"The Real Business"

ON many occasions the Presidents of Dartmouth College have clearly enunciated the aims of a liberal arts institution. For example, in 1928 President Hopkins said, "The college function is to develop intellectuality. And each year in his convocation address President Dickey reaffirms that principle when he tells the student body, "Gentlemen, your business here is learning."

If one of the general purposes of the College is, as we firmly believe, to stimulate the minds of students by placing them in an atmosphere of intellectual excitement, then we too often fail in our purpose. We as a faculty too seldom succeed in developing intellectuality among our students, and the students do not often enough adopt learning as their main interest in college. Affairs of the mind frequently defer to social and athletic affairs, while efforts to encourage the growth of mind too often fall short. To put it bluntly, there prevails among many undergraduates on this campus an intellectual apathy, a negative attitude hardly to be dignified by the term anti-intellectualism. Deep-seated indifference, casual unpreparedness, and habitual absenteeism are among the symptoms. Few of our students ever do any academic work beyond the prescribed minimum.

It is the conviction of this committee that Dartmouth has reached a point where reappraisal of her methods is highly desirable, especially in view of the increasing pressures of unusual external conditions. One may say with justice that the College administration and the alumni share with the faculty and the student body the responsibility for the regeneration of intellectuality on this campus. The initial impetus for this regeneration, however, must and should come from the faculty. We fully realize that these conditions are partly endemic to modern American culture and that no slick and simple formula can correct them. Nevertheless, we feel strongly that wherever there is a clear probability that changes will bring improvement, changes should be made. We, therefore, submit the following criticisms and proposals.

I. THE CURRICULUM

We believe the present College curriculum is seriously deficient in the following ways:

1. It is too crowded, in the sense that the student is asked to divide his attention among too many different academic activities.

2. It is too fragmented: it fails to make plain the interrelatedness of knowledge and to provide our students with sufficient shared intellectual experience.

3. It fails to stimulate the student to do independent collateral work, and to pursue his individual intellectual interests, nor does it allow sufficient time for such activities.

4. It fails to provide sufficient challenge to stretch the capacities of every student, and particularly of the better student. The accepted practice of the average Dartmouth student is to carry at least one course which will cost him little or no outside work.*

5. Finally, the student is at present permitted to select and pursue his major without having demonstrated any particular interest or aptitude in the subject of his choice.

We therefore recommend the following changes, in the firm belief that they will help to correct these conditions:

A. The normal course load of students in the College should be reduced from five to four, but only under the following conditions:

1. In general:

The four courses should be very intensive, meeting every student at the highest level of his capacities. They should seek both to create attitudes favorable to the proper pursuit of knowledge and to equip the student with adequate foundations in the principal areas of human knowledge. They should always keep before the student the larger conceptual patterns or abstract ideas in terms of which the factual content is significant, avoiding the „ emphasis of merely factual material for its own sake. They should make use, wherever the subject-matter permits, of original documents of enduring significance instead of textbooks. The ROTC courses- should not be included as a regular part of the four-course curriculum, but should instead be taken as extra courses by the students involved. Credit for the ROTC courses should be considered as additional to the normal credit requirements for the degree.

2. In particular:

The four-course curriculum should consist primarily of a group of broad divisional courses required in the first two years and a group of specialized courses within a major field in the last two years.

The divisional courses concentrated in the first two years should be year-long required courses, normally two in each division. They should be broad and comprehensive in scope, crossing departmental lines as much as is consistent with an effective presentation of the subjects being treated. Nevertheless, they should at the same time require the, student to exert himself in pursuit of independent specialized studies of restricted scope within the larger areas being treated.

The division between the first two years and the last two should not be complete. Every student should be required to begin his specialization by taking at least one year course in the area of his intended specialization in the sophomore year, and it should be possible for a student who so desires to take one specialized course of his own choice in the freshman year. In order to make possible this required specialization in the second year and voluntary specialization in the first year, it would sometimes be necessary for a student to defer one or two of the basic divisional courses to the third year, provided that the courses deferred are not in the area of his intended major.

It might be possible in special instances, particularly in the natural sciences, to permit a student to omit the second year of the basic divisional course in the division of his specialization, with adequate controls to prevent the abuse of such a privilege.

The basic divisional course in literature should not be made the sole, or even the main, reliance of the College for the teaching of English composition. All courses, and particularly the basic divisional courses, should cooperate in creating and maintaining high standards for written English. Furthermore, all students, except those who pass a proficiency examination, should be required to take formal instructio in composition in the English Department, such instruction to be in addition to the four-course program.

B. The program of the last two years should be built around a group of specialized courses within a departmental or interdepartmental major, and the requirements for the major should be raised. In the first place, admission to a major should be an earned privilege. The student should satisfy the department that he has a special interest in the subject, and,he should demonstrate his competence by achieving a specified minimum grade in prerequisite courses. On entering his field of concentration the student should be given a minimum reading list, for which he should be held responsible on the comprehensive examination. In addition, to justify the term "comprehensive" and to encourage self-education, the final major examination should be designed to cover the whole field rather than just the particular courses a student has taken. It should be the student's responsibility, under suitable guidance provided by the department „or departments involved, to prepare himself for such a comprehensive examination by choosing his courses and ordering his outside reading. It should be the responsibility of every department to provide adequate advisory service for its majors and prospective majors.

A greatly expanded program of interdepartmental and interdivisional majors should be developed, together with the supervisory facilities to make such a program possible.

C. Before leaving the curriculum, we wish to state that we are well aware that different divisions might find it necessary to implement some of the principles we have suggested with very different kinds of courses and teaching methods. For example, the committee felt that the better qualified students might profitably be segregated into special sections in the basic science courses, while this might not be desirable in the other divisions. The details of implementation should be left for the divisions to work out for themselves.

II. HONORS

We believe that the present system of honors and distinctions awarded at graduation fails to provide a strong incentive for student achievement and thus serves no useful function. Furthermore, it involves an undesirable duplication of awards which have become relatively meaningless even to students. This situation is still further complicated by the honor represented by election to Phi Beta Kappa.

We therefore recommend that the present system be discontinued, and that it be replaced by a single system of College honors, to be reserved for those students who have

(a) applied in advance for consideration for such an award, say before the end of the third year, and

(b) achieved a superior level of scholarship in a suitable honors program, such as special seminar work and/or independent reading and research not expected of the ordinary student.

Application for honors might be encouraged by citations for outstanding work in introductory courses, such citations to be accompanied by invitations to undertake honors work in the subject involved. Together with Phi Beta Kappa, which rewards general excellence, such a system would provide an incentive for more serious work and would adequately distinguish outstanding performance.

III. ATTENDANCE

We favor voluntary class attendance, sion from this area of student life would offer the serious student an opportunity to develop a higher sense of responsibility. It would further improve the atmosphere in the classroom and tend to enhance teaching effectiveness.

IV. GRADING SYSTEM

We deplore the too common practice of competition among instructors for student enrollment and favor. This competition has undoubtedly led to some devaluation of courses in order to render them attractive to students by assuring better than average grades, by substituting entertainment for education at many points, and, less insidiously but still mistakenly, by planning courses chiefly in terms of student interests.

As one practical suggestion in this area we propose that the faculty take action to make available to all its members the percentage distribution of grades in all courses separately and in each department as a whole.

V. CLASS SIZE

It is our belief that student-faculty relationships on an individual and a group basis depend fundamentally on intellectual interests held in common by student and instructor. It is in the classroom and laboratory that a strong intellectual bond between student and teacher may be created. The students in large classes are given too little opportunity to develop this close relationship, nor do they always avail themselves of the existing opportunities. There has not been sufficiently generated on the part of the faculty that easy communication and friendship which is an integral part of the teaching process. As one method for increasing faculty-student cooperation in the educational process, we recommend a continued emphasis on small classes and individual instruction as major teaching techniques.

VI. HONOR SYSTEM

In line with the current emphasis on raising the level of campus life, we feel that an academic honor system would tend to improve the moral tone of the college (for faculty and administration as well as students) and give the student a greater sense of community responsibility. According to present custom the dishonest student frequently brags of his success. An honor system would have the effect of placing the cheater outside the area of approval, making him an outlaw rather than a hero.

It is no doubt desirable that the impetus for an honor system should come from the student body, but we feel that the faculty and the administration should take every opportunity to encourage such impetus.

VII. FRESHMAN ORIENTATION

We believe the present sophomore-directed orientation program for freshmen is perpetuating undesirable attitudes on the campus. We therefore recommend that it be replaced by a new faculty-directed program.

VIII. THE ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS

While we have not had time to study this problem in any detail, we view with concern the influence of the associated schools on the liberal arts degree and the way the requirements of the associated schools affect the curriculum of the first three years.

We wish to encourage continued study of . the relations between the liberal arts college and the associated schools, and we suggest increased faculty participation in this study.

IX. PUBLIC RELATIONS

Many of the alumni and other friends of the College represent it to prospective students and to the public at large too much in terms of its social and recreational as opposed to its intellectual or academic aims and advantages. No doubt they do this because they assume that the academic standards of the College will be taken for granted, while the extra advantages of Dartmouth need to be stressed. But this emphasis has a disastrous effect on the attitude of the students and the public alike toward the real work of the College. Among other things, it means that students whose consuming interests are in things of the mind too often go elsewhere, and that the students who do come here too often do so with the expectation that the curriculum need not interfere very much with their other interests.

We strongly approve of the current efforts by the Alumni Office, the Admissions Office, and the ALUMNI MAGAZINE to reemphasize the academic life of the College in its public relations, and we recomwe believe that the removal of compulmend an extension of these efforts.

X. RECOMMENDATION

Both the educational program and the intellectual atmosphere of Dartmouth must be improved if the College is to fulfill its promise as an institution of higher learning. We believe, however, that the College has the resources of mind and spirit necessary to meet this challenge. We are encouraged by the signs of sober selfscrutiny that have begun to appear within the Dartmouth community. It is in this constructive temper that we recommend:

a. that the Dartmouth Chapter of the American Association of University Professors forward copies of this report to the Dean of Faculty, the Faculty Committee on Educational Policy, the Secretary of the College, and the Trustee Subcommittee on Educational Program Planning for their consideration.

b. that the Chapter continue to stimulate faculty discussion of educational policy.

Unanimously submitted,

MICHAEL E. CHOUKAS CECIL A. GIBB JUDSON S. LYON Chairman JOHN W. MASLAND LOUIS MENAND III FRANCIS E. MERRILL LAURENCE I. RADWAY LEONARD M. RIESER PAUL R. SHAFER HENRY L. TERRIE, JR. GEORGE F. THERIAULT

* 26% of our students carry at least one course to which they devote only one hour or less of outside work per week; 48% carry a course to which they devote two hours or less; and 72% carry a course to which they devote three hours or less. 45% of our seniors carry a course that requires, one hour or less of outside work per week. (Source: A study by the Commission on Campus Life.)

JUDSON S. LYON '40, Assistant Professor ofEnglish, was chairman of the faculty committee which made the curriculum report.

PRESIDING OFFICER at the Alumni Association luncheon meeting, June 18, will beNelson A. Rockefeller '30, association president.