Guidelines for Post-A.B. Programs
AFTER endorsing three recommendations for the development of postbaccalaureate education, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences last month gave its approval to doctoral-level programs in three college departments - Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences. Two other College departments - Mathematics and Physics - are already offering Ph.D. level work as are the Dartmouth Medical School (Molecular Biology and Physiology-Pharmacology) and the Thayer School of Engineering. Final approval was also voted last month by the Dartmouth Trustees at their annual fall meeting.
The term "post-baccalaureate" rather than "graduate" education was used deliberately to emphasize that individual departments might choose any of a variety of ways to engage in education beyond the undergraduate level.
A special committee composed of members of the Council on Graduate Studies and the Committee on Educational Policy has recommended that activities designed to broaden student and faculty intellectual opportunities should include postbaccalaureate programs in the Social Sciences and Humanities as well as the Natural Sciences; that post-baccalaureate enrollment should be increased during the next decade to approximately 10 percent of undergraduate enrollment; and that, when this level is reached, combined postbaccalaureate enrollment in the Social Sciences and Humanities should be roughly equal to that in the Natural Sciences; and that since additional financial resources will be required by new postbaccalaureate programs, the acquisition of such resources should be included in the forthcoming capital campaign and in other efforts of the College to secure new funds.
The special committee's report noted the absence of post-baccalaureate programs outside the Natural Sciences, and said that if this continued it could lead to serious imbalance in the institution. The committee saw an opportunity in the Social Sciences and Humanities to initiate programs "which are not bound by conventional disciplinary or departmental custom."
The three departments that received approval to proceed with doctoral-level work have all been offering master's degree work for many years.
The Biological Sciences Department proposed a broadly based program that would work closely with the Dartmouth Medical School faculty. The department's proposal noted that the recent completion of the new Gilman Life Sciences Building and the Dana Biomedical Library provided the necessary basic facilities for the proposed program.
The Chemistry Department proposed increasing its graduate enrollment from about ten master's degree candidates to 25 or 30, most of them Ph.D. candidates. It proposed a program of maximum flexibility in course requirements and examinations to anticipate changes which are under way in the definition and structure of the many sub-disciplines within chemistry.
The Earth Sciences Department proposed doctoral-level work in petrologygeochemistry, the study of the nature and origins of the material which make up the earth, and in glaciology, the study of physical behavior and natural history of snow, ice and frozen ground. The department's proposal said that the presence of the U. S. Army's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory in Hanover presented unusual opportunities for jointly sponsored graduate work.
