Dartmouth College - Aegis Yearbook (Hanover, NH)

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The Thayer School of Civil Engineering By RAYMOND R. MARSDEN, Dean what is essentially a graduate course in the tundamentals of civil engineering. The School was founded in 1871 by General Sylvanus Thayer to open the way for a training of broader scope than that for mere vocation. In the belief that a course of study in what were then styled the humanities should be fundamental to education for engineering as a profession, General Thayer specified that courses in language, literature, his- tory and like subjects, with specified essentials in mathematics and the physical sciences were to be taken antecedent to those of a professional nature. In earlier years, beginning with 1871, this policy could only be realized by a six-year course—four in college and two in the professional curriculum. Some years later this became the five-year course —three in strictly preparatory courses, and two in strictly professional courses. During the past sixty years the phe- nomenal development of all institutions of learn- ing throughout the United States, the recent overshadowing import- ance of technical train- ing, and the tendency to divergent and intense specialization, have led to diverse views on edu- cational policy. The re- cent decision of the Trustees of Dartmouth College to give only one degree (A. B.) to its graduates is in accord- ance with and accentu- ates the policy consistent- io he ly adhered to by the Overseers of the Thayer School. The training of the i HE Thayer School of Civil Engineering offers The Thayer School Building Raymond R. Marsden civil engineer should confer ability to engage to a large extent in pursuits designated as mechanical. The relationships with mind and human action are concerned with various phases of the industrial problem. The all-round engineers should be peculiarly fitted by training and experience for certain executive positions; and in some cases such a one has been chosen to arbitrate on questions involving the rights of labor and capital and the public. There has been a constantly increasing recognition of the value of the training in con- structive and co-ordinate thinking which character- izes Courses in engineering. The definite policy of the Thayer School has been to offer such a course as a sequel to a broad and adequate college train- ing. At present the work of the first year in the Thayer School may be elected by Seniors of ap- proved standing, and earns the A. B. degree. The postgraduate work may follow immediately or after one or more years of protessional practice, and earns the degree of Civil Engineer. Scholastic requirements are high and classes are thus limited to a restrict- ed number. The principle of in- tensive instruction under close personal super- vision characterizes the Thayer School. The pur- pose is to restrict the work of instruction to those controlling princi- ples, data, methods, op- erations, and economics of engineering which are fundamental and = which make a man adaptable to changing professional and economic conditions. afif 25 feo

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Dr. John P. Bowler ARDLY a generation after the founding of the College, on November 22, 1797, Dr. Nathan Smith delivered the first lecture in medicine at Dartmouth College, and thus established the fourth medical school in the United States. Annually, from that time on, classes were graduated and awarded the degree of M.B. Until 1810, with the exception of the years 1798-1799, when Dr. Lyman Spalding gave his assistance, Dr. Smith alone had charge of the instruction of the entire curriculum. The pre- eminence of his position in his profession and the scholarly achievements of Dr. Smith gained for him the reputation among both his contemporaries and subsequent historians for being the man most responsible for the rapid increase in the urgently needed opportunities for medical education in America. In 1810, the legislature of the State of New Hampshire recognized the merit of the school and awarded it a grant of money with which to start the construction of a medical building. At the same time the first sepa- rate department of an- atomy and surgery was formed to be followed later by the establishment of other chairs as advanc- ing theory in medical edu- cation resulted in the di- vision of instruction into distinct sections. Two years later, for the first time, the degree of Doc- tor of Medicine was con- ferred upon a class of eight students. In 1813, Yale University called Dr. Smith to New Haven, but so vigorous was his sixteen-year-old institu- The Dartmouth Medical School By JOHN P. BOWLER, Dean tion that it continued to broaden its curriculum, to increase its enrollment, and to thrive. For the next century the school maintained its semi-independent existence until, in 1902, the Trustees made it a part of the College. In 1908 the school was presented with the Nathan Smith Laboratory, a memorial to the founder, and an enduring gift from the alumni and friends. In 1910, a two-year college course in the basic sciences became a specific requirement for admission and the combined course leading to the bachelor's and doctor's degrees was established. Then, in 1914, after one hundred and seventeen classes had re- ceived medical degrees, the resources of the school were concentrated in the courses of the first two years, and instruction in the clinical years was sus- pended. At that time the leading four-year schools throughout the country most generously of- fered to allow the gradu- ates of the new two-year course to continue to work as candidates for the doc- torate. That arrangement is being continued, for the present, with senio r under- graduates enrolling in the Medical School for a course leading to the A. B. degree and a two-year certificate in medicine. In the aims of the school during all these years have been preserved the ideals of Dr. Smith, whose con- stant endeavor it was to give a thorough training in the knowledge and prac- tice of medicine in both its didactic and clinical as- pects. The reputation achieved by the school is a tribute to his ideals. The Medical School Building

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The Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance By WILLIAM R. GRAY, Dean William R. Gray l Se in 1900, the Amos Tuck School was of sound thinking and disciplined powers of judg- intended to serve a distinctively Dartmouth ment. So far as criteria may be found in the | purpose: to capitalize, rather than to dilute, the records of those early graduates who have attained | liberal content of the undergraduate curriculum; to to high places as chief executives of great corpora- exact a minimum of concession from the primary ob- tions, or in the careers of those who, less con- jectives of the undergraduate course; to ensure ef- spicuously perhaps, have brought credit to them- | fective integration with, and a natural transition selves in many fields of work at home and abroad, from, the processes of undergraduate instruction. This the purposes of the school would seem to have been | has been the underlying principle dominating the well served. | purposes of the school. From that principle no de- Yet it has remained for the magnificent group of i parture is contemplated. buildings recently constructed to broaden the vista The early life of the school was necessarily a and to sharpen the incentive. The new plant was period of experiment and exploration. Progress was planned for a maximum enrollment which contem- halting and growth uneven. But standards had been plates no large or rapid increase in numbers. Ad- set. Students, selected for their proved ability and mission will be limited by the standards of selection | purpose, worked on intimate terms with instructors. that have prevailed in the past. Facilities will per- | Business facts were analyzed, problems were de- mit the reception of graduates of other institutions, ! fined, and principles were identified. The relation- for whom accommodations have previously been i ships generally found within the business structure lacking. With enlarged and improved equipment, 1 were brought into perspective. Unity and coordi- with a broadened and more highly unified curriculum, nation were established as requisites of effective it will be the purpose of the school to give greater management. Minds were disillusioned of false no- emphasis to individualized instruction and high it tions regarding the way to business advancement, scholastic standards than has hitherto been pos- and were helped to appreciate the cumulative force sible. The New Tuck School Buildings 3 ! -- 6t 26 }s ;