on the experimental as compared with the theoretical side. The Drawing course will be similar to our usual Graphics I and 2. The History course, entitled, "Historical Background of Present World War," will stress very largely the American scene and way of life, and its purposes are defined:

"The major purposes of this course are to provide an understanding of (1) the complexity of our present-day civilization and of the inter-relationships of various aspects of society, such as agricultural, industrial, political; (2) the way in which the nation developed and the factors that contributed to its development; (3) the extent to which we have our roots in foreign soil; and (4) the more immediate background of the present war."

Curriculum II for the First College Year—two sixteen-week terms—is designed for Pre-Medical Corps Candidates and PreDental Corps Candidates. It varies from Curriculum I in that Chemistry, six and eight periods, and Modern Foreign Language, three periods, replace English and History during the first year. These courses, however, are in the second year of Curriculum II.

After the First College Year the Navy Program includes a great variety of curricula of varying lengths, designed for different types of officer candidates, such, for example, as Curricula for Civil Engineer Corps Candidates, Construction Corps Candidates, Deck Candidates, Engineering Candidates, Engineering Specialist Candidates, Supply Corps Candidates, Pre-Chaplain Corps Candidates, Pre-Medical Corps and Pre-Dental Corps Candidates.

After the first two 16-week terms of basic training, Dartmouth will be primarily concerned with only a few of the Navy Program curricula: Civil Engineering, which lasts for a total of eight terms (semesters); Pre-Medical and Pre-Dental, covering a total of five terms; Deck Candidates, a total of four terms; Supply, a total of four terms; and possibly Pre-Chaplain, a total of six terms. It may be of interest to interpolate here that although the College will choose its textbooks, the Government will pay for them—also for instruments, notebooks, etc.

In line with the strong belief of the Navy in the value of a college education for its officers, it is provided in the College Training Program that men who find the time and desire to elect courses in the college outside the specialized curricula may do so. Moreover, as the group to be sent here July 1 will include many men at various levels of their college programs—from Naval District I colleges which do not have Navy Schools—and as these men, as we understand it, will be allowed to continue a certain number of semesters just as though they were in their own colleges, it is expected that there will be a fairly generous election in our Navy School of courses primarily designed for a civilian college. Dartmouth has been noted throughout its history for its ability and willingness to discover new philosophies of education which have been made vital by new conditions; and we are quite sure that everyone on the Hanover Plain will be proud and happy in the near future when Baker chimes play at ten o'clock, "Take Me Down to the Sea, Boys, Take Me Down to the Sea" and at eleven o'clock, "Men of Dartmouth, Give a Rouse for the College on the Hill" and, finally, we hope that when the war is over, men who have been here in the Navy School will want to return with their children to hear the chimes play,

"Dartmouth!— There is no music for our singing, No words to bear the burden of our praise."