Fourth Term?

ALMOST as lively a topic as spring last month was the faculty's approval "in principle" of a summer quarter to be added to the Dartmouth academic year. A thousand and one details, many of them best defined as difficulties, would need to be worked out; and the whole idea, upon further study, may prove to be infeasible. But the faculty gave unanimous approval to the general idea of a fourth term and also voted that the Committee on Educational Policy, which brought forth the idea in the first place, be empowered to make a detailed study of an added term and report back to the faculty, which could then take more definite action and make a pro or con recommendation to the Trustees. The earliest possible starting date mentioned is the summer of 1961, and it might take until the summer of 1962.

The CEP, after months of discussion, has concluded that a fourth term is both a realistic and desirable possibility. And one of its convictions of special interest to masculine Dartmouth is that the term should be open to female as well as male students from other colleges. In a preliminary report submitted to the faculty in advance of its April 15 meeting, the CEP pointed out that 400 500 Dartmouth undergraduates attend summer school each year. It mentioned accelerating the education of gifted students, experimenting with pilot programs, getting ready to meet the coming pressure for admission to college, and helping to meet the growing demand for substantive courses for secondary school teachers.

One strong feeling of the faculty is that a fourth term should not be just another "summer school," and the CEP states its intent that the summer quarter shall be a regular term in every qualitative sense. It is proposed that the curriculum offered be a relatively full one, geared to undergraduate needs. Enrollment would need to be at least 1,000 to make the term economically sound, with a projected maximum of 1,600; and the faculty, on a 1-to-20 basis, would number from fifty to eighty members. With extra compensation involved for the summer faculty, or time off during another term of the year, CEP sees no problem in enlisting a teaching staff for the summer.