The Senior Fellows: Seventeen Paths to Independent learning

A GOOD many years before independent learning became a "modern trend" in undergraduate education — back in 1929, in fact — Dartmouth introduced its Senior Fellowships. The program was not unique (it followed the general pattern of similar fellowships at St. John's College in Annapolis) but it was novel enough to attract widespread interest and editorial comment. And it is still an uncommonly liberal form of self-education for undergraduates.

Today at Dartmouth the Senior Fellowships continue on their successful way, and although honors work, senior seminars, and greater flexibility in individual courses have brought a considerable degree of independent learning to many undergraduates, the Senior Fellows still represent this educational goal in its purest form.

The seventeen members of the Class of 1966 who are Senior Fellows this year are the largest group from any one class to be given this academic distinction. The number of Fellows each year is not likely to remain at this unusual level, but because of the caliber of candidates and new methods of selection, neither is the number likely to revert to the average of eight or nine Fellows chosen annually since the program was revived after World War II.

The Senior Fellowships today are not the free-wheeling, unsupervised privilege they were when President Hopkins in the spring of 1929 named the first five Fellows, including Nelson Rockefeller '30, now Governor of New York. Under the absolute freedom then accorded to Senior Fellows it was permissible to study whatever and however one pleased, and it was possible at least to do nothing at all, although the loads of work actually undertaken were quite the opposite.

While in favor of self-education as the only worthwhile kind, the Faculty never agreed with President Hopkins' idea of granting the Fellows complete liberty to do as they wished, so long as they were in residence and in good standing. Faculty pressure gradually brought about modification in the original plan, and before World War II temporarily halted the Senior Fellowships the awards were being made on the basis of the applicant's qualifications for carrying out a definite personal project of study submitted in advance of appointment.

After the war, and in his first year in office, President Dickey named a special faculty committee, headed by Prof. Joseph L. McDonald, to make a study of the Senior Fellowships and, if in favor of their revival, to recommend the way in which they should operate. A canvass of all Dartmouth men who had been Senior Fellows resulted in a consensus overwhelmingly in favor of the fellowships, and it also turned up some criticisms and suggestions for tighter management.

The Senior Fellowships, revived with the Class of 1951, still offer the highest degree of educational freedom available to Dartmouth undergraduates, but they have been brought "more within the frame of academic orthodoxy," to use a phrase from the 1946 report. A closer check on the work of each Fellow is now made by a faculty adviser, and supervision of the Fellows individually and as a group is carried out by the Committee on Senior Fellows, whose present chairman, Prof. Arthur E. Jensen of the English Department, also serves as Director of Senior Fellows.

A stated personal project, although usual, is no longer a requirement for being a Senior Fellow; selection today tends to encompass leadership and personal qualities as well as academic excellence; and by means of luncheons, dinners, and discussion seminars involving all the Fellows as a group, a new educational value has been added to the program.

Invited to comment on the Senior Fellowship program as it stands today, Professor Jensen has written:

"Senior Fellowships for independent study are awarded to men of proved intellectual competence and demonstrated maturity who can assume much of the responsibility for their own education. While the College has a Senior Fellowship program, there is, of course, no 'program' to which the individual Fellow adheres. If he has a project that encourages breadth as well as depth, he may well spend his full time on it, although he will be expected to read in other areas. He may, if it is in his interests, complete his major. He may take courses or audit courses. The program for each Fellow is tailor made to fit his needs and interests.

"Each Fellow works under the light supervision of the Director and his adviser. The Fellows are brought together as a group once a week for lunch and informal discussion. About once a month they dine together, and after dinner discuss with a member of the Faculty or a guest a topic on which they have all done some assigned reading. In May each Fellow gives an informal report on his year's work.

"There are obvious dangers in allowing a student this much freedom. Consequently the selection of the Fellows is rigid. Experience, however, indicates that for these gifted men the Senior Fellowship has provided a richer educational opportunity than the regular academic program would have allowed."

Steven L. Bailey '66 of Nashua, N. H., an art major, is producing a mural and a movie illustrating Milton's "Paradise Lost," withProf. Richard E. Wagner as adviser. Bailey is president of The Players and as a junior won a Marcus Heiman Award in art.

Francis Repas '66 of Hanover, N. H., whose work as an artmajor won three citations, has chosen "Architecture: Designingthe Ideal" as his Senior Fellowship project. His advisers areProfs. Edgar H. Hunter Jr. and Richard E. Wagner.

Prof. Arthur E. Jensen, Director of Senior Fellows, meets in his Sanborn Eng-lish House office with lacovos Tsalicoglou of Athens, Greece, whose fellowshipproject, "The Impact of the European Common Market on Greek Economy,"is being carried out under Prof. Daniel Marx Jr. Tsalicoglou attendedAthens College and was a high school exchange student in El Cerrito, Calif.

William C. Dowling III '66 of Warner, N. H., haschosen "Analysis of Boswell as a Biographer" as hissenior-year project, under English instructor MichaelP. Rewa. Editor of "Jacko," Dowling has roundedout his activities with soccer and cross-country.

Thomas D. Lips '66 of Wilmington, Del., working with microfilm in Baker Library, is preparing for a law careerand has chosen "Brown vs. Board of Education," the 1955 school segregation case, as his special project, underHistory instructor Larry K. Smith. Lips, a junior Phi Beta Kappa, was a member of Green Key and the Aegis.

Shown at the weekly luncheon of Senior Fellows in Thayer Hall are Glenn E.Gavin Jr. '66 (l) of Joplin, Mo., and Donald W. Glazer '66 of Shaker Heights,Ohio. Gavin, an Alfred P. Sloan National Scholar and winner of a MarcusHeiman award for poetry, is working under Profs. Ramon Guthrie and DavidSices on "Poetry and Poetics: Baudelaire, Mallarmé, and Valéry." Glazer, acheerleader, gymnast, and leader of the Jewish Life Council, has as his project"The Relevance of Classical Judaism to the Contemporary World." His facultyadviser is Prof. Jacob Neusner of the Department of Religion.

David M. Muchnick '66 of Newton, Mass., who has beencited in sociology courses, is doing "A ComprehensiveRelocation Program" with Mrs. Frieda Silvert as adviser.A Daniel Webster National Scholar, Muchnick is activein the Cosmopolitan Club, Young Democrats, Jewish LifeCouncil, and the Political Action Committee of the DCU.

David R. Godine '66 of Brookline, Mass., is shown in the graphic arts workshop in Hopkins Center. His project,under Prof. Ray Nash, is "The Classical Approach to Book Design, Illustration, and Typography." His sports in-terests include skiing, lacrosse, and wrestling, and he is president of ERANOS, a student-faculty discussion club.

Joel D. Meyers '66 of Houston, Texas, abrilliant psychology student, is workingwith Prof. Rogers Elliott on "EmotionalArousal as a Function of Uncertainty." Amember of Phi Kappa Psi, he is an Alfred P. Sloan National Scholar.

Senior Fellows Michael M. Ransmeier '66 (l) of Concord, N. H., and StephenB. Hladky '66 of Ridgewood, N. J. Ransmeier, a future lawyer, has chosen"The Natural Law Theories of Hugo Grotius" as his project under Prof. ArthurM. Wilson. He is president of Phi Gamma Delta and has studied at the University of Montpellier. Hladky, trips director of Cabin and Trail and a GleeClub member, got A in his physics comprehensives as a junior and is nowdoing advanced research in association with Prof. Joseph D. Harris.

James H. Hutchinson '66 of Ridgewood, N. J., has for his project"Gall-Bladder Active Transport Enzyme System" and for his adviserProf. John H. Copenhaver of the Biological Sciences Department. Hiscampus activities include The Players and the Mountaineering Club

William M. Todd III '66 of Summit, N. J., is studying "Political Trends in Czarist Russia After 1800,"under Prof. Dimitri von Mohrenschildt. He spent fiveweeks in Russia last summer and is an assistant in theCollege's Russian Department. He plays lacrosse andis a member of the Undergraduate Council.

Jeffrey L. Rogers '66 of Bethesda, Md., who is going on to medical school, is devoting his Senior Fellowship to"Readings from Three Periods of History," under Prof. William W. Ballard. Winner of the Churchill Prize infreshman year, he is the president of Delta Upsilon and Sphinx and is on the Great Issues planning committee.