Colby Alumnus Vol. 68, No. 2: Winter 1979

Colby College Digital Commons @ Colby Colby Alumnus Colby College Archives 1979 Colby Alumnus Vol. 68, No. 2: Winter 1979 Colby College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/alumnus Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Colby College, "Colby Alumnus Vol. 68, No. 2: Winter 1979" (1979). Colby Alumnus. 104. https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/alumnus/104 This Other is brought to you for free and open access by the Colby College Archives at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Colby Alumnus by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. The Colby Alumnus About This Issue (USPS 120-860) Volume 68, Number 2 Winter 1979 This Alumnus is a tribute to President and Mrs. Strider, under whose leadership Colby has thrived for nearly two decades. Presi Published quarterly dent Strider is a humanist, and he has kept Colby on the path of fall, winter, spring, summer liberal learning. His is an administration in which innovation has by Colby College been fused with the traditional. In his inaugural address he declared, 'The liberal arts college College editor is committed to the belief that the best preparation for life in our Mark Shankland world, and especially toward the professions that require further specialized study, is a broad acquaintance with human knowledge Editorial associate rather than narrowly concentrated training in limited areas. It is, Richard Nye Dyer in short, the pursuit of truth, free and unrestricted, for truth itself is almost infinitely various." Layout and production On that occasion he set several goals for Colby. They included Martha Freese Shattuck the continual refinement of the academic program, the adoption of innovative educational methods, the maintenance of a faculty dis Photography tinguished for its teaching and devoted to scholarship, attracting Mark Shankland students with intelligence, curiosity and ambition, and increasing scholarship and loan appropriations. The pages that follow surely Letters and inquiries indicate that those goals, and many more, have been realized. should be sent to the editor, Much of the credit must go to the president himself. Though change of address notification first and always an educational leader and scholar, his success in to the alumni office fulfilling a number of ancillary roles has brought added distinction to Colby. He has worked to maintain sound relations with stu Second-class postage paid dents, encouraged faculty scholarship and teaching, visited with at Waterville, Maine alumni across the country, raised funds tireless] y, and served as a spokesman for the college at countless engagements and for higher Postmaster education as a member of dozens of committees and organizations. send form 3579 to Today, on the eve of his retirement, Colby's reputation speaks as The Colby Alumnus well for President Strider's diligence as could any sage. Colby College Earlier this year he received the 1978 Distinguished Service Waterville, Maine 04901 Award from the Maine State Bar Association. In making the pre sentation, Portland attorney Charles Cragin characterized the pres Moving? ident as "an individual who has demonstrated an ability to jar the complacency of the legal mind." That same quality in President The Post Office charges Colby Strider has been evident in other areas where complacency has 25¢ for each Alumnus returned threatened. to us for lack of the proper Robert and Helen Strider have been at Colby for nearly 22 address. If you have moved, or years. In a few short months they will be gone. And missed. plan to do so, please help by sending your new address to the Alumni Office, Colby College, Waterville, Maine 04901. Thanks The President's Page wo DECADES AGO THE COLBY lished, and much was going to be January Program was so successful Tcurriculum was somewhat required over the next few years by that the chairman of the department orthodox. It manifested certain very way of expansion of these academic decreed a "February Program" for distinct strengths and certain quite offerings. There was little instruc one of the advanced seminars. The obvious weaknesses. There were a tion in the drama and none in the notion that students could do things number of fine, strong departments, dance. in a rather different way became and there were several that were in What, then, as the next two firmly established. There was no one way or another deficient. decades unfolded, were some of the need to adhere to the orthodox pat There were certain very inter achievements? terns in some areas, particularly esting innovations already in effect. For one thing, measures were those that lent themselves to com For example, there was an inter taken to provide a higher degree of bination with others. Consequently, disciplinary course called "Creative flexibility and independence in the interdisciplinary majors began to Thinking" in which members of dif ranges of choice presented to the spring up, including East Asian ferent departments and different students. Studies, Human Development, and divisions attacked problems in their In 1962 Colby inaugurated its Environmental Studies. All these own disciplines without the cus January Program of Independent have persisted in one way or tomary structures of class presenta Study, a pioneer venture which only another. tion, for blocs of time extending up one other institution in the country During the mid-sixties with the to five or six weeks each. There was was in the process of trying. This help of the Ford Foundation and a also a suggestive interdepartmental was a new college that first opened special grant, the college undertook course called "Social Thinkers" in its doors in 1961. This innovation, an experiment of a rather radical which faculty members from dif the January Program of Indepen nature which came to be called ferent departments, notably in the dent Study, required some three "Program Two." Under this pro social sciences, engaged the students years at Colby to be developed, and gram a number of freshmen were in study and discussion of the major it had to be approved by vote of a admitted with the understanding thinkers of the western world. faculty that tended to be somewhat that they would take no courses It certainly could not be said that conservative. But it was voted, and and receive no course credit, but two decades ago the Colby curricu it did make a huge difference in the that at the end of four years of lum lacked distinction. It had a academic vitality of the institution tutorial work and independent great deal in it that was distinctive. as it grew and developed over those study under careful supervision It was apparent, however, that one first few years. The theory was that they would become eligible for a of the needed improvements was a students during the month of Janu Colby degree. It was not an alto greater degree of flexibility. It was ary could be afforded an opportu gether successful experiment, prob desirable that provision be made for nity to pursue one subject in some ably because in the terms of the a higher degree of independence in depth, rather than to have to spread grant certain features were stipu the pursuit of learning on the part their efforts over several subjects of lated which we later decided were of the students. inquiry. There was also a wide undesirable. Nevertheless, everyone In those days there was, as there range in the possible areas of inves learned a great deal from Program is now, a competent and dedicated tigation. Like every innovation, the Two, and the notion that students faculty. Colby has always been January Program lost some of its could undertake a certain degree of known for the dedication of its steam as the years went on, but in direction of their own programs faculty to teaching, and the faculty those early years it was a tremen became a respectable avenue to in those years exemplified this tradi dously exciting experience to be intellectual inquiry. A higher degree tion and this ideal. There was, how involved with the college during the of discipline was built into later ever, relatively little faculty scholar month of January. Intellectual variations in this approach as ap ship, and, as a consequence, rela enthusiasm reached a special height. proved for a limited number of tively little visibility on the regional One of the results that those of us students, but very little of this sort and national scenes except in a few who were responsible for designing of thing is likely to have happened very prominent instances. the January Program hoped would at all had it not been for our efforts There were certain areas that take place was the spreading of the in Program Two. were badly understaffed, such as the notion of independent study and In 1974 Colby was one of a sciences in general, political science, more innovative approaches to selected number of institutions and the classics. It had been only a learning through the two regular awarded a Ford Venture Fund few years earlier that departments semesters of the term. This did of art and music had been estab- happen. In one department the continued on page 21 1 The Presidency THE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT IN THE UNITED STA TES IS EXPECTED to be a friend of the students, a colleague of the faculty, a good fellow with the alumni, a sound administrator with the trustees, a good speaker with the public, an astute bargainer with the founda tions and the federal agencies, a politician with the state legislature, a friend of industry, labor, and agriculture, a persuasive diplomat with donors, a champion of education generally, a supporter of the professions (particularly law and medicine), a spokesman to the press, a scholar in his own right, a public servant at the state and national levels, a devotee of opera and football equally, a decent human being, a good husband and father, an active member of a church.

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