Faculty Prizes

It is not uncommon for young Dartmouth graduates, after they have gone off to the big universities for advanced studies, to write back to Hanover that they have a new appreciation of the really fine quality of the teaching at Dartmouth. The College has always placed a premium upon effective teaching, rightly valuing this as indispensable in an undergraduate, liberal arts college. The scholarly achievements of the Dartmouth faculty are impressively numerous and varied—indeed, they seem to be multiplying at a faster rate than in any previous period—but the student is still the central concern of the professor and, it is fair to say that productive scholarship at Dartmouth is valued not so much as an end in itself as it is as something that contributes to better instruction.

It is in support of one of Dartmouth's great strengths, therefore, that the College is inaugurating this year a number of substantial cash prizes for members of the faculty who "have made notable contributions to the improvement of undergraduate instruction." In announcing the new prizes, following the January meeting of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees, President Dickey made it known that a gift to the College by George H. Howard '07 of New York City will be used for these cash awards.

The donor of the George H. Howard Prizes has indicated his interest in seeing the awards continued from year to year, if experience with the program proves satisfactory. The number of prizes and their size have been left unspecified, and the plan will be administered at the discretion of the President of the College, who will determine the awards each year.

All members of the faculty, regardless of academic rank, are eligible to receive prizes. The amounts will vary with the nature of the teaching contributions rewarded and will in no way be related to faculty members' salaries. It is contemplated that no member of the faculty would be eligible to receive a prize more than once in three years, and that no man would be awarded a total of more than three prizes in different years should the program be continued that long. The plan would be suspended or discontinued if funds were not available for the purpose in any future year.

Mr. Howard, the donor of the faculty prizes, is senior partner in the New York law firm of Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett. For a period beginning in 1929 he was president of the United Corporation. He is active in Dartmouth affairs, having served as a member of the Dartmouth Alumni Council and as president of the General Alumni Association in 1935, and is now a member of the Dartmouth Development Council.

MR. AND MRS. HOPKINS: Dartmouth's President Emeritus and the former Mrs. Grace Tibbetts of Hanover, whom he married December 14, pose for the Alumni Magazine at their Hanover home on Rope Ferry Road.