DPA Pioneers Are Home

Two Dartmouth men and one Dartmouth wife have returned from Dartmouth Project Asia's teaching fellowship in Hong Kong. Frank Kehl '62 and Mike Coffield '62 and his wife Heath completed their two-year pilot program under Dartmouth Project Asia and the program is continuing with Pete Suttmeier '63 and his wife Merle, and Charles Greer '64 and his wife Sue. Now in its third full year, the Project seems well on its way to establishing a long-term relationship of cooperation between Dartmouth and the new Chinese University of Hong Kong, of which Chung Chi College is an integral part.

The Project was conceived in 1960 by the first Dean of the Tucker Foundation, Fred Berthold Jr. '45. At that time it was felt that Dartmouth could make a real contribution to international understanding by sending its graduates out to teach and work with undergraduates of a developing foreign institution. Chung Chi (literally — "to honor Christ") was chosen both for its refugee history and its important role in the educational development of Hong Kong. That same year, Dean Berthold gathered a large group of sophomores whose interest in the project he had aroused, and set the stage for the appointment of two qualified men of 1962 to inaugurate the program.

Chung Chi College was founded in 1951 in response to an acute need. Hong Kong students in the past had gone to Chinese universities on the mainland. After the bamboo curtain dropped in 1949 a demand arose for a rapid expansion of higher education in Hong Kong using Chinese as the medium of instruction. In addition, the colony was receiving hundreds of refugee college students and intellectuals who wanted to continue their study or teaching. Chung Chi, therefore, though new and weak, was able to draw on a rich reservoir of educational experience, and a spontaneous interest on the part of the community. By 1962, Chung Chi had established itself as one of the fastest growing institutions in the colony. In October 1963, Frank Kehl and the Coffields were on hand to witness the formation of the new Chinese University of Hong Kong as Chung Chi joined with New Asia College (where Yale-in-China had posted two of its "Yalie bachelors") and United College to form a degreegranting university recognized throughout the Commonwealth.

The work of the Dartmouth men in the field has been variously termed "an academic peace corps," "Dartmouth's dialogue with the East," and "the education of Suzy Wong." In reality the goals of the Project are far more modest. The job is to teach. Kehl and Coffield taught French and English language and English and American literature. Pete Suttmeier has been teaching philosophy and Charles Greer, the new DPA Fellow, will begin this year teaching geography and related subjects. In addition to their work in the classroom the men have served as coaches and counselors and have participated in many of the faculty discussions on curriculum and planning. The student body numbers about 600.

This of course is not Dartmouth's first entree to the Orient. There are strong Dartmouth Clubs in Japan and Hong Kong, and many of these men have long been making a significant contribution to the kind of dialogue DPA was set up to further. Francis Pan '26 and Bob Aylward '37 helped the Fellows orient themselves to Hong Kong in both senses of the word. Both Kehl and Coffield have decided to further their own commitments to international study: Kehl is presently under a fellowship at the Columbia Institute for Far Eastern Studies in a program of Chinese and anthropology, and Coffield has enrolled at the University of Michigan Law School where he hopes eventually to do some work in Asian law.

The new dean of the Tucker Foundation, Richard P. Unsworth, is presently engaged in recruiting men and funds for a continuation of Dartmouth Project Asia. Each year one or two men will be sent to Chung Chi. These men will overlap with those fellows in their second year of the project. In that way it is hoped that the bond which started with the men of '62 will grow even stronger as Chung Chi expands to meet new challenges.

Mike Coffield '62 (r), Frank Kehl '62(c) and actor Kirk Douglas with ChungChi College students in Hong Kong.