Changing the Calendar And Other Proposals
Coeducation and year-round operation arrived at Dartmouth in the same year: 1972. Since then, the one innovation has generated a prodigious quantity of controversy, while the other has slipped by for the most part undiscussed. Which is exactly why in June of 1978 the faculty gathered together ten faculty members, two administrators and two students, appointed History Professor James Wright chairman, and christened the group the Committee on Curriculum and Year- Round Education.
As its title indicates, CCYRE was established to study the impact of the present term system on a student's education and, no less important, to undertake a major assessment of the curriculum in areas such as distributive and writing requirements, the structure of the major, and the very quality of teaching and research at Dartmouth - something that hasn't been done since the 1950s. Though the committee's work is only about two-thirds complete - the final report is due in September - chairman Wright recently offered as a look at some preliminary findings, based mostly on a survey on year-round education distributed last fall to the faculty and a sampling of students.
The survey concentrated on reaction to the two calendar schedules under study. One is the current system, in which the year is divided into four ten-week terms of three courses each. The other is a proposed trimester system of three 14-week terms, with four or five courses per term. Currently, a student attends 11 out of a possible 15 terms, whereas the alternative plan would require eight out of 11. As might be expected, the two survey groups differed widely in their response: seven out of ten students preferred the term system, while the faculty indicated support for the trimester by a ratio of 5:4.
Critics of the present system claim that a ten-week term compresses too much learning into too little time. Faculty in the humanities and social sciences (who voted 2 to 1 for trimesters) especially complain of too little opportunity for reflection and assimilation of course material. Other objections are that term papers and independent projects suffer from insufficient time for planning and revision, and that for faculty, the time between terms is too short for adequate preparation and research. Proponents of the trimester system say that it would reduce the current state of academic frenzy, when mid-terms seem to arrive almost before the session begins and finals sneak up just as fast.
Faculty defenders of the current calendar are often found in the sciences (2 to 1 for the term system), where, as Wright notes, a course in chemistry or math that builds up cumulative skills is more suited to an intensive approach. Still, by far the greatest preceived advantage of the four- term system is its flexibility. Students choosing off-campus programs presently invest only 1/11th of their careers in such projects. They may also schedule leave terms around outside interests - for example, off in the winter for skiing. Under the trimester plan, students might be reluctant to commit 1/8th of their educational lives to an off-campus program, particularly for intensive majors. For faculty as well, the term system allows a greater flexibility to combine leave and sabbatical terms, increasing the amount of time that can be devoted to scholarship.
A third alternative, that of a conventional nine-month calendar, is hardly under consideration because of the practical considerations involved. According to Wright, to accommodate all 4,000 students on campus at the same time would require a significant financial investment in capital construction. The alternative would be reducing the enrollment by 500 to 600 students, with an accompanying cut of about 30 faculty positions. "And these last costs," adds Wright, "are in fundamental, human terms that would probably bother people more than the financial costs."
The committee also sent out a student/faculty survey during the winter on the other half of their mandate - the question of curriculum. Though the results are not yet tabulated, the questionnaire focuses on three areas: the possible need to offer more guidance to the student choosing distributives (the current requirement is simply four courses from each of the three major divisions); specific instruction in writing, which often is limited to only English 5 and a freshman seminar; and the suggestion of establishing a "core curriculum" of courses that would provide the incoming student with an overview of the Western humanistic and scientific traditions.
During the remainder of the spring, Wright hopes his committee can complete one more survey (of recent alumni), gather together the information, and put together a preliminary report. Reaction from the various constituencies should help the committee revise the report over the summer and get it into final form by fall. Just what will come of all the surveys and meetings and statistics is unclear, but Wright stresses that the potential importance of his committee is large. Beyond all the "ifs," "buts," and variables, Dartmouth's educational system could be in for a major overhaul.
"X-Delta": Some wish it would vanish, girders and all; some simply have fun on it.
James Wright: his committee has the potential for making some profound changes.
