WELLESLEY COLLEGE BULLETIN ISSUE CONTAINING ANNUAL REPORTS FOR THE SESSIONS 1937-1938 WELLESLEY, MASSACHUSETTS DECEMBER, 1938 WELLESLEY COLLEGE BULLETIN ISSUE CONTAINING ANNUAL REPORTS FOR THE SESSIONS 1937-1938 Bulletins published seven times a year by Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. April, 3; May, i; November, i; December, 2. Entered as second-class matter, February 12, 191 2, at the Post Office at Boston, Massachusetts, under the Act of July, 1894. Additional entry at Concord, N. H. Volume 28 Number 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Report of the President 5 Report of the Dean of the College 15 Report of the Dean of Freshmen 22 Report of the Committee on Graduate Instruction .... 26 Report of the Dean of Residence 31 Report of the Librarian 34 Report of the Director of the Personnel Bureau 52 Appendix to the President's Report: Legacies and Gifts 57 New Courses in 1938-39 60 Academic Biography of New Members of the Faculty and Administration, 1938-39 60 Leaves of Absence in 1938-39 63 Changes in Rank in 1938-39 63 Resignations and Expired Appointments, June 1938 ... 63 Fellowship and Graduate Scholarship Awards for 1938-39 65 Publications of the Faculty 65 Sunday Services 71 Addresses 72 Music 76 Exhibitions at the Art Museum 77 Report of the Treasurer 79 REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT To the Board oj Trustees: I have the honor to present the report of the year 1937-38, the sixty-third session of Wellesley College. The detailed state- ments from the administrative officers constitute a valuable record of the significant events and problems of the year. It is not the purpose of this report to review the facts which are ade- quately presented in the accompanying reports, but rather to comment on certain aspects of the college year which may not be otherwise presented. Changes in Personnel. There have been one withdrawal and three additions to the Board of Trustees. Harriet Hinchliff Coverdale completed her sixth year as alumna trustee and by a ruling of the Alumnae Association was not eligible for reelection. Mrs. Coverdale has been an active and valued member of the Board, serving since 1934 as a member of the Executive Commit- tee and for two years on the Committee on Gifts. Her successor as a representative of the alumnae is Marie Rahr Haffenreffer of the Class of 1911. Harvey Hollister Bundy, Yale, '09, Harvard LL.B., '14, former Assistant Secretary of State, now a member of the firm of Choate, Hall and Stewart and President of the Boston Foreign Policy Association, was elected for a six-year term. Grace Goodnow Crocker, since 1 930 Secretary of the Board, was elected to membership. The by-laws of the Board permit the Secretary to be either member or non-member. Miss Crocker's position as Executive Secretary of the College involved membership on the Academic Council and made membership on the Board inadvisable. As part of a year's experiment in making the secretaryship of the Board a full-time position, the Board voted to elect Miss Crocker to membership. A complete list of appointments and withdrawals is appended to this report. Mention is made of only a few. Two professors were retired at the end of the year. Edna Vir- ginia Moffett became Professor Emeritus of History after thirty- 5 Wellesley College six years of service. Arthur Orlo Norton became Professor Emeritus of Education after twenty-six years in that department. The resignation of Mary Lowell Coolidge as Dean of the Col- lege was a source of great regret to all friends of the College. Her colleagues in all parts of the organization have learned to look to her for wise counsel and administrative efficiency. It is a source of satisfaction that the College may anticipate her con- tinued service as Professor of Philosophy. Lucy Wilson, Professor of Physics and Dean of the Class of 1938, has been appointed Acting Dean of the College for the year 1938-39. Helen G. Russell, Assistant Professor of Mathemat- ics, has been appointed Dean of the Class of 1941. She took office at the beginning of the second semester during the leave of absence of Dean Knapp. The unusual number of changes in the administrative staff have involved many readjustments. Especial mention should be made of the retirement of Charles Bowen Hodges whose ten years as Business Manager were years of generous and able direction of the operation of a plant which expanded markedly during his term of office. of the The Mary Whiton Calkins Professorship, the annual gift Alumnae Association, brought to the campus Alfred North Whitehead and Nadia Boulanger. Professor Whitehead gave a series of six lectures on "Modes of Thought" under the auspices of the department of Philosophy and Psychology. Mademoiselle Boulanger lectured in the department of Music during the second semester. These distinguished visitors contributed enormously to the intellectual enrichment of the campus. Blanche Prichard McCrum accepted appointment as Librarian and made a notable impression on the college community during her first year in office. The year 1937-38 was one of no major changes, but several problems emerged to claim attention. Admission. The distribution of the student body as a representa- tive group of young women is a matter of chronic interest. The entering class showed no marked deviation from the distribution which has been characteristic in recent years. There are still 6 President's Report relatively few candidates from the Far West and the South. The proportion of candidates from private schools is somewhat smaller than in some of our sister colleges and there are some cities from which Wellesley has drawn too few students in recent years. The acquaintanceship work of the Alumnae Association has helped to solve these problems, and the policy of sending fairly frequent visitors from the campus seems to be of aid to the alumnae committees in directing the attention of promising candidates to the College. It may be of interest to note that in addition to those alumnae groups visited by alumnae trustees and representatives of the Association, twenty-eight alumnae clubs in twelve states were visited by members of the faculty or adminis- trative staff. The Scholarship Committee raised certain questions about the effectiveness of the administration of the National Prize Scholar- ships. A committee of trustees and faculty started to work on the problem of tying them in more effectively with the rest of the scholarship program, and the plans should be ready for presenta- tion to the Board in the fall. An interesting question arose with relation to the number of foreign students from countries to which our young graduates would like to go as exchange students. The trustees provide five thousand dollars in scholarships to bring foreign students. The modern language departments expressed the hope that some of these might be held each year for students from France, Ger- many, Spain, or Italy so that the Institute of International Edu- cation would always hold a place for a Wellesley exchange stu- dent. The assignment of the foreign scholarships has been made by the Dean of Graduate Students and the Dean of the College who have felt it unwise to confuse the issue of placement of graduates with that of enriching the student body by introducing students from a variety of countries. No action was taken on this matter, but it raises a question which must soon be faced about the provision of opportunities for language students to be placed abroad. Although five members of the Class of 1938 were given fellowships or assistantships in France, that was a most unusual concession. Ordinarily assignments abroad are made only on a strict exchange basis. Probably the appoint- 7 Wellesley College ment of department assistants will be a better solution than the allocation of scholarship funds for this purpose. Academic Council Activities. Especial attention should be called to the work of the Council committees mentioned in the report of Dean Coolidge. In addition, the trustees will be interested in the action of a large majority of the members of the faculty in ex- pressing themselves as favoring retirement at age sixty-five rather than age sixty-eight. It was understood that no change in the expectation of senior members of the faculty retiring within the next five years would be contemplated. Department Reports. Each department of the College presents an annual report. That of the Library is published herewith. A change in administration of this vital part of the College has brought its problems forcefully to the attention of the faculty and administration. The report of the Librarian merits especial consideration since it includes explicitly or implicitly many sug- gestions which will need study in the near future. There is something in each department report which merits full and detailed presentation to a wider audience than the Presi- dent's Office filing case affords. Space prevents more than the general observation that they are the reports of vitally interested members of the faculty who are constantly introducing varied methods to accomplish established and changing purposes. Several departments have labored long under a handicap of in- adequate clerical assistance. A few have needed telephones who have not had them. Many are working in overcrowded offices. One small department office contains seven desks, a congestion not conducive to academic calm nor to business efficiency. Some of these conditions have already improved. The summer will include the remodeling of several rooms in Founder's Hall to provide more offices. The conscientious effort of members of all the departments to save the money of the College will be appre- ciated by the trustees who have insisted that adequate help to the instructing staff must be provided.