AMOS TUCK SCHOOL
Original Graduate School of Business Administration
F3RTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, Edward Tuck '6a saw the need for giving educa- tional recognition to business as a profession comparable in importance and dignity to such professions as law and medicine. As a memorial to his father, Amos Tuck of the class of 1835, Mr. Tuck contributed the funds to establish a school of business with a status of a graduate department and with the standards of a professional school. This was indeed a pioneer step. The foresight and wisdom of the action have been abundantly verified by the growth in scale and character of business administration and by subsequent developments in the field of business administration.
While the first business school had been established in 1881, the establishment of The Amos Tuck School in 1900 was the first school to recognize the graduate status and establish itself as a definite two-year course leading to a Master's degree. Broadly, there are three types of schools; namely, (a) those on the undergraduate level where business subjects may be taken for two or four years; (b) those on the graduate level requiring two years; and (c) a mixture of these Systems. In 1908 the Graduate School of Business Administration was founded at Harvard under the plan that the Tuck School had inaugurated. Harvard was followed by Michigan and Leland Stanford.
In 1911 the Taylor Society of Scientific Management held its first organized meeting at the Tuck School. From this point on the idea of professional business education became more and more accepted. Moreover, since the Tuck School permits the enrollment of qualified seniors, the growth of the School has reflected this acceptance of business education by increasing enrollment as the years have gone on.
Although the School is set up to take care of one hundred first-year students and fifty second-year students, the average attendance has been limited to about eighty to ninety in the first year and twenty-five to forty in the second year. Normally, fourteen instructors are employed or, to state it another way, there are about ten students to each instructor and in the graduate year, five students. This permits the School to be more selective, to conduct its classes in small groups with more individual attention; it also is helpful in placing men more effectively. In other words, there is a twoyear professional continuity leading toward managerial-administrative work.
The Tuck School believes that three or four years of general education is more important than specialization. It insists on the broadest possible college background before admission to the Tuck School. The curriculum is designed for men who have met the tests and received advantages of a liberal college education and who seek further, more specific preparation for business. The School aims to give a two year progressive education in the fundamental principles which determine the conduct of business affairs, with due regard for the social, economic and ethical aspects of business systems, considered from both national and international points of view. Instruction is therefore planned to present a broad perspective of business and to develop a point of view and habits of mind that promise clear thinking and sound judgment in the experiences of business life.
In January after Pearl Harbor, because both the Army and the Navy hoped that men would stay in college until actually needed and because of the fact that war industries needed semi-trained men in a hurry, it was necessary to arrange a complete change in the curriculum. It also appeared to be desirable to admit more men if possible and thus help accelerate the war effort.
To meet this situation, by vote of the Trustees, men were admitted after five semesters in the College. These men were deferred for short periods and trained definitely for the government and for war industries. This training was particularly advantageous for management in business and for the Quartermaster Corps in the Army and the Supply Corps in the Navy. Certain additions were made to the curriculum in order to train men for practical work in the shortest possible time.
But it became necessary to speed up this process and the Trustees voted to reduce the requirements to four semesters. This enabled the Tuck School to care for more men, enlarge its training and be more useful to the general war effort; men remaining in college were practically "under orders;" they were enabled to continue their preparation for more effective usefulness and thus to make full use of their wartime education. From time to time these men enlisted in the Navy in V-5 and V-7 classifications qualifying for a commission as ensign. It was the job of the Tuck School to carefully process and recommend these men for specific duties.
In July 1943 the Navy V-12 Unit was established. This meant that the entire group of students were being trained by the Navy either in college or in our separate schools. In Tuck School we have conducted a Pre-Supply Corps Candidates School. This course covers the complete business training field with particular emphasis on Accounting. Men completing these courses are admitted to the Supply School at Harvard where they may qualify for commissions. Since July we have completed six semesters of this work and at present, we have three of these groups in operation. One group will complete its work in June, one in October and the final group in February 1946. The maximum attendance was 282;- the present number of students is 245. To take care of this greatly increased load we now have a staff of 21 men of which only g are original Tuck School faculty. A great deal of credit must be given members of the Economics, Government, Psychology and Geography departments who have willingly given their time and effort to make this applied course successful.
During this entire period, the personnel work has been continued exactly the same as in peace time. This was done because the men felt that it would be their last opportunity to study later business opportunities and to learn the various aptitudes and requirements necessary in different types of occupations. Perhaps it was more successful in familiarizing these men with the purposes of the education that they were getting; to point out where this business training would fit in the Navy and how they might continue their education even while on shipboard or in port. It must be remembered that a great many of these men would not normally have gone to college and that their preparation frequently was not adequate for normal college requirements. Interviewing them individually, it was possible to make the necessary corrections and to be of material assistance to them in adjusting themselves to the new job.
The Navy plans the introduction of Naval ROTC to start in September. We have as yet no definite information as to whether Dartmouth College will be made a part of the training group or not but we expect that it will be. For those men who will enter Naval ROTC at that time, Tuck School will continue the present program, until their admission to ROTC. We are proud of the record that Tuck School candidates have made in the Supply School at Harvard. A very high percentage of our men have led the respective groups in which they found themselves.
When the war is over and the present demands cease, the Tuck School of Business Administration will return to its original two-year program. Until all the men have returned from the war and things again reach their normal peace-time tempo, the Tuck School will present a very fluid curriculum designed to take care of the needs of the returning servicemen. The immediate postwar period will present many problems since men will return who have had from three years' credit down to even one term of credit. The School feels obligated to these men who have partially completed their work. It is evident now that new courses will be instituted as well as refresher courses in the various departments. Since it is anticipated that these men will not all be discharged at one time, it will probably be necessary for the School to continue at its accelerated pace for several years.
It is planned definitely to continue the Tuck-Thayer program which was instituted in September 1940. This program of study enables students to receive thorough training in the basic courses of both engineering and business administration. During the short time these courses have been available, much interest has been expressed and there has been an increased yearly enrollment.
As Dean Olsen recently pointed out, "The function of schools of business on the collegiate level has generally been conceived as being that of preparing young men and women for careers in business on the managerial, executive or administrative level. However, in the last decade or so it has become increasingly clear that this narrow concept does not at all meet the needs of our modern business economic system. Men educated only to understand and to operate business and non-business organizations as individual units, without adequate understanding of and reference to their place and influence in the functioning of our socio-economic system as a whole, will not be properly prepared to be leaders in modern business and industry. In other words, they must learn how to help manage our economic system through their activities as managers or administrators of business and non-business enterprises and through the work and thinking of industry and inter-industry groups." With this thought in mind, more and more emphasis is placed on a broad, liberal educational foundation. In addition to the present curriculum, it is planned definitely to widen the opportunities to permit training in Public Administration and International Affairs.
Students in the Tuck, Thayer, TuckThayer, Public Administration and International Affairs curricula, will all have a common background of general education, will have worked together in certain advanced courses and should, therefore, through this experience in education and personal association, have a sympathetic and intelligent understanding of the broad problems confronting all of us.
TUCK SCHOOL FACULTY MEMBERS, grouped before a bust of Edward Tuck, are (left to right) Harry R. Wellman '07, Professor of Marketing; Herman Feldman, Professor of Industrial Relations; G. Walter Woodworth, Professor of Banking and Statistics; Charles W. Sargent '15, Professor of Accounting; Herluf V. Olsen '22, Dean of Tuck School and Professor of Business Statistics; Henry L. Duncombe, Assistant Dean and Assistant Professor of Business Statistics; Joseph L. McDonald, Professor of Foreign Trade; Louis O. Foster, Professor of Accounting and Finance; and Donald L. Stone, Professor of Business Law. Three faculty members now on leave from Tuck School for war service are Nathaniel G. Burleigh '11, Professor of industrial Management, who is Chief of the Services Branch of WPB; Albert W. Frey '20, Professor of Marketing, Deputy Director of the U. S. Treasury's Office of Surplus Property; and John W. Harriman, Professor of Finance and Banking, now overseas as Lieutenant Colonel with the Civil Affairs Division of SHAEF.
NAVY V-12 TRAINEES now make up practically the entire enrollment of Tuck School. After completing the Supply Corps Candidates' course at Dartmouth, they move on to an advanced school such as that at Harvard and there complete the work leading to the commission of Ensign.
PROFESSOR OF MARKETING
TUCK, N. H., as the School is sometimes called because of its separation from the rest of the College, consists (above, left to right) of Stell Hall, refectory; Chase House, dormitory; Edward Tuck Hall, classrooms and offices; and Woodbury House, dormitory. Photos byDavid Pierce.
