Brown University - Liber Brunensis Yearbook (Providence, RI)

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OFFERING ADVICE AND CONSENT to students planning to attend law, business, or medical schools, Associate Dean of the College Gordon Dewart is also available to counsel students about other prob- lems at Brown. Dean Dewart was appointed to his present position after serving as dean of the class of 1964 and as Assistant Dean of the College: Head Counselor. Dewart assists seniors by giving them basic information about the policies and distinguishing traits of the various graduate schools and by trying to answer the common question, Can I get into Har- vard? In keeping with Brown's policy, Dewart is also a scholar and a teacher. His specialty is the nineteenth century French novel; he has written a thesis on Zola and spent a semester studying in Paris. His present course is on French nineteenth-century realism. Dean Dewart is outspokenly optimistic about Brown. Since he first came here as an assistant profes- sor in 1948, a great deal has been accomplished, he believes. He adds that Brown is nowhere near as bad as the BDH and discontents make out, and he points to such objective signs of success as the eighty per cent of Brown graduates who go on to graduate school. Agreeing that Brown students have changed in their attitude toward the school, Dewart says that although school spirit isn't so prominent anymore, it comes out in new waystutoring, community service, fraternity parties for the underprivileged. I think that it's equally healthy to do this to replace the rah rah type of school spirit that colleges had in the past. Speaking about his own job, Dewart admits, I have had my successes and my failures, but he be- lieves that he and the other deans on the whole suc- ceed very well in aiding students who just feel bet- ter to have someone around here who cares.

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22 INTEGRATING the assistance of the various alumni offices, the advice of the admissions commit- tee, and the experience of fifteen years in University Hall, Mr. Charles H. Doebler 1V, Director of Admis- sions, strives for one main objective: quality. As the number of applicants increases and the size of the student body does not, quality becomes more and more difficult to isolate; it is not necessarily reflected in such concrete data as college board scores or aca- demic records. What is needed is sensitive discernment, subjective examination, and empirical intuition. When the task of admitting applicants reaches this point, the work becomes very arduous. Although Mr. Doeb- ler's approach to this crucial area cannot be divulged entirely, his success is amply evident in the continuing high calibre of the student body. Serving as a member of the Admissions Board since 1951 and as director since 1958, Mr. Doebler's official capacity does not confine him to the hallowed halls of U.H. Throughout the year he travels to various lo- cales, often interviewing interested applicants. De- scribing his job in no less a term than fascinating, Mr. Doebler emphasizes the wide range of selection that now challenges his committee and its resources because of the ever-growing national popularity of Brown. Admitting that the actual quality of a class is not best judged until many years after its members have departed from Brunonia's halls, Mr. Doebler never- thelessasserts that the potential of a class does fall within his committee's evaluative jurisdiction. Con- cern is concentrated in this area, and thus far a nota- ble record has been achieved. SERVING as acting University chaplain while Mr. Baldwin is on leave, the Reverend Julius Scott em- phasizes that the goal of the University Christian As- sociation and the chaplain's office is not to evange- lize the student body, but rather to analyze critically and, wherever it might prove beneficial, to offer guid- ance to the new thrusts which are manifesting them- selves in the University community. The classical concepts of theology are no longer sufficient to meet the questionings of the contemporary collegian. A more relevant and meaningful dialogue between the possibilities of religious faith and the student's aca- demic and social pursuits must be established. We want to examine opportunities for students to get involved in crucial areas, and Mr. Scott singles out the Latin American Project, run under the auspices of the U.C.A., as a prime example of this concern. The outline of this project calls for a number of stu- dents to spend two months during the summer living in a village in some Latin American country. This summer it will be held in Guatemala. This frank and realistic confrontation of religious pursuits with criti- cal, secular situations is, Mr. Scott believes, respected on the Brown campus, and he hopes that it will be continued. Mr. Scott came to Brown in 1963 to serve as execu- tive secretary of the UCA. In 1965 he was appointed Assistant Chaplain, and he assumed his present office in June of 1965 He received his Bachelor of Divinity at Garret Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. Presently he is studying for his Ph.D. at Boston Uni- versity. His plans for the future are uncertain, but one can be sure that he will continue his own brand of Christian activism.

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YEARS OF PRACTICE in the field of pediatrics came to a close in the fall of 1963 when Dr. Roswell Johnson left New Brit- ain, Connecticut, to become director of Brown's University Health Service. Dr. Johnson taught pediatrics at Yale and Tulane medical schools and from 1951 to 1963 was Chief of Pediatrics at New Britain General Hospital. Most of his time, though twenty-four hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year, was taken up with an unending flow of children in and out of his office. Dr. Johnson's present office in Andrews House is the only one he occu- pies, and yet it combinesin a waythe three milieus university, hospital, private residence in which he has spent his medical ca- HEET Dr. Johnson finds that working with college students is much more rewarding than what he had done previously. He enjoys dealing with such a highly selected, intelligent, and basically healthy group. Most important, Brown men are a nice group of people to talk to. More than half of the Health Service's work is non-objective, and, since he is the only full-time M.D. on the staff, Dr. Johnson does a majority of the general counseling. Unlike some other schools, Brown has a policy of counseling and diagnos- ing students with psychological problems; those needing treatment receive it outside the University. Commenting on the nationally famous birth control pill contro- versy that erupted this fall, Dr. Johnson maintains that the Brown Daily Herald was fair, but unwise. As a result, some press stories had a misplaced emphasis; there was an implication that Dr. John- son was culpable of some wrongdoing. Dr. Johnson asks, What is nasty about a rumor that pills are being given out? As most people know, what Dr. Johnson did was standard medical practice. 24 THE SON of a director of athletics, Philip R. Thei- bert was a four-sport varsity letterman at Ambherst, mathematics instructor, art history instructor, coach, dean of students, and chairman of the admissions committee at various schools before he became direc- tor of athletics at Brown in 1963. In addition, he has played professional baseball, earned a masters degree in fine arts, and had his watercolors exhibited in var- ious small shows. To call him versatile would be an understatement. The athletic program at an Ivy League school is run similarly to an academic department. Director Theibert has a limited budgetary allocation for a limited range of activities. As of this year, coaches are not allowed to make initial contacts with sub-fresh- men; that job is now left to alumni and undergradu- ates. Mr. Theibert points out that an athlete who considers going to Brown must first be sold on educa- tion. Least important in attracting scholar-athletes, Mr. Theibert feels, is the coach, who rarely sees more than a third of his potential team members. Most important is the first representative of Brown, usually an alumnus, who works on the boy, sells him on the school, and gets him to apply before other schools can make their offers. As a member of the coaches committee of the Ath- letics Council, Mr. Theibert plays a large role in screening candidates for coaching positions. Outside Brown, Mr. Theibert is constantly working with Ivy League and ECAC committees in various capacitics. Currently president of the New England Track Asso- ciation, next vear he will be secretary of the Ivy League and president the following year. A very busy and concerned man, My Theibert plays a leading role in making athletics at Brown a most respectable and attractive feature of the University as a whole.