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.