Sloan Foundation Backs Thayer Program with $1.5 Million Gift
THE Alfred P. Sloan Foundation of New York City has made a $1.5- million grant to Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering, President Dickey announced last month.
The unrestricted funds will be used to continue the curriculum innovations, aimed at revitalizing professional education for engineers, which were initiated by a $l-million Sloan Foundation grant in 1962.
The new funds will also be used to increase the student body one third, from 75 to 100, and the faculty from 22 to 27. New equipment and buildings to support the expanded program are planned.
The Sloan grant is the second major contribution to Dartmouth's Third Century Fund, which is seeking to raise $51 million during its three-year campaign. Among the objectives of this bicentennial campaign are funds for the construction of new laboratories and classrooms, offices and library facilities at the Thayer School.
The other major gift to the Third Century Fund following its public launching in October was a grant of $750,000 from the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust of New York City, to establish an endowed professorship that will strengthen the quality of undergraduate education.
"We are grateful for the Sloan Foundation's continuing support and endorsement of the Thayer School's program," President Dickey said in making his announcement. "We plan to move ahead now, realizing the full potential of the Thayer School's 'pilot plant' role in engineering education.
"New approaches to the teaching of creative design at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and the new professional engineering programs with their deep involvement with industry have had a total effect beyond that which can be measured for the Thayer School alone."
Accomplishments under the first Sloan grant include three new graduate programs, an increase in the faculty from 15 to 22, technical and supporting staff increase from 19 to 34 persons, laboratory and shop renovations, and an increase in sponsored research from $370,000 to $725,000 annually.
The Thayer School's new approach emphasizes student involvement in the problems of society. Student projects in recent years have been concerned with aids for handicapped children, brackish water purifiers, improved wheelchairs, and home fire-fighting equipment. By combining highly technical studies with realistic projects, the faculty hopes to sharpen the students' technical talents while increasing their responsiveness to society's needs.
Thayer's Dean Myron Tribus and Prof. Robert C. Dean Jr. were among ten engineers in the nation recently awarded 1967 Master Designer Awards by Product Engineering, a professional periodical published by McGraw-Hill. They were cited in the "Engineer and His Profession" category for their contributions to the development of engineering education methods.
Dean Tribus said the new $1.5-million grant from the Sloan Foundation will help implement the following objectives of the "second step" phase of the Thayer School pilot program:
• To demonstrate that young engineering students who spend more time on liberal learning at the "expense" of technical subjects can contribute more meaningfully to the solution of human problems than those who do not.
• To show how creative talent can be developed in the academic environment.
• To prove that professional engineering can be developed on a strong intellectual as well as practical basis.
• To utilize the resources of industry in a way that not only provides financial support for the School, educational experience for the student, and professional contributions from industry, but also demonstrates a form of cooperation which provides a pattern for continuing involvement in education for professional engineers in adult life.
