Pfeiffer University - Chimes Yearbook (Misenheimer, NC)

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A. B. WEAVER, Senior, Under AIM. I changed to AIM because my grades were consistently above average, which actually gained time toward eventually getting out . . . It offered, as originally stated, an opportunity to be part of some- thing new — we all want that. It was well formulated, now it's not being fulfilled. AIM, theologically, is apocalyptic in nature ' From the very beginning, I have hoped that AIM would succeed purely for the future worth of my degree. SKI HILENSKI, Senior Theoretically, AIM was to be the individualist's 'bag'; a system of learning where the person was the goal, and not merely the convey- ance of knowledge ... If anybody was going to be placed into a niche, at least it would be a niche of his own design and building . . . Everything was designed for the 'highly motivated' student. JUDY HAWKS, Fresh man. The basic idea is good but it just hasn't worked yet. I think it eventually will. Like the grading system, letter grades in a sense are still here. Pro- fessors still say A or B when you ask what the unit grades mean. It's like that in the whole program. 13

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PHIL MANLY, Freshman. ''I think I'm learning a learning process. I like the way I've got it set up. I personally like my complementary almost as much as my major . . . Lots of learning is involved with rapport between teachers and students; I have the advantage of some good teachers 7 PETER LaROCHE, Freshman. GINNY KENDERDINE, Senior. 7lt just can't work in certain areas like education, and as long as you have faculty members that still teach under old methods . . . So- cially, it's one of the best things that happened to Pfeiffer. Girls7 rules changed. It gave us the op- portunity to become responsible adults, for once. ... an exciting, challenging, and rewarding academic and campus life experience . . . Today's demands require re- thinking of the conventional educational patterns. Pfeiffer's AIM Program centers around an approach which emphasizes such positive features as: 1. Let Students Set Their Own Pace. 2. Offer A New Measuring System. 3. Encourage Independent Creative Thinking. 4. Guard Against Narrow- ness. 5. Encourage growth In Cul- tural Awareness. 6. Give Individual Academ- ic Guidance. AIM, Pfeiffer College Bulletin, September, 1968. AIM, Pfeiffer College Bulletin, October Supplement, 1968. In the fall of 1968, Pfeiffer College instituted Phase One of its new academic plan . . . Phase II will begin with the 1969-70 academic year . . . The expanded AIM program will provide a choice. When the traditionals surrender their didactic formulas for the in- centive and motivation . . . perhaps the system will survive as the ideal presents itself . . . The AIM pro- gram has so proven itself to me to be an academic anachronism. 12

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The mechanics of the new academic program remained widely unstable, unknown, misunderstood but constantly questioned. Students and faculty seemed to expect, somewhat naively, that Camelot would appear in a spot on Route 52. The ideal of AIM fell short of inflated expectations of many people on campus. But the program of academic, incentive, and motivation was initiated. A bold step was taken to gear liberal education to the expectations of an increasingly specialized world. Pfeiffer attempted a program as individual as student participation and imagination would permit. The approach necessitated time, much more than a single year, to mature. 14