UNIVERSITY ()F PENNSYLVANIA

Dunn Reports on General Honors Program

by Dr. Richard S. Dunn and sociology. At the close of his second but not antithetical to the courses taken Acting Director year, the General Honors student enters by other freshmen and sophomores in the into his field like other Penn and for Women. If dis- General Honors Program major any College College undergraduate, and if his performance tributional requirements are justifiable at Every large American university faces warrants, he is accepted as a departmen- all, they should probably be applied to the same dilemma today: how to teach tal honors candidate. everyone-it is hard to see why an A thousands of freshmen and sophomores Drs. Philip George (Chemistry) and student needs a less broad training than in introductory survey courses which are Robert J. Nelson (Romance Languages) a C student. necessarily big and impersonal, without piloted the General Honors Program In future years, General Honors boring or stunting the brightest and best through its initial three years. Dr. Roger should perhaps downplay courses, exami- prepared of these students. Walmsley (Physics) is the current direc- nations and grades and put more emphasis Introductory survey courses are here tor. During his sabbatical leave this year, on independent research. But at the mo- to stay, because they conveniently expose this writer (History), Dr. Edward B. ment, especially considering Pennsylva- large numbers of students to college-level Irving (English), Dr. Alan D. Adler nia's size, we see positive value in a work in a variety of academic fields, and (Molecular Biology) and Dr. Paul B. package program, roughly analogous to supply a platform for more advanced Green (Botany) are in charge, with Mrs. the first two years at a small, select col- work in each discipline. But how should Carol J. Crow the den mother of our lege, in which our students share a collec- we handle our most gifted entering stu- office at 113 Duhring Wing. General tive educational experience, while at the dents, who often breeze through their Honors students have their own lounge same time belonging to the larger under- first two college years with a minimum at 3800 Locust St., a sketchily furnished graduate community. of effort, and stagnate intellectually? but baronially proportioned room in a Hence the General Honors philosophy At Pennsylvania, the General Honors former fraternity house. The new Diet- is that students who enter the Program Program was instituted in 1961 to chal- rich Graduate Library Center, now un- must take it in toto, and cannot skip lenge and stimulate such students. Now der construction, will provide a General courses in uncongenial fields. in its fifth year of operation, the Program Honors study room with our own book Since the success of the Program de- offers a set of two dozen specially de- collection. pends on our selecting students who will signed courses to some 100 freshmen and Obviously Penn's formula is not the profit from and contribute to our courses, sophomores from the College, the College only way to handle exceptionally gifted we annually screen all 7,500 applicants for Women and the Engineering Schools, underclassmen. We might have given for admission to Pennsylvania-with the in lieu of the standard distributional automatic sophomore standing to all of help of the Admissions Office and invite courses in the humanities, social sciences our most promising entering freshmen, or the top 2 percent as judged by their col- and natural sciences. waived their distributional requirements, lege board scores, high school records and The General Honors student takes or excused them from formal course interviews. accelerated courses in French, German or work in order to permit independent re- Other colleges are also seeking these Russian. He chooses among a variety of search in their fields of special interest. choice candidates, and though we never history, literature and philosophy courses, Less radically, we might have set up get as many as we want, it is heartening usually seminar-style and topical in char- 'honors' sections in every introductory to find every April that a significant acter. He takes a two year integrated survey course. number decide to come here because of series of science courses, combining But the architects of General Honors General Honors. Some 60 freshmen enter mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology believed-correctly, in my opinion-that the Program every September. and psychology. The social science course the most workable plan here would be a The current group has a mean verbal/ is also interdisciplinary, combining an- unified program of well-designed and mathematical score of 714/74.5 in the thropology, economics, political science severely disciplined courses, distinct from (Continued on page 5)

2 THE ALMANAC

Dickson Discusses Student Financial Aid Situation

By Douglas R. Dickson How much does all of this mean to Director, Office of the University of Pennsylvania? Are Student Financial Aid the problems many people have predicted in public support for education becoming When college costs spiral sharply at realities? Will all of this new legislation the same time that public concern for bring many new dollars to the Univer- the economically disadvantaged is at a sity? Answers to these questions are just new peak, student financial aid is sud- beginning to emerge, but a few trends denly spotlighted. At many colleges are already clear. scholarship, loan, and job programs have None of the agencies operating these recently developed; at Pennsylvania, programs has attempted to exert pressure where such programs are by no means on the University with regard to admis- new, increasing attention has been fo- sion standards or our policies governing cused on them. the administration of financial aid. The During the academic year that is now U. S. Office of Education, the Pennsyl- approaching its end, news of financial vania Higher Education Assistance aid has perhaps been more widely re- Agency (PHEAA), and the Philadel- ported than ever before. Locally, the phia Commission on Higher Education "Gazette" and "From College Hall" Douglas R. Dickson have consistently tried to leave as much have given considerable coverage to the control and authority in the hands of col- achievements of the University in stu- the amount of support (recently raised leges and universities as they can while dent aid, and newspapers and journals to $250 a year) has been insignificant, remaining responsible to their legislative have commented at length upon both the and the payment of this sum to the stu- and administrative authorizing bodies. problems and challenges that are newly dent after his academic year is satisfac- Nevertheless, some kinds of controlling revealed in public and semi-public at- torily completed and paid for has been influence are inevitable. tempts to deal with the issue of financing of slight help to students. The Senatorial The objectionable features of the dis- higher education for students. The spec- Scholarships are not supported by any claimer vow and loyalty oath originally tacular growth of our program, the direct grant of public funds and cannot associated with the National Defense whole-hearted support given by admin- be considered a state program. Even the program are well known. Agitation from istration and faculty to the ideal of ap- federal government, despite such pro- the educational community eventually propriate financing for every admitted grams as the World War II loans and led to the modification of these require- student, and capital goals for the future G.I. Bill of Rights, the N.Y.A. student ments, but it is still true that students have all received attention. But no sub- jobs of the late 1930's, and the Navy must execute the oath while borrowers ject seems to evoke more interest today R.O.T.C. scholarships, until 1958 had under other kinds of federal programs than the effect of local, state, and federal no general program of support for under- need not. In another context, the Uni- programs on students and colleges. graduate students. versity guards carefully the financial data Governmental subsidy of students is With the passage in that year of the concerning every family and does nothing by no means new, particularly at the National Defense Education Act, with to reveal the relative poverty of some graduate level. Training grants in its provisions for student loans, the flood candidates. For this reason, we have not health fields, fellowships in the sciences, of public programs for the support of until recently told those students holding and more recently subsidy of graduate undergraduates began. Next, the Phila- Work Study jobs that this was the source training in languages have become essen- delphia City Council passed the City of their wages, since to do so would tial elements of the student support and Scholarship program, which provides label them as recipients of Anti-Poverty recruitment efforts of our graduate di- grants in amounts up to $800 a year for funds. We have been forced to identify visions. exceptionally needy local students. 1965 these students, however, at least to them- As far as undergraduates are con- saw the beginning of the federal Work- selves, because the Office of Education cerned, the picture has been far different. Study student job program and the au- has needed information about recipients Locally the Board of Education and thorization of Economic Opportunity that only they could provide and has Mayor's Scholarship programs (both Grants. The Commonwealth also began asked each of them to complete lengthy supported primarily by the University in a system of guaranteed loans for students and detailed questionnaires. No one ques- return for land grants dating back to operating through banks in the state. tions the need for such information; 1910 and earlier) have had the appear- Finally, on January 25, 1966, Governor Congress must be informed about the ance of public programs without actually Scranton signed legislation establishing effectiveness of the program if it is to be providing significant public support for the first general scholarship program in continued. Yet, the result has been to students. The Commonwealth of Penn- Pennsylvania. Now there is a local schol- change the University's policy in dealing sylvania has had no general program of arship program, a state loan and scholar- with some of its students. support for undergraduate students. A ship program, and a federal job, kan, The effect on administrative proce- small prize scholarship competition has and scholarship program all tied solely dures is even more noticeable. Anyone been in operation for many years, but to financial need and ability. (Continued on page 5)

APRIL, 1966 3

Kahn Named to New Cret Professorship The Paul Philippe Cret Professorship of Architecture has been established at the University, memorializing one of the nation's foremost architectural teachers of his day, President Harnwell has announced. Louis I. Kahn, a student of Cret's, has been named to the professorship. Kahn is regarded as one of the world's most in- fluential architectural teachers and one of its most eminent architects. The chair, designated by the Univer- sity's Trustees, was made possible by a bequest under Cret's will. Cret came to America from France in 1903 to become assistant professor of design at Pennsylvania. He became a full professor five years later and emeri- tus professor in 1937. G. Holmes Perkins, dean of the Grad- uate School of Fine Arts, said recently Louis I. Kahn, the new Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture. that Cret was the outstanding architec- tural teacher of the of the early years DESIGNER: GIFTS: century, as his students went on to Dr. Abraham Noordergraaf, asso- The recently announced become leaders in the architectural University ciate professor of biomedical engineering the receipt of two important gifts: profession. at the Moore School of Electrical Engi- Johnson and Johnson gave $1.5 million Kahn, whom Fortune Magazine in neering, has constructed an analogue com- for a clinical research building, which January said is "revered by other archi- puter which "simulates the functions of will be named in honor of General tects," was mentioned in the March issue the left ventricle of the heart and sys- Robert Wood Johnson, industrialist and of Holiday with "a group of young temic arterial septum." The computer, civic leader, who for 25 years was chair- architects who have grown up around when finished, will contribute to the man of the board of the world-wide Louis Kahn, surely America's most crea- measurement of the physiological age of surgical dressings and medical products tive living architect." His Alfred New- individual pilots to determine their flight company. ton Richards Medical Research Building, capability and permit the measurement of Edmund J. Kahn of Dallas, Texas, dedicated at the University in 1960, was many quantities in a simulated human pledged $250,000 toward the Univer- called at the time by the Museum of cardiovascular system. sity's $93,000,000 capital campaign. Modern Art the most Kahn, a member of the of "probably single SPEAKER: class 1925 of consequential building constructed in the the Wharton School of Fi- Dr. Alvin Z. Rubinstein, associate University's United States since the war." nance and Commerce, has been regional professor of political science, delivered a vice and a member of the ex- He has been professor of architecture series of five lectures in December 1965 president ecutive council of the Alumni at Pennsylvania since 1955. and 1966 on "International Re- University January Clubs. His most noted works are the Richards lations and Soviet Foreign Policy." The Building; The Salk Institute of Biolog- lectures were given at the Institute of VISITOR: ical Studies in La Jolla, Calif.; the International Politics and Economy in John Rowe Townsend, the English Unitarian Church in Rochester, N. Y., Belgrade, Yugoslavia. editor and author, is a visiting lecturer and in the Graduate School of Education and the master plan and buildings on a AUTHOR: 1,000 acre site of the second of The Annenberg School of Communica- capital Among the recent publications of Dr. Pakistan in Dacca, East Pakistan. tions. Edward B. Shils, associate professor of Kahn was named a fellow of the industry, are the following: "Automation WORKER: American Institute of Architects in 1951. "-A Current Appraisal" in the Forensic Dr. Harold Lewis, professor of He has also served as president of the Quarterly; "Small Business: Its Pros- social research, conducted workshops on American Society of Planners and Archi- pecs and Problems," Current History; the Use of Research in Social Agency tects. Yale, the University of North "Role of the Economists in the Creation Administration for the Middle Atlantic Carolina, and Polytechnic Institute of of 'Isms'," The American Behavioral and Central-Northern Pacific Regional Milan, Italy, have awarded him honor- Scientist; and "Fact and Theory in Social Institutes of Family Service Association ary doctoral degrees. Science," American Anthropologist. of America.

4 THE ALMANAC

U. of P. PERIODICALS:

One of the many journals published at the University is The Library Chron- icle edited by Dr. William E. Miller, assistant curator of the Furness and Lea AUTHORS: TRAVELERS & SPEAKERS: Libraries. Among the articles in the Dr. Thornsten Sellin, professor of Dr. Robert F. Lucid, assistant pro- 'Winter 1966 issue are: "Guillelmus sociology, recently published "Penal Ser- fessor of English, and Dr. J. Wesley Brito and His Works" by Dr. Lloyd vitude: Origin and Survival," in the Schneyer, assistant professor of educa- W. Daly, Allen Memorial Professor of Proceedings of the American Philosoph- tion and associate director of the Reading Greek and chairman of classical studies; ical Society (October, 1965). Dr. Clinic, were participants in the 1965 Na- "The Pride of Shakespeare's Brutus" by David E. Lavin, assistant professor of tional Council of Teachers of English. Phyllis Rackin, assistant professor of has "The Prediction English; and "'Much Virtue in If' in sociology, published Dr. F. Bass, assistant of Academic Performance: A Theoret- George pro- Shakespeare's Comedies" by Dr. Peter fessor of classical archaeology, presented ical Analysis and Review of the B. Murray, assistant professor of Eng- the last of four lectures in Research." subscription lish. the form of to mem- expedition reports Other Library Chronicle Items: "Two bers-and of the Mu- Appearing in the Fall issue of Orbis guests University Printings of the First Edition of Hem- seum of the Dr. Bass, who is is an article entitled "The Prospects for University. rich Heine's Dance Poem Der Doktor assistant curator. of the Mu- Western Sciences and Technology" by University Faust" by Dr. Heinz Moenkemeyer, seum's Mediterranean Section, Dr. William R. Kintner, professor of explained associate professor of German; "William new of in political science, and Dr. Robert L. techniques mapping searching Carlos Williams: An Exhibition of a underwater, a submarine television Pfaltzgraff, assistant professor of polit- using Collection" by Neda M. Westlake, and electronic detectors. ical science. Dr. Morse Peckham, pro- rare book librarian of Van Pelt; and fessor of English literature, is the author Dr. Paul Liebman, assistant profes- "John Frederick Lewis, Jr. 1899-1965" of Romanticism: The Culture of the sor of physiology, delivered the invited by Jesse C. Mills, assistant director of 19th Century (Braziller). paper, "Microspectrophotometric Detec- libraries. tion of Color Vision Pigments in Single Recent research from the monographs Retinal Cones," at the annual meeting of Research In- GRANTS: University's Foreign Policy the Optical Society of America. Dr. stitute include: International Measuring Liebman was also an invited participant Dr. David E. Lavin, assistant pro- Dr. J. Teune, Alignments by Henry in the 1965 Cold Spring Harbor Sym- fessor of sociology, has received an insti- associate of science, professor political posium on Sensory Receptors, and a lec- tutional grant from the National Science and and To The Foundation for Sig Synnestvedt; turer at the annual meeting of the Amer- a study of "Family Struc- Twenty-Third Congress of the Soviet ican Association for the Advancement of ture and Academic Achievement." Communist Party, by Dr. Sidney I. Science. Ploss, assistant professor of political The University has received an un- Professor Louis B. science. University restricted grant of $10,000 from the Schwartz of the Law School, who was Sears-Roebuck Foundation. The grant Dr. Donald E. Smith, associate pro- on sabbatical leave the fall term, during was announced by R. J. Doherty, local fessor of political science, is the author at the of Law and the taught Faculty representative of the Foundation. of Religion and Politics in Burma, pub- Institute of Criminology, Cambridge lished Princeton Press. He also lectures at by University University. gave Ox- The U.S. Public Health Service has This is the second of three books by Dr. ford, London, Paris, Oslo and Stock- awarded grants to two of our faculty: Smith on religion and politics published holm, and lectured at the of University for the of "Comparative Brain the Princeton Press. India as a Secu- on December before study by Edinburgh 6, shortly Metabolism in Thiamine Deficiencies," lar State appeared in 1963, and Religion to the United States. At Cam- returning $17,162 to Dr. James H. Jones, and Politics in South Asia, a symposium, Professor Schwartz was William bridge, head and professor of biochemical animal will be published next summer. Curtis Senior Fellow in Clare College. biology in veterinary medicine; to Dr. Dr. Thomas C. Cochran, of professor Arthur Kowaisky, assistant professor Chilton has just published the latest this Pitt Professor of His- history, year's of physical biochemistry in the Eldridge book of Dr. Sidney Weintraub, pro- at is also a Fellow of tory Cambridge, Reeves Johnson Research Foundation fessor of economics. It is entitled A Clare. Keynesian Theory of Employment, for Biophysics, $21,555 for the investi- Growth and Income Distribution. Sol Worth, assistant professor of gation of "NMR Studies of Proteins communications, presented a program of and Macromolecules." Dr. Arthur B. Shostak, assistant films made by students at colleges and professor of sociology, has published two universities throughout America, and a The Bulletin Contributionship of the articles on the role of the poor in anti- paper: "An Invitation to View Some Philadelphia Bulletin has made a $10,200 poverty community action programs: Student Concerns," at the American grant which will enable the School of one in American Child, November, 1965, Council on Education meeting on "The Social Work to provide help for poten- and the other in Social Work, January, American College Student," in Wash- tial dropouts in four University City 1966. ington, D. C. elementary schools.

APRIL, 1966 5

DicksoHonor n General on TheReport Dunn s

(Continued from page 2) (Continued from page 1) who has dealt with a governmental Scholastic Aptitude Test (800 = per- agency knows the complexity of reports fect), about 100 points higher than the and applications that must be submitted. average Pennsylvania freshman. While Each year the questions differ, so infor- college board scores must be weighed mation accumulated on the basis of the with some skepticism, our experience previous year's forms often becomes use- shows that students who score under 700 less. And legislation amended and de- are unlikely to do well in General Hon- layed in its course through committees ors. Experience has also demonstrated can produce strange results. One notori- that intellectually lopsided students, who ous example is the teacher forgiveness may be geniuses in one field but have feature of the National Defense Loans: small interest in any other, are ill suited a teacher may have 10% of his loan to our Program. canceled for each year of teaching, up to Like most educational experiments, a total of 50%, unless he teaches in an General Honors has its share of problems. economically deprived-area school. Then Some of our courses, particularly the in- he can have 15% canceled annually with terdisciplinary ones, have failed to jell. no limit on the total cancellation. And Instructors who anticipate a classroom the same school can be classified as a filled with superlative students are bound "10% school" one year and a "15% Dr. Richard S. Dunn to be disappointed. Students who antici- school" the next! The University's Col- pate continuously superlative instruction lection Manager must deal with this funds will commit the University to the are bound to be disappointed. maze. expenditure of at least $1,200 of its own Generally we lose 20 of our 60 fresh- Another administrative oddity is scholarship funds for each student; this men by the second year, in most cases be- written into the new state scholarship may prove to be a financial liability cause the work is too difficult for them, program. The PHEAA is required to rather than an asset. but in some cases because they prefer provide scholarships to 1965 high school In dollar volume, the National De- the greater flexibility and variety of graduates for their first year of college. fense Loan program is presently the the standard distributional courses. Our The agency hopes to make these awards most significant. It illustrates well both top students turn out to be chiefly scien- in May 1966. the values and the pitfalls involved in tists, and this creates an unfortunate Yet anomalies and complexities, even governmental support. This year roughly imbalance. if they require the enlarging of the Uni- half of the University -administered Certainly General Honors has not yet versity administrative staff, are likely to loans, and two-thirds of those to under- evolved into a genuine intellectual com- be more annoying than serious if the graduates, come from NDE funds. The munity, nor has it had much apparent financial advantage to the University and more than one million dollars thus pro- impact upon the student body or the its students is significant. The newness of vided to our students represents a corner- faculty at large. But even our most re- several of these programs makes it diffi- stone of our financial aid program. But bellious students seldom charge that the cult to estimate their magnitude at Penn- during the past two months there have Program has bored or stunted them. The sylvania. We have yet to experience any been disquieting indications that the fed- majority greatly appreciate the unique op results from the state program, and the eral government intends to phase out the portunity they have to work with first provision that state residents may take NDE loan program. Washington does rate teachers in small classes. The Uni- their scholarships out-of-state makes pre- not operate on an academic year, so it versity can be proud of those students diction especially hazardous. An opti- may be many weeks before we know who complete the General Honors Pro- mistic guess would be that these scholar- with certainty what the situation will be gram, for they have generally done very ships may place $100,000 in the hands in September. Yet in the meantime our well in their junior and senior years. of our students next year and more sub- students must make their plans for next The General Honors Class of '65 sequently. Compared to our present un- fall. And Washington does not operate graduated with a collective grade point dergraduate aid level of approximately on the basis of four-year commitments to average of 3.5, and more than half of $3,500,000, this is not an overwhelming colleges; we do commit ourselves to our them earned Phi Beta Kappa. Personally, sum, but it is certainly not insignificant. students, and they to us, for a four-year I find the best justification for General The Economic Opportunity Grants, period. Honors is the fun of teaching such intel- like the City Scholarships, are intended ligent, articulate, imaginative and irrev- for students from seriously deprived AUTHORS: erent young people. Would that we had backgrounds. We have averaged two Dr. Norman D. Palmer, professor a whole university full of them! City Scholarships per class. We may of political science and chairman of the average as many as twenty EOG stu- International Relations Group Commit- (Editor's Note: Dr. Dunn, author of dents per class. Since they will come from tee, is the author of South Asia and the above report, is an associate professor backgrounds that can provide minimal United States Policy (Houghton Mif- of history, and has just been awarded a support, the expenditure of $800 in EOG flin). Guggenheim Fellowship.)

6 THE ALMANAC

13 Fellowships Thirteen University faculty members, the third largest number of any Amer- ican institution, received Guggenheim Fellowships after copy for this Almanac HONORS: FACULTY GRANTS: went to the printer. A detailed article Dr. Willis J. Winn, dean of the Announcements of Fulbright-Hays will appear next month. Wharton School, was recently appointed awards for faculty members for research GRANTS: chairman of the board of the Federal and in Europe, Africa, the lecturing The Harrison of Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Dean Near East, South and East Asia, the Department Surgical Research in the School of Medicine has Winn, who also serves as vice-provost, Pacific, the Far East, and Latin America received three to Dr. is vice president of the American Associa- during the 1967-68 academic are just grants: year Robert G. Ravdin, associate tion of Collegiate Schools of Business, now available for reference at the office professor of surgery, $32,876 for "Cooperative and is serving as program chairman of of the Faculty Fulbright Adviser, James Study of Breast Cancer Hormone Ther- its annual meeting to be held in San B. Yarnall, Office of Fellowship Infor- apy"; to Dr. W. Diego in April. mation and Abroad, 226 $17,440 Harry Study Programs associate of urol- McGill University has conferred the South 38th St. Schoenberg, professor to continue - n of honorary degree of Doctor of Science Important have been ogy, investigation changes recently "Neuromuscular of upon Dr. Luther L. Terry, vice presi- made in the administration of awards for Dysfunction Urinary Bladder"; and for the study of "Cyto- dent for medical affairs. faculty members. The majority are being chemical Substrates and Anti-Cancer Guy Anselmo, Jr., assistant dean of announced almost three months earlier to Dr. K. C. Tsou, men, has been appointed than last year, and are listed in two Agents," $72,865 commanding they assistant of in officer of a Naval Reserve Public Affairs booklets, one on research awards, the professor chemistry surgi- cal research. All three grants are spon- Company stationed in Philadelphia. other on lectureships. The closing date sored by the U.S. Public Health Service. Dr. Herbert R. Northrup, chair- for applying for research awards is June man and professor of industry, has been 1, considerably in advance of the date The Almanac is published awarded an $11,000 grant in connection last year. Applications will be accepted monthly during the academic year the with a "Management Development In- for lectureships so long as they are avail- by University for the information of its stitute for Executives of Child Welfare." able. While there is no fixed closing date faculty and staff. ALMANAC ITEMS: for filing applications for lectureships, news items should be sent A great deal of mail intended for the persons interested in them are advised to Suggested to the Editor. Almanac is still addressed to Mr. Hyde apply before May 1, after which date Dr. Herbert (Ph.D.), the former editor who is now a regular screening procedures will be put S. Denenberg, Editor Associate professor at Bucks County Community into effect and available appointments Professor of Insurance College. Please direct Almanac items to will begin to decrease in number. The W-147 Dietrich Hall the present editor, Dr. Jekyll, in W-l47 schedule for nominating and selecting University of Pennsylvania Dietrich Hall. (See masthead for com- both research and lecturing grantees is Printing Office plete address.) being accelerated.

Non-Profit Organ. U. S. Postage PAID Permit No. 2147 Philadelphia, Pa.

Volume 12 Number 7

April, 1966