Experiment Surveyed

No modern Athens is Madison, Wis.; nor is the University of Wisconsin's Dr. Alexander Meiklejohn a Socratic humbler for whom the hemlock cup awaits. But Wisconsin may look at Greece. To do so it opened in 1927 an Experimental College, whose 100-odd students wore Athenian owls on their blazers, gathered in earnest groups to study, first, the Greece of Pericles' Age, then America of the last century. Viewing the two whole, the students might learn to think and live wisely against their contemporary background. So thought Dr. Meiklejohn. To his insurgent College came farm-boys (of native and foreign-born Wisconsin families), Jews from the East, middle and upper-class Wisconsinites, fresh young radicals and quiet conservatives. The Advisers (teachers) had five successive classes-to watch, each of which went on into the University on "the Hill" after sophomore year. Last year it was announced that the 1932 sophomores would be the last experimental batch. A survey of the Experimental College would be made. Written by Dr. Meiklejohn with an eye to public consumption, worked over also by his Advisers, this survey was published three weeks ago.*

To the question, "Is the Experimental College a success?" Dr. Meiklejohn attempts no flat answer. In general, parents said yes. But Experimenter Meiklejohn and his Advisers, viewing it as an educational method, find the problem more difficult, content themselves with making observations, presenting recommendations to the University whose President Glenn Frank helped plan the College. Some observations :

As to student health (emotional, mental, spiritual, physical) : the Advisers tried to discover what conditions were needed to make the College a healthful place. "They have little success to report."

As to cost: in the Experimental College, where tutorial methods were largely used, the ratio of teachers to students was one to 18, as against one to ten in 26 representative U. S. colleges. Instruction was thus cheaper but it required that every teacher give instruction in every subject in the curriculum. No other U. S. college has a unified two-year course which could be taught by interchangeable teachers.

As to social life: Jews & Gentiles, radicals & conservatives soon lost their disparity of viewpoint. But the cleavage between non-fraternity men and fraternity men widened, until few men with joining proclivities entered the Experimental College. The University, too, felt the Experimental College to be "queer," disloyal, hostile. In two years the number of Experimental College students from Wisconsin dropped from 45 to eleven.

As to curriculum: the unified study of Greek and American life (which the Advisers discussed as a starting point for other comparative studies) leans heavily on social sciences, gives no place to languages or specific sciences, which Experimental College students had to study on ''the Hill." Also, there is a loss in effectiveness when, for example, an Adviser whose field is Art must teach Economics to an experimental college group. A further disadvantage: there is no articulation between high school and experimental college courses, nor with the university courses which the student takes after finishing the Greek-American study.

Dr. Meiklejohn and his Advisers made these recommendations: In 1933-34 let there be set up four experimental units for freshman and sophomore years; one for men with dormitory, one without, one for women with dormitory, one coeducational, without dormitory. The teachers of these units should pursue independent investigations but cooperate with one another. For problems of instruction in junior and senior years there should be a corresponding experimental unit.

Appointed to consider the Experimental College report, a committee from the Col lege of Arts & Sciences last April rejected its recommendations as too bulky, and not solving all difficulties. Still to be considered by Wisconsin is an alternative plan. If the Athenian owl is once more to figure at Madison, it may be somewhat as fol lows: When the financial situation justifies, let there be established a nonresidential, co-educational unit, with one or two hundred freshmen. During two years they will take one partially integrated course in civilizations or societies, taking also "Hill" courses in a ratio of 50-50 (or perhaps 25-75) with their Experimental College courses.

Kudos

American International College (Springfield, Mass.)

Mrs. Edith Scott Magna, president-general of the Daughters of the American Revolution LL.D.

Col. Walter Scott (her father), Manhattan merchant and philanthropist L.H.D.

Amherst College (Amherst, Mass.)

Charles Francis Adams, Secretary of the Navy LL.D.

Henry Thomas Rainey, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives LL.D.

Mrs. Emily C. J. Folger, relict of the donor of the Folger Memorial Library in Washington Litt.D.

Frank Walter Nicolson, dean of Wesleyan University L.H.D.

Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Me.)

Sterling Fessenden, Commissioner General of Shanghai's International Settlement (in absentia) LL.D.

Irving Babbitt, Humanist, Harvard professor L.H.D.

Brown University (Providence, R. I.)

John Livingston Lowes, Harvard professor Litt.D,

William Allen White, editor of Emporia (Kansas) Gazette Litt.D.

Charles Franklin Kettering, vice president of General Motors Corp. Sc.D.

Catholic University (Washington, D. C.)

Nobile Giacomo de Martino, Italian Ambassador to the U. S LL.D.

Dr. Leonide Pitamic, Yugoslavian Minister to the U. S LL.D.

Colby College (Waterville, Me.)

Dr. John Huston Finley, New York Times speechmaker LL.D.

Florence Hale, president of National Educational Association L.H.D.

Hannibal Emery Hamlin, onetime Maine Attorney General LL.D.

University of Colorado (Boulder, Colo.)

Frederick Maurice Hunter, Chancellor of L'niversity of Denver LL.D.

Stanley Kuhl Hornbeck, Chief of Division of Far Eastern Affairs, U. S. Department of State LL.D.

Dartmouth College (Hanover, N. H.)

Stanley King, president-elect of Amherst College LL.D.

Adolph Simon Ochs, publisher of the New York Times LL.D.

Ray Lyman Wilbur, Secretary of the Interior LL.D.

Walter Lippman, political writer Litt.D.

Glasgow University (Glasgow)

Helen Adams Keller, U. S. deaf & blind leader LL.D.

Massachusetts State College (Amherst, Mass.)

Daniel Willard, president of Baltimore & Ohio R. R LL.D.

University of Montreal Lady Roberte Bessborough, wife of the Governor General of Canada LL.D.

Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)

Ossip Gabrilowitsch, pianist-conductor. Mus.D.

University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)

Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, U. S. Supreme Court Justice LL.D.

Harlow Shapley, astronomer, director of Harvard Observatory Sc.D.

Mrs. Mary Louise Curtis Bok, president of Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia) L.H.D.

Princeton University (Princeton N. J.)

Charles Jay Connick, designer of Princeton's chapel windows M.A.

Robert Clarkson Clothier, president of Rutgers University LL.D.

Norman Thomas Litt.D.

Cass Gilbert, architect Litt.D.

Benjamin Nathan Cardozo LL.D.

John Grier Hibben, Princeton's retiring president LL.D.

University of Rochester (Rochester N. Y.)

Richard Bedford Bennett, Premier of Canada LL D

William Richards Castle Jr., U. S. Undersecretary of State LL.D.

Daniel Willard, president of Baltimore & Ohio R. R LL.D.

Dr. James Ewing. cancer doctor Sc.D

Union College (Schenectady)

Slr Francis James Wylie, secretary of Rhodes Foundation, honorary chancellor of Union LL.D.

Louis Jay Horowitz, board chairman of Thompson-Starrett Co Sc.D.

Dr. Robert Norwood,* rector of Man hattan's Smart St. Bartholomew's Church D.D.

University of Vermont (Burlington, Vt.)

Charles Curtis, Vice President of the United States LL.D.

Warren Robinson Austin, U. S. Senator from Vermont LL.D.

Stanley Calef Wilson, Governor of Vermont LL.D.

Arthur Chester Eaton, chief engineer of New England Power Co. C.E.D.

Wesleyan University (Middletown, Conn.)

Alfred Lee Loomis. banker, scientist Sc.D.

Connecticut . LL.D. president of Amherst College LL.D.

University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wis.)

Camillo von Klenze, professor of U. S'. Culture & Civilization at the University of Munich (March 22) Litt.D.

Friedrich von Prittwitz und Gaffron, German Ambassador to the U. S. (March 22) LL.D.

Sir William Alexander Craigie, profes sor at the University of Chicago, co-editor of Oxford Dictionary Litt.D.

Walter Curran Mendenhall, director of U. S. Geological Survey Sc.D.

Grace Abbott, chief of U. S. Children's Bureau LL.D.

Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)

Frank Brett Noyes, president of Associated Press M.A.

Lee Lawrie, sculptor M.A.

Othmar Hermann Ammann, bridge engineer M.S.

Frank Rattray Lillie, embryologist (University of Chicago), director of Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole. Mass.) Sc.D.

Carl Lotus Becker, history professor at Cornell, president of American Historical Association Litt.D.

Judge William Irwin Grubb of Birmingham, Ala., member of Wickersham Commission LL.D.

Eugene Meyer, governor of Federal Reserve Board LL.D.

Newton Diehl Baker LL.D.

* The Experimental College (Harper's, $3.50).

* Dr. Norwood fell ill last week. Union deviated from its custom, awarded him his degree in absentia.

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