Trustees Vote to Consider Associated School for Women

As reported to all Dartmouth alumni in the April 27 issue of The Bulletin, the Board of Trustees last month voted unanimously to consider at its October meeting the establishment of an associated school for women at the College.

Affirmative action by the Board in October, bringing about one of the momentous changes in Dartmouth's history, would be contingent upon three feasibility studies requested by the Trustees in their formal vote. The exact wording of their vote was as follows:

VOTED: This Board will consider at its October meeting the establishment of an associated school for women at Dartmouth College if three studies requested at this meeting have then been completed and are found to support the feasibility of the establishment of such a school.

These three are:

(1) An examination by outside professional consultants of both the short and long term costs of such a school;

(2) A determination of the acceptability to students of a revised college calendar; and

(3) A faculty recommendation of a suitable educational plan.

Although a number of important discussions and actions were on the agenda for the Trustees' spring meeting, the greater part of the three-day session, April 15-17, was devoted to the question of coeducation, which has been a matter of exhaustive study and of lively student, faculty, and alumni debate for the past two years. The major study concerning "a greater feminine presence at Dartmouth" was made by the Trustee Study Committee, a 15-member body representing the various constituencies of the College. The Board of Trustees had before it at the April meeting the final report of this committee and also a formal vote by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences expressing their views on the issue.

The Trustee Study Committee made five main recommendations to the Board:

(1) Dartmouth should begin admitting women in the fall of 1972 and should strive to reach an enrollment of 800 women as candidates for the bachelor's degree as soon as feasible. They may be Dartmouth undergraduates, Dartmouth undergraduates at an associated school, or undergraduates in a coordinate college to which Dartmouth's faculty and facilities would be available. Exchange women students would be in addition to the enrollment of 800.

(2) This goal should be achieved without increasing the number of undergraduates on campus beyond 3150 in any given term.

(3) Enrollment of undergraduate women as degree candidates should be achieved by increased use of the summer term and off-campus programs.

(4) Total male undergraduate enrollment should not be reduced below 3000 men.

(5) The added cost of educating women and of increasing undergraduate enrollment should be met largely from the greater efficiencies inherent in a new educational calendar.

The faculty resolution, adopted 111 to 8 with five abstentions, also endorsed the admission of women undergraduates by the fall of 1972 and as guidelines for achieving this it recommended a larger undergraduate student body, the use of the summer term on a parity with the other three terms of the year, and the adoption of such procedures, including the possibility of mandatory off-campus and/or summer terms, as may be necessary to insure that roughly 3000 undergraduates are on campus during each of the fall, winter, and spring terms. The faculty action is reported in greater detail in this month's faculty section, Page 30.

The question of a full-parity summer term was one that the Trustees elected to consider independently of the coeducation issue. They voted to go forward with the planning of such a summer term for 1972 and 1973. "Although this is relevant to the question of coeducation," the vote stated, "it is being taken independently because the Board feels it should be taken on its own merits."

In order to assess the demand for the summer term, the Board further voted to conduct (a) a survey of the attitude of high school applicants and those accepted for the Class of 1975, and (b) a study of Dartmouth students once the program has been planned, in order to determine their willingness to participate in the program in the summer of 1972 or 1973.

Next to coeducation, the question to which the Trustees devoted most attention last month was the current and long-range financial situation of the College. The budget for 1971-72 was approved, and the sum of $2.1 million from the Third Century Fund was authorized for meeting general expenses during that fiscal year.

In relation to long-range strategy, a Board committee will study the merits of a deferred tuition plan. The Trustees also will undertake a review of the "total return" policy now in use for annual investment income, to determine whether as much concern is being given to the present as to the future.

In an action allied to College finances, The Trustees directed President Kemeny to appoint a committee to study the investment objectives of the College, with special concern being given to social and ecological questions. The Board requested that a broad range of views from faculty, students, and alumni be included in the report to be made to it. Although the Trustees were picketed by the Dartmouth Antiwar Committee on Trustees during their meeting, Charles J. Zimmerman '23, chairman of the Board, said that the new committee on investment objectives was definitely not a response to the antiwar group because the group is not "a duly constituted body." Appointment of such a committee had been on his mind for sometime, he said, ever since last year's Campaign GM, and the more recent rise of ecology issues had been another stimulus to Board action.

Another important consideration by the Trustees last month was the utilization of funds raised in the successful $53-million Third Century Fund. Although inflation has balked the immediate realization of the new Science Center and the new hockey rink included among the TCF objectives, the Trustees authorized planning for both of these facilities and earmarked $2 million of the Third Century Fund toward the Science Center and $1 million toward the hockey rink. Going ahead with actual construction in both cases will be contingent upon the raising of additional funds—an estimated $2.5 million more for the Science Center and $1.5 million more for the hockey rink. Preliminary designs for both structures have been drawn.

The Trustees also gave their approval to the establishment of The Dartmouth Institute, an innovative form of adult education. An account of this proposed program appears on Page 32 of this issue.