Dartmouth Institute Plans First Session
"An opportunity to catch up with the world, to rethink their lives, to have time for meditation, and to replenish intellectual reserves."
Growing out of President Kemeny's frequently voiced concern with the necessity for these "periods of intellectual refreshment and mind-stretching," the Dartmouth Institute, a four-week program in the liberal arts designed primarily for leaders in the business and professional community, will be initiated this summer.
In his first address as President-elect, Mr. Kemeny called on corporations and other institutions to sponsor such "sabbaticals" for their staff personnel and on the College to provide the impetus, the milieu, and the human resources for periodic return encounters of adults with the intellectual stimulation of the campus and a capsulized liberal arts curriculum. The first Dartmouth Institute is a major outgrowth of that challenge.
The theme of the Institute, scheduled for July 2 through 28, is "Choice, Reason,, and Reality for 20th Century Man." Through three separate but inter-related courses—"ldentity and Commitment," "Man and the State," and "Science and Freedom"—and one elective seminar on such topics as "Political Thought," "Asian Religions," and "Problem-solving with the Computer," participants will follow an interdisciplinary approach to consideration of major contemporary problems.
Gilbert R. Tanis '38, Director of Continuing Education, and Harold L. Bond '42, Professor of English and former chairman of the department, who is Academic Director of Continuing Education, are the men primarily responsible for the Institute.
Mr. Tanis sees the Institute as a logical next step in Dartmouth's pioneering efforts to make education a life-long process, expanding from the highly successful Alumni College, regional Alumni Seminars, and summer programs tailored to the needs of a specific company. This latest innovation, focussed as it is on the liberal arts rather than on updating of technical or professional knowledge, he regards as "a brand new major contribution of Dartmouth College to society."
As Professor Bond puts it, "The program aims to stimulate fresh thinking, broaden perspectives, and prepare individuals to meet and to shape the accelerating change which characterizes our age."
While the commitment of the College to continuing education has heretofore involved primarily its own alumni, the Dartmouth Institute aims at a broad national constituency. Since the thrust of the Institute has been largely toward corporate sponsorship of key personnel and their wives or husbands, most participants will probably come from the business and industrial worlds, but the directors are hoping for a mixed group representing government, the church, secondary education, and other professions. To encourage diversity, a limited number of scholarships will be offered. In addition, the College has agreed to underwrite the attendance of two couples from its own non-teaching staff.
To date, corporations sponsoring an executive, and in some instances his wife, are Allis Chalmers Company, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, Liberty Mutual Life Insurance Company, General Telephone and Electronics Corporation, General Mills Inc., the First National Bank of Chicago, and the Markem Corporation.
The goal is for a class of about 70, Tanis reports, large enough to insure a wide span of age, perspective, and professional background, yet small enough for an optimum enrollment of 10 or 12 men and women in each of the seminars.
Participants will live in new or recently renovated college dormitories and take most meals at Thayer Hall, where the presence of undergraduates attending the summer term will add further dimension to informal discussions of ideas generated in lectures and seminars.
The program is designed to break the nine-to-five routine many of the registrants are likely to follow on their jobs. The schedule calls for four seven-day weeks with a weekend break in the middle of the month. A typical day will involve four hours of lectures, seminars, and discussions and three hours of reading and study. Time for recreation and use of College athletic facilities is built in. Concerts, plays, and exhibits at the Hopkins Center will be an integral part of the program, and extra lectures by visiting authorities may be scheduled for evenings or Sundays. Of major importance will be the day-in, day-out association of participants with each other and with faculty members over lunch or dinner, after a concert or lecture, or during a golf game.
Institute "students" will be asked to keep a journal, recording ideas encountered in classes and readings, their evaluation of differing points of view, and their own response to the issues under consideration. The journals will be read and discussed in conference with faculty members, but no grades will be given.
The teaching staff, in addition to Professor Bond, will include Alvin 0. Converse, Professor of Engineering at the Thayer School and a specialist in environmental studies; Donald L. Kreider, Professor of Mathematics and recently appointed Vice President for Student Affairs; Hans H. Penner, Associate Professor of Religion and chairman of the department, a specialist in the history of religions; Vincent Starzinger, Professor of Government, an authority on political and constitutional theory who holds a degree in law as well as the Ph.D.; and Thomas Vargish, Associate Professor of English, a former Rhodes Scholar and a specialist in 19th century literature.
The six men, all leaders of the Dartmouth faculty and recognized authorities in their fields, are already meeting twice a month to discuss books on the reading list, weigh approaches to courses, and coordinate their seminars within the general theme of the Institute. The three core courses will be team taught, with humanists, scientists, and social scientists bringing their individual specialized knowledge and their disciplinary perspectives to bear on the issues of broad general concern.
Readings for courses and seminars will be drawn from works important for both contemporary relevance and enduring cultural value. Such authors as T. S. Eliot, Tolstoy, Freud, Skinner, Camus, Hemingway, and Pirandello will be explored for their insights into "Identity for Commitment"; works of Conrad, Burke, Dostoyevsky, Huxley, and Orwell will be considered as background for the study of "Man and the State"; readings from C. P. Snow and his critics, Bertrand Russell, John Kemeny. Aldo Leopold, and others will be the resource material for the examination of "Science and Freedom."
The overall fee of $2000, or $3500 for a couple, will cover tuition, room, board, books, library and computer services, tickets to plays and concerts, and the use of athletic facilities. Questions about registration may be directed to Mr. Tanis, Parkhurst Hall, Hanover.
WHILE MANY of those attending the Dartmouth Institute will be corporate sponsored, other interested individuals are invited to participate. A few scholarships are available. For information contact Gilbert R. Tanis, Parkhurst Hall. Hanover, N. H. 03755, telephone (603) 646-3277.
