Summer Term Close to Count-Down
THE July 1 opening of the Summer Term is now less than three months away. There are a few unprecedented questions yet to be settled, such as "Should co-eds in short shorts be allowed at meals in Thayer Hall?" and "What about bikinis in the College pool?" but the big question concerns enrollment - "How many students can we expect?"
By the middle of March over 700 inquiries had been received by Dean of Summer Programs Waldo Chamberlin. The dean is gratified at this early interest, but since inquiries are not necessarily registered students, he has sought advice from other institutions with more experience in summer study applications.
The advice received answered no questions, but it did broaden the speculation. Using Dartmouth figures and Harvard's formula, for instance, the Summer Term would come up with a registration of 1500 students - and the College has been planning on a maximum of 1000. This mathematical conjecture isn't rushing anyone into a wholesale change of plans, however. The College fortunately will be able to expand its housekeeping if necessary, and every dormitory but Wheeler Hall could be used during the summer.
The eventual registration figure will depend as much on the quality as on the number of applicants. Dartmouth requires a transcript of grades with each application. If the student has a C-plus or better record at an institution with Dartmouth's standards, he or she is automatically admitted. If the record is below C-plus, then the student's accomplishments in the area in which he plans to study, as well as his overall grades and the institution he comes from, would be considered very closely by the Summer Term office and the faculty.
The honor of being the first woman accepted for the Summer Term went to a Dartmouth daughter, Sara Brown, a sophomore at Middlebury College. Sara is the daughter of Dr. James B. Brown '32 of New London, N.H. She is planning work in painting and sculpture and will transfer the credits earned toward her degree at Middlebury.
Another Summer Term first goes to a Dartmouth alumnus who is giving his wife two courses at Dartmouth this summer as a present. She is working for her bachelor's degree at another institution. A family-first goes to the mother, father, and daughter who are coming together and taking two courses each. Other alumni, not desiring reward of credit or the rigors of final examinations, have learned in response to queries that auditors are being accepted by many instructors.
Summer Term students may choose from a curriculum of 59 courses offered by 21 of the 31 Dartmouth academic departments. The faculty of 65 includes four visiting professors, thirteen from the Juilliard School of Music, six from the military services, and the remainder from the Dartmouth College faculty. In addition to Dean Chamberlin, the Summer Term administrative staff includes Assistant Dean Robert W. MacMillen '40 and Mrs. Margaret Ward, director of women's activities.
Mr. MacMillen is in charge of all registrar's operations and will handle the admission and registration of all men summer students in addition to assisting Dean Chamberlin with the overall summer program. Mrs. Ward will administer women's dormitories, house rules, athletics, and social life for the women stu- dents. While earning her master's degree at Indiana University in personnel and guidance, Mrs. Ward was in charge of a dormitory housing 200 women. Before coming to Hanover with her husband who is assistant pastor at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College, Mrs. Ward served as assistant registrar at the Harvard Divinity School.
To work with Mrs. Ward the College has engaged three directors of dormitories at Wellesley College to serve in similar capacities here. "We sought experienced people who had worked to- gether in one of the best women's dormitory systems," Dean Chamberlin states.
Women will be housed in the three new Wigwam dormitories and in the Little, Brown, Bissell, Cohen group on Choate Road. Men will be housed in New Hampshire, Topliff, Woodward, Ripley, Smith, and two of the Fayerweathers.
Certain physical changes have been found necessary in the planning of the Summer Term: additional street lighting along Tuck Drive between Baker Library and the Wigwam dormitories, screens for dormitories, women's lavatories in classroom buildings. Dick's House too has been readied to admit its first women undergraduates.
In addition to making full use of its physical plant during the summer months, the College will benefit also from an opportunity to try out new approaches in teaching. The concentrated courses in chemistry and French being offered are examples of this opportunity. There are many advantages for the student too. For example, through the introduction of ROTC work in the summer (Dean Chamberlin believes Dartmouth may be the first to initiate this) the Summer Term enables the student to free his schedule for other electives or requirements during the regular academic year.
ONE major feature of the 1963 Term will be the Congregation of the Arts, "a coming together of students and teachers in the arts," using the music, theater, and art facilities of the Hopkins Center. Adding to classroom and studio work of the summer curriculum will be dramatic presentations (Shakespeare, Wycherley, and Shaw) done by the Summer Repertory Theater, concerts by the Summer Symphony Orchestra, and exhibits in the Center's galleries. Students will have the opportunity to work with visiting artists and teachers as well as Dartmouth faculty. The noted composers Elliott Carter, Vincent Persichetti, and Walter Piston will each be in residence two weeks. A group from the faculty of the Preparatory Division of the Juilliard School of Music, together with painter Frank Stella and sculptor Tal Streeter, artists-in-residence, will work with advanced students in their special areas of competence. Participating in the Summer Symphony Orchestra will be a selected number of students from the Preparatory Division of Juilliard.
In writing about the aims of the Congregation of the Arts, Prof. John Finch of the English Department said this: . . there will be no mandatory colloquies; nothing more intricate really than working and relaxing together in the same building, taking meals together, living together in a single community. Out of such natural propinquity, we suspect, discoveries may come. We propose a congregation of commitments. We assume that creativity is catching and that dedication is infectious."
Students in all areas of the arts, of course, will be most involved in the Congregation of the Arts, but students in the many other offerings of the summer curriculum will find extracurricular enrichment in the Center's summer programs. The Center will also be the center of much of the social life during the summer months. Four or five special dances are being planned, and the Center will be available for student recreational activities as it has been since its opening in November.
Dean Chamberlin hopes to have several weekend outings to Mt. Moosilauke for the students, and arrangements have been made with the Dartmouth Outing Club, the Canoe Club, and the Corinthian Yacht Club for use of their equipment and facilities. As usual all fraternities will be closed during the summer. Students may swim at the new Olympic-sized pool, the Spaulding Pool, or the outdoor pool and beach in the new Storrs Pond development.
Further information on the Congregation of the Arts or on courses, faculty, and regulations of the 1963 Summer Term may be obtained from the Office of the Dean of Summer Programs, Post Office Box 833, McNutt Hall, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.
Cover of a special catalogue coveringsummer courses and programs in the arts.
