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WELLESLEY COLLEGE BULLETIN ISSUE CONTAINING ANNUAL REPORTS FOR THE SESSIONS 1936-1937 WELLESLEY, MASSACHUSETTS DECEMBER, 1937 WELLESLEY COLLEGE BULLETIN ISSUE CONTAINING ANNUAL REPORTS FOR THE SESSIONS 1936-1937 Bulletins published eight times a year by Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts. April, 3; May, i; September, i; November, i; December, 2. Entered as second-class matter, February 12, 1912, at the Post Office at Boston, Massachusetts, under the Acts of July, 1894- Additional entry at Concord, N. H. Volume 27 Number 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Report of the President S Report of the Dean of the College 11 Report of the Dean of Freshmen 18 Report of the Committee on Graduate Instruction 23 Report of the Dean of Residence 27 Report of the Librarian 31 Report of the Director of the Personnel Bureau 39 Appendix to the President's Report: Program of Inauguration of President McAfee 46 Legacies and Gifts 47 New Courses in 1937-38 51 Academic Biography of New Members of the Faculty and Administra- tion, 1937-38 51 Leaves of Absence in 1937-38 S3 Changes in Rank in 1937-38 54 Resignations and Expired Appointments, June 1937 54 Fellowship and Graduate Scholarship Awards for 1937-38 .... 55 Publications of the Faculty 56 Sunday Services 60 Addresses 61 Music 65 Exhibitions at the Art Museum 65 the Treasurer . 67 Report of , REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT To the Board of Trustees: I have the honor to present the report of the year 1936-37, the sixty-second session of Wellesley College. The death of Ellen Fitz Pendleton, sixth President of the College, occurred on July 26, 1936, and her going left a perma- nently unfilled vacancy in the life of the Wellesley which she had served so long. Scores of tributes have been paid to her by friends and colleagues who knew her through the years. Her successor who met her only once welcomes this opportunity to acknowledge a personal debt of gratitude for Miss Pendleton's pervasive influence. Without it, Wellesley would not be the place of intellectual vigor, of organizational efficiency, and of gracious friendliness which a newcomer has found it to be. The accompanying reports record a large number of interesting facts about the year's academic, social, and financial develop- ment. It has not been marked by major changes in program or policy. College officers cooperated with the President in her desire to spend the first year becoming acquainted with the exist- ing situation before being asked to consider important changes. The statements of administrative officers accompanying this report reveal the extent to which a vigorous institution flour- ishes even during a period of intentional "marking time." Changes in Personnel. There have been three withdrawals and four additions to the Board of Trustees. Professor Paul Henry Hanus and Bishop Henry Knox Sherrill found it neces- sary to offer their resignations which were accepted with great regret. The length of service of Faculty Trustee was limited by vote of the Academic Council to two consecutive terms, so that Mrs. Percy Walden who had served for twelve years was not eligible to reelection. The Board thereby lost a valuable and much respected member. On nomination of the Academic Council, Miss Amy Hewes, Professor of Economics and Sociology at Mount Holyoke Col- 5 Wellesley College lege, was elected as Faculty Trustee. Mr. Paul Joseph Sachs, Professor of Fine Arts at Harvard University, was elected to serve until 1943; and the Right Reverend William Appleton Lawrence, Bishop of Western Massachusetts, was elected to the last year of the term left vacant by Bishop Sherrill's resignation. Five members of the faculty were retired at the end of the year: Miss Myrtilla Avery, Professor of Art, after twenty-four years of service; Miss Sophie Chantal Hart, Professor of Rhetoric and Composition, after forty-five years; Miss Marian Elizabeth Hubbard, Professor of Zoology, after forty-three years; Miss Julia Eleanor Moody, Professor of Zoology, after twenty-four years; and Miss Ethel Dane Roberts, Librarian, after twenty- eight years. The only new professorial appointment was that of Pedro Salinas as Visiting Professor on the Mary Whiton Calkins Memorial Foundation. Miss Helen T. Jones, Assistant Profes- sor of Chemistry, was appointed Dean of the Class of 1940. Changes in Plant and Equipment. The major physical im- provements were the remodeling of the remaining wing of Col- lege Hall for the use of the department of Geology and Geog- raphy which shared the building with the department of Physics until the completion of Pendleton Hall. This work was finished during the summer of 1936 in time for the opening of the College in September. A new organ was installed in the Houghton Memorial Chapel by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company under the direction of Mr. Donald Harrison. It was dedicated on October 18 with a recital by Carl Weinrich of the Westminster Choir School and Instructor in Organ at Wellesley. Fiske House was reopened to accommodate thirty freshmen. Before the end of the year work was begun on the razing of the barn which has for years occupied land behind the Home- stead, near the Washington Street entrance to the campus. Its unsightliness and inadequacy as a service building and garage encouraged the erection of a service building in the pit near the golf links, and as the fiscal year closed work was begun by college employees on the new unit designed by the Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds. President's Report The site of the old chemistry laboratory was graded and pre- pared for tennis courts, to be built if and when necessary funds shall be available. The Swimming Pool Fund. A major addition to the plant was planned during the year, and through the generosity of alumnae, students, faculty members, parents, and other friends of the College a fund was completed which will make possible the construction of a long-desired swimming pool. The pool will be an asset to the recreational and social program of the campus, and v/ill be equally valuable as an instructional unit for the department of Hygiene and Physical Education which has long needed this addition to its equipment, especially for the training of its professional graduate students. Pension and Insurance Plan Survey. In 1927 a pension and insurance plan was established for members of the faculty and administration. In the spring of 1936 it became apparent that there were certain aspects of the plan which threatened its finan- cial security. A survey of possible improvement was con- ducted through the entire academic year of 1936-37 and at the June meeting of the Board of Trustees a revision, previously ac- cepted by participants in the 1927 plan, w^as adopted. The new plan of 1937 involves the purchase of annuities from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. Mr. John L. Stearns of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company was consulted by the Finance Committee as actuary, and he made a very helpful contribution to the discussions. The detailed consideration given to the problem by the Treasurer, the President of the Board of Trustees, the members of the Finance Committee and of the Pension Board merits especial appreciation. All of those who worked with the plan would agree that the chief burden fell upon the Comptroller, Miss Essie M. V. Decker, whose unfailing patience, accuracy, and compre- hension of the intricacies of the problems involved command the grateful appreciation of her colleagues. Conference Committee on Publicity. In connection with the Guest Day celebration of 1936 there was considerable discus- sion of the desirability of publishing a statement of Wellesley's educational policy in such form that it might be distributed to Wellesley College educators and others who had reason to inquire about the type of work Wellesley is undertaking to do and the methods it employs. A committee was elected by the Academic Council to act as a conference committee with certain administrative officers to investigate the possibility of preparing such a statement. This group conferred during the year and prepared certain material in the effort to test the possibility of preparing an adequate state- ment. With the accumulation of large amounts of material it became evident that it would need to be organized by a smaller group before it could be effectively evaluated. A sub-committee of the elected committee accepted the task of studying the ma- terial with a view to submitting a report for consideration by the entire committee, but this work will involve many more months than were originally anticipated and is to be continued into the academic year 1937-38. With the consent of the Academic Council the conference committee appointed a committee of three members of the Council to confer with the Director of Publicity on matters of policy. Gifts. Among the many gifts received during the year were several which are unusual enough to justify special mention. The largest single contribution was that of the Carnegie Cor- poration, a 375,000 gift for endowment. Mrs. George H. Davenport added 330,000 to the large amount previously contributed by her husband for the swimming pool. Mrs. Elizabeth Cheney Kaufmann gave 320,000 to establish the Harriet A. Shaw Fund. For the next few years the income of this Fund may be used for the benefit of the music library. Beginning with the year 1942 the income will be used as a schol- arship in "music, art, or allied subjects." By bequest of Lillian Hunt Bermann, a student during the years 1881-83, the College received three scholarships of 35,550 each and various household articles. A group of alumnae established the Sophie Chantal Hart Fund, the income of which will provide lectures for the depart- ment of English Composition.