Tuck School
IN THIS ISSUE of the notes we would like to tell you a little bit about some of the changes that have been made at Tuck. We have a great deal of information about Tuck men and Tuck faculty which we will hold over until next month.
The curriculum revision which we mentioned in the June issue has now been completed to the blueprint stage and beyond. We still have the job of converting the blueprint into actuality. This is a big undertaking but we have lots of enthusiasm for it.
The changes which have been made can be reported only in part here. The requirements for admission have been strengthened. Henceforth all men will be required to have one course in Money and Banking and "Woody" will build his first-semester course in finance on this background. We are also requiring each man to have at least one course in public speaking. It is hardly necessary to justify this requirement to those of you who are active in business. We plan to give the men added practice in public speaking when they are with us. We have not added any new formal course requirements in written English but are setting up basic requirements as to quality of work and permitting the student to judge his own ability in "terms of these standards. We plan to refer men to the Writing Clinic who are found to have difficulty expressing themselves well.
Many of the changes made in the First Year have as their aim the better coordination of the work between the courses. Eventually we hope to get away from the somewhat artificial break between semesters and the artificial compartmentalization of work that results from a series of individual courses. To this end the Dean has appointed a permanent committee of the Faculty to work out concrete methods, to act as a central clearing house, and to exercise control over the work of the First Year. A number of changes in the curriculum have been made, the biggest involving a shift in the first course in Business Law from Second Year to First Year. The advanced courses in Business.Law will still be offered in Second Year.
We are planning to return to the unannounced examination system. Because of the special problems during the war the system had been abandoned. Our scheduling problems during the first two years following the war were such that we could not make the change back again to our satisfaction. We now believe we have the scheduling problem licked. There is much to be said in favor of the unannounced examination plan and, if we can judge by the polls of classes which have studied under it, students approve of it.
The Second Year program has been revised in a number of directions. New courses have been added in Business and Government, Marketing Research, and Business Forecasting. The accounting program has been modified in such ways that it will meet the needs of both the prospective CPA and the general student more fully. The unannounced examination plan will be used in Second Year.
Standards for admission to Second Year have been raised. We have never and will not in the future place reliance solely on a man's scholastic average in the First Year as a guide for admission to Second Year. We feel that attitude toward the work, special extenuating circumstances and approach to the job must be carefully evaluated. Nevertheless, performance as measured by the scholastic average is important. The Faculty has concluded that a man should be admitted to Second Year if his average in the First Year is 2.4 or better and if his attitude toward his work indicates a real desire to do a solid job.
Requirements for the degree of Master of Commercial Science have also been modified. We feel that a man should be able to do work of at least 2.4 quality during his Second Year to qualify for the degree. However, we also recognize that a man may fall below this average for a semester for any one of a number of reasons. Hence we set up 2.4 as the minimum average necessary for the year but added a proviso that the average must not fall below 2.2 in either semester. We feel that this makes allowance for those special circumstances which almost inevitably come up with respect to at least one man during the year.
At the American Management Association's Fall Personnel Conference, held at the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York City, Clark C. Sorenson T'37, Director of Personnel for the Harris-Seybold Company, presented an interesting account of the system of "programmed management" which ties personnel department activities more closely to the production needs of the company.
Profs. J. E. Walters and K. A. Hill attended the American Management Association's Fall Personnel Conference held in New York on September 23 and 24.
Prof. J. E. Walters attended a meeting of the National Industrial Conference Board in New York on September 23.
Thomas Mayer T'48 writes that he is enrolled in the sales training program of the Simmons Company, and is now located in Chicago.
Donald Start T'48 is now employed by Stewart, Watts and Bollong, a Boston accounting firm.
Edward I. Comins T'48 has accepted a position with the First National Bank of Arizona.
M. H. Lewis T'4B reports that he has joined R. C. A. Victor, Camden, New Jersey, as a specialized trainee in accounting.
Joseph P. Merriam T'32 is with Cresap, McCormick and Paget, a management engineering firm with offices in New York and Chicago.
The marriage o£ H. E. Clayton Jr. D'48 and Mary Williamson, sister of Robert E. Williamson T'47, was announced in September.
Recent visitors to Hanover have included Lester G. Bratton Jr. T'38 and Arthur E.Koeppel Jr. T'39. Bratton is with the production engineering department of Hotpoint, while Koeppel is in the insurance business in New Jersey.
JOINS TUCK FACULTY: Dr. J. Edward Walters, formerly President of Alfred University, who has come to Dartmouth this fall as Professor of Management and Industrial Relations at Tuck School.
