THE WILLIAMS ALUMNI REVIEW Published by the Williams College Alumni Athletic Association TA LC O TT M IN E R BAN K S, Editor and Manager • ....... .................... Issued in February, April, July, October and December of Each Year Annual Subscription $1.00; Single Copies 20 Cents Entered as second class matter February 23, 1909 at the post office at Williamstown, M ass., under the act of March 3 1879. All correspondence should be addressed to the Editor, 61 Main St., Williamstown. VOL. 4 APRIL, 1912 NO. 2 We are glad to call attention to the college student of his day. What a con­ reproduction in our advertising pages of trast between the motives and circum­ the etched portrait of Dr. John Bascom stances of a boy of sixty years ago, willing which has lately been issued by a New to endure privation to obtain the learn­ York publisher. It well represents the ing leading to a chosen calling, and those etching itself, which is a faithful and ad­ of an easy-going youngster of today, mirable likeness of one of the most emi­ drifting to college because his friends do, nent of Williams men. “making” a fraternity or a college letter, falling before the requirements of a serious The Williams class of 1885 is doubtless course of study, and drifting off again responsible for the growing custom of without knowing what is coming next! classes with a large membership in and While it would be pretty rough to say about New York holding annual re­ —as some one did a while ago—that our union dinners in that city. This year, colleges nowadays are less a charity to beside the annual ’85 dinner—which has the poor than a gratuity to the rich, been a fixture these thirteen years—the there is no denying that in this age of Review is able to chronicle dinners of American life the college of liberal culture three other classes held at the same place holds a different relation to the community and in the same month of the year; and than it held at its beginnings, and that it still better is the plan for next year, which recognizes the fact. provides for holding the whole group of dinners at the same place and on the Significant of our times is the influence same night. of the so-called “college activities” in Success to the class dinner! apparently turning aside the college fra­ ternities —or at least many of them— Dr. Norman Seaver’s latest instalment from the cultivation of the finer graces of of Williams reminiscences, though all too friendship and literature to the more brief, gives a vivid picture of the average worldly pursuit of power in undergradu- 2 The Williams Alumni Review ate politics and on athletic fields. For in the curriculum that was not required, instance, we read in a magazine represent­ and we are as thankful for some of those ing a well-known fraternity: required courses as for anything we ever “Brother Jones possesses a magnificent learned. With the passing of time, how­ physique. He is 5 feet 11 inches tall and ever, and the increase of subjects avail­ he weighs 175 pounds when in training. able, the number of elective courses in­ His weight and exceptional speed make creased together with the- number of him a dangerous opponent.” instructors required to teach them. In This is admirable (though we confess a good many branches courses which were we should not altogether like to meet originally introduced by others were later Brother Jones on a dark night), but it is thrown open without preliminary re­ a long way from the ideals of those quirements, this tending, in the opinion groups of young men, founders of the of many, toward implanting in the minds “Union Triad,” who rekindled the torch of our students a mere smattering of of Phi Beta Kappa at Schenectady, New numerous unrelated subjects, instead of a York, nearly a century ago! clear and comprehensive knowledge of any one. It was the observation of this The New Curriculum condition that led President Garfield, The inquiries which have come to the whose favorite text is thoroughness, to Review relative to the changes in the consider a radical readJustment of the course of study at Williams, as well as Williams curriculum.* the somewhat sensational reports of the The new plan is not something hastily “insurging” conditions prevailing at our thought out. Having approved the prin­ College which were printed in certain ciples of continuity and concentration newspapers, make it expedient to offer that should govern any proposed changes, in these columns some connected account the President and Faculty proceeded to of the inception and introduction of the a careful consideration of a practicable New Curriculum, and - of the episodes arrangement of studies, which extended which grew out of it in the last college over several months of the last college term. year. The plan put forward was a com­ More than one American college, in plicated one, involving the alignment of the last few years, has set itself to repair the courses in each department in their the damage wrought by the abuse of the logical order of progression—or at any rate unrestricted elective System, and in more in some order—and the grouping of allied than one the watchwords for the much- subjects in different departments to per­ needed rearrangement of curricula have mit of concentration in thfe so-called been “continuity” and “concentration.” “major courses”. Under the circumstan­ Couple with these the word “prerequisite” ces it was not strange that marked diver­ and you have the theory and practice of sity of opinion characterized the debate the reformation in a nutshell. (and this diversity, by the way, still At Williams College the elective sys­ exists), but after every side of the subject tem has never run wild. Many of us can had been thoroughly discussed the New remember when there was precious little Curriculum, in its present form, was The Williams Alumni Review 3 adopted by the Faculty by a maJority quite usual at the midyear season, but vote, and was put into operation at the this year the petitioners were largely men opening of the present college year. who had entered Williams under the old An explanation of the principles involved curriculum, and who now found them­ in the new arrangement and of their selves unable, under the new requirement working throughout the various under­ of “prerequisites” to take courses which, graduate years, together with a full ex­ according to the exhibits of the catalogue hibit of the divisions and groups of stud­ at their entrance, they had expected to ies obtaining after the freshman year, enjoy. While these petitions were sent (which itself was left unchanged), was through the usual channels, a large num­ printed in the catalogue published in ber (owing to a misunderstanding in their November, 1911. handling) were refused. This led to a The changed conditions necessarily series of editorials in the College news­ affected the registration in the various paper, criticising at length the new pro­ departments at the opening of the year, gramme. These editorials, while touched as members of all classes but the one Just with the fire of youth, were not without entering were obliged to plan ahead with dignity and reason; they were accom­ reference to the line of study, both “ma­ panied, however, by a flood of “com­ Jor” and “minor” courses, which they ex­ munications” from students and in some pected to pursue. The most noticeable cases from alumni, numbers of which were shifting of students was toward History ill-judged and misleading. The same and English, as these courses, under the may be said of sundry newspaper re­ New Curriculum, are the gateway ports published about this time, whose not only to literary study, but to facts were colored as only a newspaper Economics, Political Science and similar man can color them. “up-to-date” subjects most boys want The student unrest prompted by these to investigate—and away from Latin and manifestations finally took shape in a Greek, as one, in order to pursue these respectful petition addressed to the Fac­ studies beyond freshman year, would have ulty, asking that, while “maJor” courses by the nature of the prerequisite scheme be left undisturbed, a greater degree of and the exigencies of “hours” to lose his liberty be permitted in the matter of chance at Economics and its affiliated “minor” courses. This petition, the text subjects. The number of students elect­ of which is given elsewhere in the Review, ing courses in the Ancient Languages is signed by practically every student in less than last year by 40 per cent. Phil­ College, was presented to the Faculty osophy, also, found itself “stymied”— and by them referred to the Committee to use a golfing phrase—to a considerable on Curriculum,by whom at this writing it extent. has not yet been reported back. Meanwhile At the close of the first half of the col­ President Garfield, at a College meet­ lege year in February,many of the students ing, gave a clear and effective statement handed in “petitions” to the Faculty for of the reasons for the New Curriculum, permission to change their courses, take its origin, and the purposes which it aimed extra hours, etc. This proceeding is to accomplish. The substance of his 4 The Williams Alumni Review remarks will be found on another page For Fraternities to Think About of the Review. Many of the petitions The property of the thirteen fraternity handed in by students have been since chapters at Williams College is assessed reconsidered and granted, and it is hoped at $355,000, and it is probably worth that other hardships worked upon stu­ that amount.