1by Bob LeveyTHE NEW DEAN, WAYNE BOOTH Wayne C. Booth, Pullman professor of English and a man committed to the properusage of the English language, was appointed dean of UC’s College last week.Booth’s appointment, madentlLi- i „ j thousands of gifted young men andpublic today, was recommend- women from all over the world. Ined to UC President George the years immediately before us,W. Beadle by Provost and 1116 viability of the college will beActing Dean * the CoUege EMwardH. Levi. The appointment was ap- 0f an urbanizing society. Confidenceproved by the board of trustees in the natural resource that is high-Monday. er education is an old Americanhabit, which now imposes greaterTHE NAMING OF Booth, whose and greater responsibilities on ourappointment is effective immediate- colleges and universities,ly, fills a void that has existed since' \the end of last winter quarter when “WAYNE BOOTH IS an energetic,Booth’s predecessor__Alan- Simpson articulate academician, with a widel€ft£fcicagoJor a world tour before interest in many disciplines rang-assuming the Presidency of Vassar from literature to chemistry. HeCollege in Poughkeepsie, New York, has long been known as a greatSimpson had announced his resig- teacher, devoted to the task ofnation in June of 1963. transmitting truth to those who mustP make it minister to human welfare.Eleventh Dean ^ y ' He possesses as well the qualitiesBooth is the college’s' eleventh of leadership and foresight that ourDean since the college was created college will require in an era inas the unified undergraduate branch which the academic administratorof the university in 1907. The others, must successfully meet the challengein reverse order, were Simpson of welding the contributions ofJJ25£U>4), Robert E. Streeter (1954- teacher and researcher."58), .Champion Ward 1947-54), . _Clarence Henry Faui* (1942-46), Levi was Acting DeanAaron John Brumbaugh (193641), Levi, whose remarks on BoothsChauncey S. Boucher (1926-35), Er- appointment appear elsewhere innest Hatch Wilkins (1923-26), David issuc> had 1)6011 Acting ^anAlan Robertson (1920-23), James since Simpson’s departure. Sincethen, Levi has busied himself mostlywith two tasks: determining theproblems of the present college inorder to work out a plan for itsfuture and picking a man to imple¬ment this plan.Levi’s plan, the so-called “Levireport," was issued in late August.It called in part for the creation of and he was reared as a Mormon.Booth received hfe Bachelor ofArts degree from Brigham YoungUniversity at Provo, Utah, in 1944.He earned the Master of Arts de¬gree in 1947 and the PhD in' 1950;both from UC.He taught English at HaverfordCollege in Pennsylvania from 1950to 1953, and from 1953-62 was pro¬fessor and chairman of the depart¬ment of English at Earlham Collegein Richmond, Indiana. His appoint¬ment to the Pullman Professorshipat UC followed.Booth’s The Rhetoric of Fictionwas published by the Univerily ofChicago Press in 1961. This bookwon the Christian Gauss Award ofthe Phi Beta Kappa Society for anotable work of scholarship, andwas called by one reviewer “thebest critical work on fiction sinceHenry James.”“THE STUDY OF English liter¬ature and composition is my firstlove,” says Booth, “but I havealways had a strong interest inscience.’’ This interest was apparentas he signed up as a chemistrymajor during his first year atRowland Angell (1910-19), andGeorge E. Vincent (1907-10).In recommending Booth for thedeanship, Beadle said the following:“Through the years, the Collegeof the University of Chicago hasoffered a variety of exciting and in¬spiring educational experiences for This is the last MAROONof the autumn quarter. Pub¬lication will resume on Jan¬uary 5, the first Tuesday ofwinter quarter.Booth: a man to accept challengesby David L. AikenWayne C. Booth didn’t really want to take on the extra burden of being Dean of theCollege. (“I thought I had ruled myself out of the running last year.”)But heading the College under the proposed reorganization will be a challenge to do newtilings. And Booth is a man to accept *challenges. (“I left Haverford for Novel). I’ll do some undergraduate go about the task? These commentsteaching each year. If I thought I from the interview should speak fori , , . , . . . ... , j. wouldn’t be able to teach, I wouldn’t themselves,place which had a lot of things left have a0re€d to take job."His new book will, he says, be a f C"m°,e ^ ''""'I*'“how-to-do-it” book on “The Pleas- “I HAVE NO specific curriculumures and Pitfalls of Irony," “some- to push as an answer to all questions.Earlham because Earlham was ato be done. It was clearly a stepdown in everybody’s eyes exceptmine.’’)THOUGH IIE HAS made a name sLrniLar to ** t***55 1 3111 vei7 much knpressed by thefor himself as a literary critic, Booth Humanities I (Learning to Look, L ^demonstrate* a wide range of inter¬ests. “Please point out in yourstory," he asked a Maroon inter¬viewer last week, “that I have a lay¬man’s interest in science. I think one Learning to Listen, Learning toLitter, and now, Leaning to Iran).Shares cramped officeBooth presently shares a crampedproblem of the College is to get office in the Classics building withpeople to recognize that there are not R. S. Crane, noted leader of thereally two cultures; there are only “Chicago school’’ of literary enti-two kinds of half-educated people, cism, who was Booth’s adviser onI started out as a chemistry major PhD thesis in 1949. #(at Brigham Young University), but CRANE STILL remembers Booth’sthen switched to English after two thesis on the devices of narrativeyears, when I decided to become a ^ Tristans Shandy, as probably theteacher instead of a research chem- “gemi’’ of his later book, Theist. I then thought teaching English Rhetoric rf Fiction, though the latterwould be more interesting than sa- ^ Oilier years of study,ence. I was probably wrong then-^ ^ Boo^'s final orai examination,they re probably equally interesting. aim>st ^ entire staff of ^, „ English department, Crane remem-Philosophy and the celio berS that “Booth got to asking usOne of his favorite years was questions instead of us asking himspent under a Ford Foundation fel- questions. It was one of the mostlowship, after teaching for two years lively examinations I’ve seen." ^ _at Haverford College. “It was a Booth’s crawcut has turned mostly « ^“h^~c^laoe inwonderful year. They gave me sup- Srey, but he looked quite youthful big >nie Coijege has toport just to read philosophy. I learned and sPpke vigorously m unrrustake- fi^t for itg ufe intellectually; .and,to play the cello that year, too. . ." ably Midwestern tones (which wiH ^ few ^ ^me .AI(ftDTTO u undoubtedly give the Dean serffice at ^ ^ A U* CollegeHIS FAVORITE TASK, however, least a new »und. different from fi#ltin^ for ^ Uves, too. Youis probably teaching. “I’ve been ‘out the polished British diction of his ^ ^ a * ^versity with.of residence this quarier. working predecessor). , .. _ out a great College. A large percent-°n a new book, attending committee Readiness to accept challenge, f ^ ^ graduate schoolsnx**®-. and so forth, but I plan breadth of Man*, depd, of scholar- SgSeg? Sto teach my scheduled course next ship, and youthful vigor will come inquarter (English 310, Forms of the handy in his new job. How will he (Continued on page four)College now; we have an outstandingstudent body, and a fine faculty,though it’s been feeling a bit dis^,srgamized lately. I hope to produce aclimate where the best ideas aboutcurriculum, new and old, can beput into effect. I won’t be as inter¬ested in whether the idea was partof the Hutchins College, as inwhether it is relevant now.“Those three years (teaching inthe “Hutchins College,” from 1947to 1950) were exciting for me; Ihope we can capture some of thesame energy and vigor without try¬ing to attack or defend any one ofthe various Hutchins patterns.“The reorganization of the Collegestructure offers a genuine opportunityfor people with ideas to put themto effect.Place In the Universitythe major problems con- five area colleges correspondingroughly to the present Collegesections (including a generalstudies area college), along with thecreation of a College Council, whichLevi thinks will give the faculty asa whole a better and more effec¬tive say in curriculum decisions forthe college.LEVI’S REPORT WAS approvedin principle by the faculty two weeksago.Five aid himAfter the completion of his re¬port, Levi then set about, withthe aid of a five man oommittee(a chairman and one member fromeach of the college sections), tochoose the new Dean. The commit¬tee chairman was Gilbert F. White,prntesgnr of anH fornr|erPrfvsirlprtl nf Hnvp-rforH Cnllppe TheTjf"tKe committee werememberLloyd Fallens, professor of anthro¬pology (representing the social sci¬ences), James—W. Moulder, pro¬fessor and chairman of the depart¬ment of microbiology (representingthe biological sciences), Merman H.Nachtrieb, professor and chairman~oTthe department of chemistry (rep¬resenting the physical sciences), andStuart Tave, professor of English(representing the humanities). Aftersix months of deliberation, Boothwas the man they chose.Although he lias been on leavefrom his teaching duties duringthe autumn quarter, Booth will nev¬ertheless continue to teach bothgraduate and undergraduate cours¬es in the future, in addition to hisresponsibilities as Dean. Last year,he served as chairman of the Eng¬lish composition staff in the oollege.AS HIS FIRST announcement.Booth said that Norton Ginsburg.prrf^ftir of rt^fTriT^Y, will remainas associate Dean of the college.Reared as a MormonBooth was born February 22, 1921,in the rural community of Ameri¬can Fork, Utah, near Salt LakeCity. His parents were teachers Brigham Young. However, heswitched to English at the end ofhis sophomore year. Booth’s inter¬est in science has been reflectedin recent years in his work as aconsultant on style in the develop¬ment of the chemical bond approachto the teaching of chemistry at thehigh school level. This is one ofthe nationally recognized methodsfor teaching chemistry at the sec¬ondary school level.Served during World War IIBooth served in the US Armyfrom 1944 to 46, as an infantrymanand as a teacher.He was a Ford Faculty Fellowin 1952-53, and a Guggenheim Fel¬low in 1956-57. On the Ford fellow¬ship, Booth concentrated on read¬ings in the history of philosophy.BOOTH ALSO SERVED fourmonths in 1963 as a consultant toseveral African secondary schoolsand universities on the teaching ofEnglish and literature.Booth is a member of the ModernLanguages Association, the NationalAdvisory Council for the Dan forthFoundation Associate program, theNational Council of Teachers ofEnglish, and a member and formerNational Executive Committee mem¬ber of the College Conference onCommunication.Married to UC'erBooth was married in 1946 to theformer Phyllis Barnes, who wasbam in Salt Lake City but spenther childhood in Long Beach, Cali¬fornia. She did her undergraduatework at Brigham Young and at UC.Mrs. Booth is now a graduatestudent with the committee on hu¬man development, working towarda PhD in clinical psychology. She iswriting her master’s thesis on “ZuluDreams,” using materials collectedwhen she accompanied Booth onhis African trip in 1963.THE BOOTHS HAVE three chil¬dren: Katherine, 15, Richard, 13,and Alison, 10. All are studentsin the UC Lab School.ExtraVol. 70, No. 18 The University of Chicago Tuesday, December 8, 1964 <^^>31 See History of \IHV wOSrfBooth named Dean of College•iUC provost Levi explainswhy Booth recommendedWayne Booth is a ‘'fortu¬nate choice” for Dean at atime when the College will“take a real, hard look at theproblems it is facing,” according toUC jx-ovost, Edward H. Levi whowas Acting Dean for eight monthsand was respoasible for the choiceof the new Dean.Levi recommended Booth to Pres¬ident Beadle after extensive consul¬tation with almost every other Col¬lege faculty member to find the bestreplacement for Alan Simpson, whoannounced his resignation in July1963 to become head of Vassaer Col¬lege. In a Maroon interview lastweek, Levi enthusiastically praisedBooth's qualification for the job.-BOOTH HAS GREAT concernfor and experience in undergradu¬ate liberal education,” Levi said.He lias sJx>wn "high scholarly stand¬ards and great creative ability, suchas in his book. Hie Rhetoric* ot Fic¬tion. This is an extraordinary work,”Levi emphasized.Booth helped form new ways ofteaching English composition whileat Haverford College in Pennsyl-v.uiia and Earlham College in In¬diana, before he came to UC. AtHavenrford, for instance, he intro¬duced what he calls a “radical” ex¬periment in the freshman composi¬tion course, slightly resembling Eng¬lish 107-8-18-117-18-19, with whichUC is now experimenting. Thecourse involved tutors for each stu¬dent, providing for “an exciting con¬frontation with ideas,” Booth says.A "creative scholar"This record shows that Booth is“a really creative scholar himself,in making new contributions to waysof looking at the humanities,” andin confronting curriculum problems“because of his interest in under¬graduate education,” Levi said.Because Booth taught at UC forthree years before moving to Haver¬ford College in 1960, “he has beenable to see it both as an insiderand as an outsider,” Levi pointedout.BOOTH WILL undoubtedly needall these talents in his new .job, forthe new structure of the Collegeproposed by Levi this summer andapproved by the College faculty twoweeks ago is a departure fromthe old ways of administering a Col¬lege.The Levi plan would set up five new“divisional colleges” parallel to thepresent four graduate divisions, butalso including a “general college.”Responsibility for planning the cur¬riculum would be transferred fromthe faculty as a whole to a nowCouncil of forty members.The new plan, it is hoped, willremove the blocks which now, inLevi’s opinion, prevent the Col¬lege from taking advantage of theadvice and assistance of the manyawnim : • faculty members now working most¬ly in the graduate divisions.Need plan for wholeThe College under Alan Simpson“progressed greatly,” Levi com¬mented, but Simpson’s efforts toinvolve the entire University fa¬culty in College programs were im¬peded by the* old structure. "Whilein form the College was in chargeof the whole four-year program, infact it was not,” Levi said. Instead,most third- and fourth-year coursesand programs have been to a greatextent planned and taught by fa¬culty members who owe primaryallegiance to the graduate schools.What’s more, Levi said, “nobodywas trying to keep jurisdiction” fordie College.REFERRING TO the changingstatus of the College dui-ing the pastten years, Levi commented that“there probably was a time whenthere was a lot of fear — fear thattiie general education courses wouldbe chopped up and marie meaning¬less, and that; the graduate divi¬sions were either interested only intheir own work, or interested inraking over the College. Inmy discussions as Acting Dean w ithmany students and practically allthe College faculty, I didn’t find anyreason for believing this fear waswell based,” Levi said.Need free discussionsTne problem now is to “open thedoors and windows and have thekind of structure in which the ques¬tions about the liberal education cur¬riculum are going to be discussed,”Levi commented. “This is now oneof the best, colleges in the country;I’m sure it will be the best college.But this means we must have thebest faculty minds discussing itsprograms. You couldn’t do this ina period when the College was re¬covering from a series of changeswhich left its basic philosophy insome doubt.”Colleges in general, Levi agrees,are faced with a challenge created bv advances in the material taughtl>v many high schools, and, at theother end, by increasing desire toabend graduate schools and the con¬sequent pressure to take specializedcourses. According to Levi, the prob¬lem the UC College must deal withis to find ways of “treating new’knowledge which has usually beentreated in specialized courses” aspart of tlx? liberal arts curriculum.UC has already made great con¬tributions to American education,including “making clear tlwf liberaleducation for undergraduates doesnot consist solely of humanities. Theunderstanding of the sciences andthe scientific method is an impor¬tant part” of liberal education. Levicommented.Importance of liberaleducationHie future of liberal education atUC is important both for the Uni¬versity as a whole and for tlx? com¬munity served by the University,Levi feels.“PART OF the justification for aCollege in a great university is theflow of strength that can be gainedfrom the talent in tlx? graduatesdiools to the undergraduate pro¬gram. Hie other reason for theCollege’s existence,” Levi said, “isthat it can be a co-ordinating in¬fluence for all the divisions,” whenfaculty members from all areasmust sit down and discuss whereeach man's discipline fits into ageneral education. “This double re¬lationship is terribly important forthe whole university,” Levi em¬phasized.To strengthen the College, Leviwould like to see some particularchanges in the program, besides hisproposed revision of the administra¬tive structure. “I’m concerned withthe absence of seminars in the thirdand fourth years. No one has in¬troduced them, because no one wasin charge of looking at all fouryears as a unified arrangement.But it is irrvportant for students tobe able to work on their own in thethird and fourth years. Tile facultyand students should try to developdiscussions to pull everything to¬gether” in these years, l^evi sug¬gested.THE JOB FOR the new Dean (Toimprove the College) will have con¬sequences spreading beyond tlx;Quadrangles. “The University has aresponsibility to the community, andto the community of scholars,” Levicommented, “because, more thanany other institution, we are trainingtl»e people who are the future lead¬ers of education, and the people wlioare going to be leaders in the worldcommunity. They must have theability to comprehend many fieldsof knowledge.” This is where theCollege, and ite new' Dean, are im¬portant. EDITORIALBooth the ideal choiceWe wrote in this column in early October that we“anxiously await the appointment of the new Dean of theCollege, and hope that, whatever specific aducational philos-opb^he expounds, he will realize both that the curriculumis pre7trnYiin>mtfqr thp betterment of the students andthat the best students will continue to be attracted to lIfby a progressive, realistic curriculum which is congrueniwith tJie skills and background the student will need in later41fe//Now, with the appointment of Wayne Booth as thene^TJean, the time is ripe for a re-evaluation of this state¬ment in view of Booth as a man and Booth as a Dean.Booth as a man, both academically and personally, seemsideally suited to the task. His academic work and viewpointare refreshingly candid, and he is clearly dedicated to rootingout all forms of intellectual pomp and unproductive or mis¬leading academic effort. Booth the man is also attractivein that he shares many of the components of the Kennedysyndrome: he is young, energetic, serious, concerned, and ofproven ability. It is hard to imagine stodginess and stagna¬tion under Booth, and, since he is young enough to rememberhaving been a student himself not too long ago, it is safe toexpect that he will not slight the students in favor of thecollege faculty, or, indeed, vice versa.Beside his previous academic experience and his vigor.Booth brings to the office of Dean his past experienceat the University of Chicago. All told, he has been herefor a total of seven years as a student and as a memberof the faculty, and the knowledge of UC’s ways that hemust have collected will help him toward providing a collegewhich will both help future citizens and be an appropriateand constructive part of the entire university community.If they had wanted to, Provost and Acting Dean Edward 11.Levi and his Dean-choosing committee of five could have“gone outside.” The fact that they didn’t indicates not onlytheir respect for Booth but aiso their desire to keep thecollege in the hands of someone who has a firsthand impres¬sion of what UC has stood for in the past and of what, asa natural consequence, it should probably stand for in thefuture.Booth as Dean, therefore, is close to an ideal choice.His job will be not only to spout educational philosophy butalso to put it into actual practice. His job will lie not onlyto straighten out the current curriculum so as to achievestability but also to push ahead from there. Finally, hisjob will be not only to coordinate the energies of the students and faculty but also to lead them in a particular andhopefully well-defined direction. Booth, as a widely respectedand brilliant teacher, seems more than capable. We wishhim the best of luck.UC students viewnew dean of collegeBooth: appeal of deanship strongOn becoming Dean of the College. Wayne Boothmade the following statement;“I would have said, a month ago. thai no collegeadministrative post could tempt me. No -me wholoves leaching and writing lakes on administrativeduties lightly. But I discovered, when the invita¬tion to become Dean of this College came, that theappeal was far stronger than anything I had knownbefore. My past experience here, beginning twenty-two years ago, has taught me a deep respect forthe College as it is. To have some voice m deter¬mining what such a college will become is an honorthat I simply cannot resist,“I HAVE NO blueprint for a new college. But I dohave some idea of the kinds of problems we simplycannot avoid. Many colleges are now plagued, forexample, by a phony war between “generalists”and “specialists,” and it is clear that we cannotavoirl here the genuine issues that lie back of thewar. But as it is usually fought, the war is phony,because the two opposing camps are so badly sim¬plified that they bear little relation to true educa¬tional values. Anyone who surveys the innovationsthat are produced by the combatants will find thattoo many of them are simply devices for accelera¬tion, devices that in effect curtail die time when thestudent is able to learn for the sake of learning.“M;my students in America now find themselvesunder intense pre-professional pressure even beforethey enter college, and it is often pressure of thekind that the best professionals would Hke to resist.The steps up the educational ladder are too often taken dully, dutifully, with no sense of tlx sheerexhilaration that comes from the free pursuit ofideas.“AT CHICAGO we have a tradition of hard thought.tboot the difference between good and b;vd kinds ofgeneral education’ jind the equally important dif¬ference between liberal and illiberal kinds of spe¬cialization. I am hoping that by re-examining arxjextending this tradition, under the proposed reor¬ganization into five collegiate divisions, we can dis¬cover a variety of ways to combat those deadeningtrends that have led some men to pronounce theliberal arts college moribund.“If a college is viewed as a glorified preparatoryschool, to be judged only as if ‘finishes’ studentsfor this or that sector of the university or society,then it may as well turn over ite functions to thehigh schools and graduate schools. But a collegeshould be a place where adolescents become adults,where .young men and women discover not merelytaken dully, dutifully, with no sense of thehow to get ahead but what men can do to makelife worth living. Such a college will become in-crefx>ingly relevant as the problems of the “lesiuresociety” becomes more complex.“We inherit a splendid college, but it is a collegewhich, because of ite vitality, is peculiarly chal¬lenged by intellectual changes in every field. If weare as energetic, daring, and responsible as ourpredecessors have been, we should be able to builda college so good that thirty years from now ouralumni will be flooded with nostalgia for the gloriesof a past which is our immediate future.” (Editor** not*: Th* following e»oys or*ytriMal view* o« Hi* d*oo *s oteacher by two Colleae students wbo hav*him. Itoken tMrm trowiiWiiiMtHiii",p;."iiiiiiiii'iiiiiiii'wiiMiiiiiiiimiiHiwiiiiiiiiiHiinii'iiiiiiinHiiriiimiiiii.'iiiiiiiiii'iniiiimii'tiiiiii' ,r ■ When T heard that Mr.Booth had lieen selected asthe new Dean of the College,1 was surprised and delighted,because I was sure that he wouldbe an administrator concerned withand responsive to the problems oftoe undergraduates. My delight,Ixiwever, was temjiered a bit by thetlwught that his duties as an ad¬ministrator would certainly limit histeaching activities — that the Col¬lege would be losing a line and sensi¬tive teacher.He did not like to give lectures,but when tlx? weight of the coursematerial necessitated them, hewould apologetically give talks. Hisled writes were generally on a theo¬retical level, as I recall, explicatingnot a work of art, but a method ofapproach to such works. He neverspoke for more than half the period,as he wished to leave ample timefor questions, in older to make surethat everyone had understood andcould use tlie material presented.HIS LECTURES were tight, con¬cise, and well-organized, but his trueforte was in leading discussion. Forhim, the purpose of the discussionwas discovery, discovery by the stu¬dents of ideas which were before in¬expressible to them, discovery of thesimilarities of disparate tli inkers,discovery of critical methods of at¬tack to literature which were previ¬ously foreign to their way of think¬ing. His hand was neither so heavythat the discussion became an “in¬verted lecture,” nor was it so lightthat it became a mere “bull ses¬sion.” We students knew that wewere in the process of seriouslyworking with ideas. The process wasexciting, txid there was a great dealof serious, active^ class participa¬tion.He was at liis best, and his stu¬dents were at their best, in smallgroups. I remember well a seminargiven at his home — tlx* topic wac one winch at first seemed Irojiossi-ble to the students: 1he jjppUvalinnof Aristotle’s Poetics trfthe -eom-ingly formloow--novel 'fixtalk began aimlessly, because nou<of us had strong ideas on the sub¬ject, but s»wn Mr. Booth began tothrust in a question here and theninviting us to elaborate on someobservation we had made, asking toa generalization, criticizing, givingcounter-examples to our generaliza¬tions, until (lie talk began to tak<shape. The seminar went on for overthree hours, and for myself, 1 hawnever had a more exciting intellec¬tual experience ol the sort.He was at liis best in small groupsbecause his method was truly S>cratie. He never would make astrong statement if lie felt ho ooukielicit tlie same response by uskin.uquestions. He tmight the* course ma¬terial, but above all he taught hi*students to organize their ownthouftots,. to read with sensitivit.vand comprehension, and to thinkcritically for themselves."Hell of a nice guy"WAYNE B<X>TH, as chairman oEnglish composition course lastyear, was remarkable for severalreasons. For one, he was the onlyteacher who served cider, crackers,a»xt cheese at his own expensewhile holding meetings with his stu¬dents ait his home. For another, heefxxturaged individual expressionand interest in the topic duringclasses, while being liberal aboutturning papers in on time.His classes were furthertiogiiished by a refreshing lack oflectures, free discussion, and an »Pparent love for reading papers aloucin cfrcs. He made English comp ■>different kind of course (better!).There oan be only one conclusionabout Booth: he is a hell r»f a nireguy.2 • CHICAGO MAROON • Dec. 0, 1964The history of the College at UC updated(Editor’s note: The forthcoming reorganisation of the Collegeunder the "Levi planand the appointment of a new Dean to effect thechange, mark a new period for a College which has seen a great manyexperiments and precedent-setting efforts in the past. A look at this pastis useful at this point. The MAROON therefore presents a short historyof the College, adapted and updated from an article by Laura R. Godof-sky, then MAROON editor-in-chief, which appeared in a special CollegeCurriculum, Supplement on December f, 1962.)THE C0LU5GE watt founded as but one part of the University ofChicago. Unlike many other universities, UC was born "full grown,”— notjust as an tuidergraduate college with which graduate and professionalschools later became affiliated, butgraduate education.In UC's early days, undergradu¬ates attended two Colleges: first, ai.fliior college and then a senior col¬lege. The junior college was re¬garded by UC's first president, Wi¬liam Rainey Harper, as merely anex legion of secondary school. Underthe somewhat fixed junior collegerrioulum, all students studiedlanguages, science, and mathe¬matics; most were required to studyI 'nglish and history.HARPER INTRODUCED the in¬novation of four graduation cere¬monies each year because he felllie student should "receive hislipioma not beeaTtfce a certain num->er of years ht* passed and a ter-:ain day in June has arrived, hitcause his work is finished.”Senior college forspecializationAs administrators and faculty were■ath to allow junior college studentsmo senior college courses, the jun-or college gradually became re¬garded merely as a span belweeniigh school and the senior college,a here the student could seriouslyspecialize. Harper felt a .studenthould know what he wanted tostudy when he came to the Univer¬sity.The first Dean id the College,Tarry Pratt Judson, suev'ceded Hiir-►cr ;« President of the University.Judson envisioned a one-year gen-■ral education college followed by ahree year senvr college for speializatton. His plan, however, wasvcver enacted.Judson placed more emphasis on. ocatipnal training than hud Har->er. Agreeing with Harper that thereoust be “no inflexible bar againstKlvancement,” Judson thoigbt itquite possible to obtain a general•ulture in a College course and yet. . plan a good part of the woj-k sohat it w'ill lead directly toward aMofession already chosen.”DURING HIS ADMINISTRATION,here was almost no faculty concern<*r the College. Attendance at Col-<gc faculty meetings in the twocar period following World War Inernged less than ten. The lack ofin autonomous College hurl teachinglandartls. Judson, like Harper, con¬sidered research of prime import-mce. and so graduate studentsaught undergradviate courses, andhe annual turnover was high.Doldrums during 20's as a center of graduate ami under-part of the University.Ernest Hatch Wilkins, dean of theCollege under Burton, introducedUC's first survey course, "The Na¬ture of the World and of Man,” atwo- quarter course featuring lec¬hes by leading UC scientists. Itssuccess prompted other departmentsto design similar courses.Reorganization proposedIn 1928, a faculty committeechaired by Chauncey Boucher wasappointed to study a reorganizationof the undergraduate curriculum.The committee’s report would haveabolished the credit system, underwhich students graduated after com¬pleting a certain number of coursehours.It would have substituted require¬ments that the student pass com¬prehensive examinations. To gradu¬ate from the junior college, examsin English, a foreign language, na¬tural science and math, social sci-eficc. and an elective comprehensivewhich might include preliminaryspecialized work, would have beenrequired. A bachelor’s degree fromthe senior college would face an examwi his major field and another inhis minor.THE DAY BEFORE the facultywas to discuss the committee’s re¬port, however, President Mason re¬signed. Three years laiter, underChancellor Robert Maynard Hutch¬ins, a "New Plan,” somewhat simi¬lar to the Boucher committee re¬port, was adopted for the College.The Hutchins college startsTV plan was preceded by an ad¬ministrative reorganization of theUniversity, which created five divi¬sions: the CoHege, and the graduatedivision of biological sciences, phy¬sical sciences, humanities, and socialsciences."The College” was given controlonly over the first two years ofwork, formerly the period of the"junior college.” The graduateschools took over from the old "sen-nior college,” and the third- andfourth-year programs were moreclosely linked to graduate programs.A COULEGE FACULTY, largelyautonomous and divorced from thedivisions, came into being. A staffcame into existence for each collegecourse and planned it. Syllabi wereintroduced to encourage independentTn the 1920’s a number of depart-nental courses offered in the firstwo years were taken in many com-•inations, and produced ‘no com-non foundation of basic general edu-ation.”"Generally students didn’t discussiiteJlectuai matters because theylidn’t have anything in common toalk about,” said Aaron Brumbaugh,» former dejin of the College.IT WAS SUGGESTED that the.'ollege be dropped altogether.'hauncey S. Boucher, dean of theollege in the late 1920’s, explainedvhy the College continued: it pro-ided the departments with an op-urtunity to select promising re-oarch students; it brought in reve¬nue which lielped pay for research«d graduate instruction; and it at-racted contributions from its alumni,vho were wealthier than graduatechooi alumni.Judson’s successor, Ernest DeVitt Burton, wanted to move the .'ollege south of the Midway with ^- Class attendance was madeown faculty, budget , det«, build- ^ hint ary.»gs, and equipment, and accept stu- The curriculum applied Hutchins’spnte after their sophomore year of theory of a universal scheme ofigh school. His plan was stale- education: "Education implies teach-nated in debate and it was not until ing. Teaching implies knowledge,lax Mason took over the presidency Knowledge is truth. Truth is every-f the University that it was agreed where the same. Hence educationhat the College would remain x should everywhere he the same.”Emery Filbey, who helpedKimpton design the Post*Hutchins College. William Rainey Harper,first president of the Uni¬versity, did not want tofound a College whichwould grow into a univer¬sity with time. He wantedto start with a full-fledgeduniversity. He wanted schol¬ars from all over the worldto come to Chicago, wherehe would found a precedent-breaking U niversity in acity that cared little forprecedent. A college wouldbe part of the university—but not the most importantpari. And, with brilliant skillat getting what he wantedfront everybody he met, in¬cluding John D. Rockefel¬ler, that's what he got.*t; •||i!(iil!lllt!iH'|iH|ifH|!|ill!jftylj4!i.ij>' •• . = .. ... ..,rWhat everyone should knowThe course of study in the Collegeconsisted of "the greatest books ofthe Western world, and the arts ofreading, thinking, and speaking, to¬gether with mathematics, the bestexplainer of human reason,” saidHiAchms. Such a curriculum would"endue the elements of our coni ironhuman nature. " This course of studycould help "prepare the young formtedligenr action. . . They will havelearned what ha*, been done in ihepast and what the greatest men havethought. They wrH have learned tothink themselves. If we wish to laya bas*s for advanced study, thatbasis is provided.” In addition, theCollege could serve as a terminusfor those students who would endtheir formal education in it.GRADUATION FROM the juntocollege was to be based on ihe com¬pletion of . seven comprehensiveexams: English composition, biology,physical sciences, humanities, socialsciences, and two elective sequenceswhich represented a second hill yearof work in two of the four generalsubject matter areas.Mathematics and a foreign langus^e were also required, but theywere submitted by most students ashaving been completed in highschool. Instruction in mathematicswas not: even offered in the College;students could fulfill the require¬ment; only through the homo studydivision.Comp exoms introducedUnder this new plan, a step whichw;ts to last in some degree rightup to ihe present was introduced:uniform comprehensive exams. Un¬der tiie new system, students couldproceed at their own rate and couldtake an exam whenever they feltready for ». All courses were com¬pulsory except for English Compo¬sition, which could be avoided byplacement.In 1933, jurisdiction over the lasttwo years of the University highschool was transferred to the Col¬lege faculty, but it was not until1937 that the new four year entitywas recognized officially as the "Col¬lege.”THEN IN 1936, prior to this offi¬cial recognition of I lie College, afaculty curriculum review recom¬mended further undergraduatechanges. Fifteen comprehensive swere required for graduation: threein humanities, three in social sci¬ences, three in reading, writing andcriticism, three years of a com¬bination of physical and biologicalsciences, one year of philosophy, andtwo years of electives. In addition,shidents were expected to prove competence in a foreign languageand in mathematics.Then came World War II and agreat decline in enrollment. Facul¬ty members took advantage of tiiepaucity of students, however, toturn once again to the developmentof undergraduate education. The re¬sult was another changed College in1942. The two and four year pro¬grams were combined, and the"Hutchins BA" wavS awarded uponthe completion of the genera) edu¬cation requirement.Several course changes weremade at this time. Mathematics, his¬tory of western civilization and gen¬eral language study courses wereintroduced, and Humanities II1 waschanged so as to accommodate worktn a foreign language.College in big troubleAS A RESULT of this, by 1950the two year BA program found it¬self in trouble. Other colleges, whenconsidering applications for graduateschools, could not look on the twoyear BA as representing more thantwo years work. Thus, students whohad spent three or four years at UCwere not being given credit fortheir extra feme Enrollment droppedas a result.In 1951, arngi dropping enrollmentand a steadily worsening neighbor¬hood situation, Lawrence A. Kimp¬ton was named chancellor. He com¬mented at the time that the prob¬lem with the UC College was thatit was not relating to “the totalAmerican educational process." Fur¬thermore, although he felt that theHutchins BA "was the finest systemof general education devised thatthe US had ever seen,” lie finallydecided continuing to award it.KIMPTON’S DECISION took con¬crete shape in 1954, when the FilbeyReport, composed by then vice-pres¬ident Emery T. Filbey, added oneyear of specialization to the 14-compBA program. The BA, according toFilbey’s report, was to be awardedjointly by the College and the divi¬sions, thus reducing the College’sautonomy, The College immediatelycountered with its still-existing tuto¬rial. studies and professional ojtfionprograms.Tiie Filbey Report met with agreat deal of opposition. Throughout1964, students demonstrated in frontof the administration building, infront of. Kimtpon’s home, and outsideof faculty senate meetings. Neverthe¬less, (he report was enacted, and fouryears later the College was modifiedstill further.The "Hew" new CollegeA committee appointed by Kimp¬ton took over a year (1957-8) tocome up with its recommendation,but the final result has great bearing on the College of today. The com¬mittee's report established the Col¬lege as a complete four year institu¬tion, devoting two years of work togeneral education, one year to spe¬cialization, and one year to "freeand guided electives.” Concentrationrequirements, the report said, couldm no case amount to more than2xk years of work.PERHAPS MORE important, theCollege faculty was re-empoweredto determine the degree require¬ments for its various programs and toactually award the degrees, thus re¬turning the autonomy that it hadlost in 1954.Alan Simpson was ^pointed »»1969 to administer this "New NewCollege” program as Dean of theCoHege. He said at the time that"we have balanced the clainxs of-specialized training against those oigeneral education. We have weighedthe claims of individual choiceagainst an earlier faith in uniformi¬ty. .Simpson cuts compsSimpson's first move wits to reducethe number of comps to ten. Thu-left two .roars for each of humani¬ties and social sciences, one yearfoe each of foreign language, Englishcomposition, mathematics, physicalsciences, biological sciences, and twoquarters of the history of WesternCivilization.Although Simpton expected at theoutset that students would on theaverage place out of five of their29 required quarters, he turned outto be overly optimistic. A new sys¬tem was then instituted, the "mitiga¬tion system,” which allowed advisersto excuse requirements in caseswhere a student had done well btnnot well enough on any given test.IN RECENT YEARS, the comp.system has been dying a gradualdeath. The only holdouts are theWestern civ. sequence (which wasraised to a three quarter require¬ment in 1962), all foreign languages,and iho first year of social sciences.Ajl the other original members ofthe ten comp plan now award gradesevery quarter.The "Levi" CollegeThe next major change in theCollege is the creation of an areacolleges system and a more repre¬sentative faculty College Council, asstipulated in the “Levi Report,” adocument prepared last summer byProvost and then Acting Dean of theCollege Edward H. Levi. New deanWayne Booth has expressed his sup¬port of it, and severs! changes shouldbe forthcoming in the near future. Inthe meantime, the College finds it¬self where it has always found it¬self: in a state of change and up¬heaval, with the final end the pro¬duction in the best passible way ofboth scholars and citizens.Dec. 9, 19*4 • CHICAGO MAROON • 3New dean is distinguished literary criticNew dean of the College,Wayne Booth, won immediatedistinction as a literary criticthroughout the English-speaking world with the publicationof his comprehensive study, TheRhetoric of Fiction, in 1961 by TheUniversity of Chicago Press.The book won Booth the ChristianGauss Award from the Phi BetaKappa Society, and has achievedremariiably uniform acceptance inthe United States and Great Britian.Modern Language Review (Lon¬don, 1962) expressed what comesnear to being a consensus:M. . . this is a major criticalwork which should be requiredreading for everyone concernedin the academic study of prosefiction, and which at the sametime has much to offer to re¬viewers of novels, writers andthe general reader.”The Yale Review said The Rhet¬oric of Fiction “must be ranked as one of the important critical achieve¬ments of our time.”NOVELIST WALLACE Stegner,director of the creative writing cen¬ter at Stanford University, wrote inThe American Scholar that The Rhet¬oric of Fiction “shows signs of re¬placing all the standard discussionsof the art of fiction among thegraduate students of English whowill be professors of English to¬morrow; . . .”Ransom ravesJohn Crowe Ransom, patriarch ofthe “New Criticism” and one ofthe most honored academic mindsin America today, made this evalua¬tion of Booth’s book:I do not imagine that there isanother critic in the field; eventhough there are now manybrilliant critics there, who canhandle the complex of methodsso easily and yet so subtly.The image which I have of thetotal book is of an indispensablehandbook of the art, with refer-History of UC deansWayne Booth’s appoint¬ment to the deanship of theCollege makes him the elev¬enth dean since the Collegewas established as the undergraduatebranch of UC 58 years ago.The previous deans are:Alan Simpson, professor of history,who became dean on May 15, 1959.He resigned effective June 30, 1964,to become President of Vassar Col¬lege.Robert E. Streeter, professor ofEnglish, who served as dean of theCollege from February 1, 1954, toSeptember 30, 1958. He is now deanof the University’s division ofhumanities.F. Champion Ward, professor ofphilosophy and psychology, who wasdean from February 1, 1947, toFebruary 1, 1954. He resigned tobeoome an educational consultant tothe Ford Foundation, and since 1958has been Director of Near East andAfrican programs for the FordFoundation.Clarence Henry Faust, professorof English. Dean, 1942-46. Resignedto become Director of librai i s',Stanford University. Now Vice Presi¬dent, Ford Foundation.Aaron John Brumbaugh, professorof education. Dean, 1936-41. Resignedto become Vice President, American Council on Education. Later servedas President of Shimer College.Now consultant for Research andDirector of the Planning Commissionfor the Board of Control, State ofFlorida.Chauncey S. Boucher, professorof history. Dean, 1926-35. Resignedto become President of West Vir¬ginia University, then President ofthe University of Nebraska. He diedin 1955.Ernest Hatch Wilkins, professor ofromance languages. Dean, 1923-26.Then President of OberLin College.Now retired.David Alan Robertson, associateprofessor of English. Dean, 1920-23.Then Assistant Director, AmericanCouncil on Education, and President,Goucher College. He died in 1961.James Rowland Angel!, professorof psychology. Dean, 1910-19. ThenPresident, Carnegie Corporation, andPresident, Yale University. He diedin 1949.George E. Vincent, professor ofsociology. Dean, 1907-10. Then Presi¬dent of the University of Michigan,and President, Rockefeller Founda¬tion. He died in 1941.Prior to 1907, the undergraduatebranch of UC was divided into sen¬ior and junior Colleges, each with itsown Dean. dices to a hundred or so worksof fiction, and a hundred or socritics who have given their in¬terpretations of method and pro¬cedure. It is like a one-volumeencyclopedia in which any prac¬tising critic will find the sort ofargument which he himself hasbeen using, but adapted to thewhole immense range of effects,many of them quite differentfrom his own. Mr. Booth knowsjoist about 'all the major novelistswho write in English, or who havebeen rendered into English andhave entered into the possessionof English readers; he never dis¬cusses the theoretical procedureswithout reference to their ori¬ginals, the novels themselves.But he knows just about all theimportant critic^ of fiction, too,and is as wide and easy in hiscoverage of them. So his bookshould have a good market; stu¬dents of fiction must have it bythem on the desk. ... It shouldbe supreme for ten or twentyyears, and after that. . . . well,by such time its merits mightbe that of some sort of classic,a beautifully organized discoursein an exceedingly complex fieldthat would always be good toread.”As his first book indicates, Booth is a champion of the virtues ofclear, direct English.Booth is now working on a secondbook about how to write readableEnglish, and also is engaged in along-range study of the “poetics” offiction.Has contributed muchHe has contributed articles, re¬views and stories to many learnedjournals, and writes a regularcolumn in the Carle ton Miscellany inwhich he satirizes the bad writing of“people who should know better.”Much of his academic work hasbeen directed toward ways to im¬prove the teaching of English compo¬sition.IN 1963, HIS discourse, “Boringfrom Within: The Art of the Fresh¬man Essay,” inaugurated a series ofOccasional Essays in the Humanitiespublished at The University of Chi¬cago. In this essay Booth observed:The seventeen-year-old who hasbeen given nothing but common¬places and cliches all his lifeand who finally discovers ateacher with ideas of his ownmay have his life changed, and,. . . when his life is changedhis writing is changed.In a recent address to the CollegeSection of the National Council ofTeachers of English, Booth ques¬tioned the premature vise of criticism in the teaching of literature. Hesaid:We must remember, first, (hehard truth that for every hourthe student spends reading Boothor Hoffman or Fiedler or Craneor Frye he will have one lesshour for Shakespeare, Fielding,or Yeats. We should certainlynever teach any critic, at anylevel, unless we are sure thatevery hour spent on him willgenerate more and better read¬ing of the literature he deals with.Booth edits the “Department ofAmerican” in Carleton Miscellany.In this space, he conducts a constantwar on had English. In the April,1964 issue, Booth mimicked thelanguage employed so often in tech¬nical reports with this lampoon:It is only in recent months . . .that an accurate measure ofmixed metaphorosity has beendeveloped, and an index of cor¬relation ranking worked out toenable the investigator to deter¬mine the precise effect of mixedmetaphors on -the communica¬bility, or information-load, of agiven passage. It has alwaysseemed logical to hypothesize, ofcourse, that a colorfully mixedmetaphor would increase theprojeotable rating.Simpson joins praise for Booth,reminisces over own reignFormer Dean of the Col¬lege Alan Simpson joined inthe congratulations for hissuccessor, speaking of his“warmest admiration for Mr. Boothas a scholar, an educator, and ahuman being" in a Maroon telephoneinterview from his new home inPouf^ikeepsie, New York, the siteof Vassar College cf which Simpsonis President.Simpson cited Booth’s “combina¬tion of scholarship of real distinctionwith a very keen sense of responsi¬bility for the welfare of the under¬graduate and concern for aneducation wilch is comprehensive.”Faculty pleased with BootfiTHE COLLEGE FACULTY wasvery pleased with the way Boothperformed after his appointment to(Continued from page one) thought of negatively as a way of the George M. Pullman chair of, . coddling students, but affirmatively English, Simpson said. This pro-we shooldn t think o. ourselves ^ a as a way 0f stimulating communal fessorship was created for a manglorified prep school, we do have a intellectual life. who was a “first class scholar” andSS b^a^Pof^ “ANOTHER VERY important *ho “would interest himself inor bad—of the students we ti^TLt. ^easure » 1 intf^ted’ dards ° vrilmg~“IT’S GOOD TO have so many who however, is alleviate the shortage ihe chair was established ingo into graduate work, but we should 2j[ soc*a^ centers around campus. ^ honor of Harriet Pullman Seher-also watch that liberal education ^“ere are n°f enough paces where merhorn, daughter of George M.doesn't get swallowed by the bad conversations can take place. ... I Pullman, inventor of the Pullmankind of professional education. If, have in mind some sort of Ciass- raiiroad car and founder of foe^through general education, we can seminar oenters with kitchens, so Pullman company,get students to think for themselves, students in each of the fivethey wiU be, in the long run, best d^ions will have realty comfortableprepared for their professions. Place* to meet and talk. They would neoted coUege much experience that“The humanities departments may ** in easily available spots on cam- he has gained in liberal arts col-need strengthening, but the science Pus. *n<J there should be lots of foges. Simpson pointed out, givingdepartments, as g»craj education tack and firth wtlh people hun__a a^t ol ^le^expenence^components, may need strengthen- 111 U10iing too. A student who doesn’t learn Build new centers forintellectual conversationBig first effort: find talentFormer Dean Alan SimpsonBooth brings to a Universitscientific methods oan’t be called aliberally educated person. The prob¬lem in some other places is that As a human being, Simpson con¬tinued, Booth demonstrates “integ¬rity, a sense of responsibility, andconcern for human problems.“When I came here at first, itmoney is spent more for technicians, was a great revelation to find Ipeople who do what others tell them, wasn’t the only one who liked intel-rvot people who can thnk.Search for best talent SIMPSON POINTED OUT thatBooth was one of the faculty mem¬bers who took the lead last yearlectual conversation. ... But some ^effecting'the merger of foe Col-of the best places far social meeting jCge English staff with foe graduatehave been closed. I will try to see department of English. This move‘My first big effort will be to that new centers are available. ’ WM mac^ as nart of Simnson’sfind foe very best people in the ArW^ nhmit -THUT "'61 JUntail* 0ver-all goal of bringing foe Collegecountry, on or off campus, for foe w-HlPr A m demerit jhat facuRy into greater contact and co-five ‘associate deans’ who will head “you oan’t^ave a, geeat^vmiyersity operation with foe graduate depart-foe five sections of the new College. ^ meats. Joint appointments haveFinding the best men is im--paused and then said, “Take a di- been made in many other CoUegeportant. . . rect quote: Having come from a areas and the paraUel graduate“The other important immediate puritanical background (I was raised departments,concern is also related to the ar- a Mormon),’ Booth could not allowrangement of five new divisions for himself to be quoted on the subject Gen ed modifiedfoe College. It has been said that of beer; however, he would allow athis may pose a problemmunication among studentsvarious fields, but this problemexists now. One important waycombat this may be with the ar- “Eye known about becoming Dean requirements modified,rangement of whatever new dormi- only aboaCluio- aEiyg, Wri-atready Hi. aWyv: . .aiAtories are built. . . . The dorm sys- I’m ~good at constructing diplomatic ’ " ’tern will expand, but it should not be eufhgnisms.” • “To sustain Chicago’s best tra->aid that ol beer; however, he would allow aof com- quote that read: ‘.you can’t haw a Simpson was appointed Dean ini in the f"™d jTiiVrrritY to '1959, following a period of re-orgaru-' ';m nairZuh refre^mg zation of foe CoUege curriculum,to hP^eragps-1—. “Vmi see,” he added, which saw many of the general edu- ditions in undergraduate education,including the vigorous devotion ofChicago students to foe inteUectuallife; the concern for teaching; andthe cultivation of general education;• To get the divisions and profes¬sional schools to take a more activeinterest in the welfare of under¬graduates;• To improve the standing of(follege teachers by giving themappointments based in the depart¬ments if they desired, and by ‘sub¬stantially improving’ CoUege sal¬aries;• To encourage creative thinking,such as the ‘exploration of the ideaof multiple colleges;'• To improve foe physical homeof the CoUege, by taking over Gates-Blake (formerly a dorm) for fac¬ulty offices, making Cobb HaU into,eventually, a ‘real center for theCoUege,’ and improving residentiallife.”Toured England, RussiaSINCE HE LEFT Chicago, Simp¬son said, he toured Britain, wherehe inspected the new “red brickuniversities” which have been builtsince the war and which are doingexciting new things with the cur¬riculum. Afterwards, he touredRussia for five weeks, inspectingthe status of women. “They still think a room nine meters square isenou^i for a family,” he said, butpointed out that Russian womenhold many more high posts thando Western women.Tlie working status of Russianwomen has two facets, Simpsonnoted. One is that foe economicsystem works to practicaUy forcethe woman in every family to geta job to supplement her husband’sincome. The other side of the coin,however, was shown with somefrank interviews Simpson had withseveral professional women inMoscow.HE SAID, when he asked themwhat they would do if they reaUydidn’t have to work, more thanthree-quarters responded they wouldprobably stay on the job. Workingevidently offers them a release fromfoe pressure of the household, Simp¬son surmised.Now back at Vassar, Simpsonsaid he is enjoying his new position.Vassar has made such new stridesas the acquisition of $25 million innew grants and gifts for expansion.While he finds his new post atV as s a r “tremendously exciting,”Simpson said no one who has spenttime at UC could help but remem¬ber it warmly. “UC is one of thegreat institutions of foe world, andfoe College is one of the brightestjewels in its crown,” he said.4 • CHICAGO MAROON *\ DDec. 8. 1964Extra Sto History afMm Coflep*—poje AtmVol. 70, No. 18 Tlie University of Chicago Tuesday, December 8, 1964 <^^ko>31Booth named Dean of Collegeby Bob LeveyWayne C. Booth, Pullman professor of English and a man committed to the properusage of the English language, was appointed dean of UC’s College last week.Booth’s appointment, madepublic today, was recommend¬ed to UC President GeorgeW. Beadle by Provost andActing Dean of the College EdwardH. Levi. The appointment was ap¬proved by the board of trusteesMonday.THE NEW BEAN, W AYNE BOOTH THE NAMING OF Booth, whoseappointment is effective immediate¬ly, fills a void that has existed sincethe end of last winter quarter whenBooth’s predecessor Alan Simpsonleft. Chicago for a world tour beforeassuming the Presidency of VassarCollege in Poughkeepsie, New York.Simpson had announced his resig¬nation in June of 1963.Eleventh DeanBooth is the college’s eleventhDean since the college was createdas the unified undergraduate branchof the university in 1907. The others,in reverse order, were Simpson(1959-64), Robert E. Streeter (1954-58), F. Champion Ward 1947-54),Clarence Henry Faust (1942-46),Aaron John Brumbaugh (1936-41),Chauncey S. Boucher (1926-35), Er¬nest Hatch Wilkins (1923-26), DavidAlan Robertson (1920-23), JamesRowland Angell (1910-19), andGeorge E. Vincent (1907-10).In recommending Booth for thedeanship, Beadle said the following:“Through the years, the Collegeof the University of Chicago hasoffered a variety of exciting and in¬spiring educational experiences forBooth: a man to accept challengesby David L. AikenWayne C. Booth didn’t really want to take on the extra burden of being Dean of theCollege. (“I thought I had ruled myself out of the running last year.”)But heading the College under the proposed reorganization will be a challenge to do newtilings. And Booth is a man to acceptchallenges. (“I left Haverford for Novel). I’ll do some undergraduate go about the task? These commentsEarlham beoause Earlham was aplace which had a lot of things leftto be dooe. It was clearly a stepdown in everybody’s eyes exoe-pt*' mine.”) teaching each year. If I thought I from the interview should speak forwouldn’t be able to teach, I wouldn’t themselves.have agreed to take the job.’’His new book will, he says, be a“how-to-do-it” book on “The Pleas¬ures and Pitfalls of Irony,THOUGH HE HAS made a name ^ similar to the books used infor himself as a literal critic. Booth Humanities I (Learning to Ixxh,demonstrates a wide range of inter- ?je^rmng to . Le^mTngn ests. “Please point out in your Lltter- ^ now- Lear** to Iron)-story,” he asked a Maroon inter¬viewer last week, “that I have a lay¬man’s interest in science. I think one . — - .problem of the College is to get office in the Classics building withR. S. Crane, noted leader of the Climate for changes* people to recognize that there are notreally two cultures; there are onlytwo kinds of half-educated people.I started out as a chemistry major(at Brigham Young University), but► then switched to English after twoyears, when I decided to become ateacfier instead of a research chem¬ist. “I HAVE NO specific curriculum“some- to push as an answer to all questions.I am very much impressed by theCollege now; we have an outstandingstudent body, and a fine faculty,though it’s been feeling a bit dis¬organized lately. I hope to produce aclimate where the best ideas aboutBooth presently shares a cramped cumcu^um;. newr an^( °^» 030 ^fiAo -in tb/k naeeioe hnWintf u/itb Pttt llltO 6llC0t. I WOH t DC ckS HltCT"ested in whether the idea was partof the Hutchins College, as inShares cramped office“Chicago school” of literary oriticism, who was Booth’s adviser on whether it is relevant now.PhD thesis in 1949.CRANE STILL remembers Booth’s "Those three years (teaching inthe “Hutchins College,” from 1947thesis, on the devices of narrative 1950) were exciting for me; Iin Tristam Shandy, as probably the *»pe we can capture some of the“germ” of his later book, The same energy and vigor without try-I then thought teaching English Rhetoric of Fiction, though the latter ihg to attack or defend any one ofwould be more interesting than sd- ^ years of• ence. I was probably wrong then-they’re probably equally interesting.’ On Booth’s final oral examination,before almost the entire staff of theEnglish department, Crane remem-Phiiosophy and the cello bers that “Booth got to asking us .»One of his favorite years was questions instead of us asking him the various Hutchins patterns.“The reorganization of the Collegestructure offers a genuine opportunityfor people with ideas to put themspent under a Ford Foundation fel- questions. It was one of the mostlowship, after teaching for two years lively examinations I’ve seen.”at Haverford College. “It was a Booth’s crewcut has turned mostly ^wonderful year. They gave me sup- Srey, but he looked quite youthful & ^^rsity. The College has toimport just to read philosophy. I learned ““J 1“ " 1to play the cello that year, too. . Place in the University‘Most of the major problems con¬fronting us come from our place inand spoke vigorously in unmistake-ably Midwestern tones (which will fight for its life intellectually; and,though same few people in graduateundoubtedly give the Dean’s office at ^ dan>t ^ ^ CoUeg€1is fighting for their lives, too. Youcan’t have a great university with-, „ __ out a great College. A large percent-- cha enge, ^ people in the graduate schoolsmeetings, and so forth, but I plan breadth of interest, depth of scholar- ^ ayme ^ of Ms College. Thoughto teach my scheduled course next ship, and youthful vigor will come inquarter (English 310, Forms of the handy in has new job. How will heHIS FAVORITE TASK, however.is probably teaching. “I’ve been ‘out the polished British diction of his.of residence’ this quarter, working predecessor),on a new book, attending oommittee Readiness to(Continued on page four) thousands of gifted young men andwomen from all over the world. Inthe years immediately before us,the viability of the college will besteadily tested as it is confrontedby the new and increased demandsof an urbanizing society. Confidencein the natural resource that is high¬er education is an old Americanhabit, which now imposes greaterand greater responsibilities on ourcolleges and universities.“WAYNE BOOTH IS an energetic,articulate academician, with a wideinterest in many disciplines rang¬ing from literature to chemistry. Hehas long been known as a greatteacher, devoted to the task oftransmitting truth to those who mustmake it minister to human welfare.He possesses as well the qualitiesof leadership and foresight that ourcollege will require in an era inwhich the academic administratormust successfully meet the challengeof welding the contributions ofteacher and researcher.”Levi was Acting DeanLevi, whose remarks on Booth’sappointment appear elsewhere inthis issue, had been Acting Deansince Simpson’s departure. Sincethen, Levi has busied himself mostlywith two tasks: determining theproblems of the present college inorder to work out a plan for itsfuture and picking a man to imple¬ment this plan.Levi’s plan, the so-called “Levireport,” was issued in late August.It called in part for the creation offive area colleges correspondingroughly to the present Collegesections (including a generalstudies area college), along with thecreation of a College Council, whichLevi thinks will give the faculty asa whole a better and more effec¬tive say in curriculum decisions forthe college.LEVI’S REPORT WAS approvedin principle by the faculty two weeksago.Five aid himAfter the completion of his re¬port, Levi then set about, withthe aid of a five man committee(a chairman and one member fromeach of the college sections), tochoose the new Dean. The commit¬tee chairman was Gilbert F. White,professor of geography and formerPresident of Haverford College. Themembers • of the committee wereLloyd Fallens, professor of anthro¬pology (representing the social sci¬ences), James W. Moulder, pro¬fessor and chairman of the depart¬ment of microbiology (representingthe biological sciences), Norman H.Nachtrieb, professor and chairmanof the department of chemistry (rep¬resenting the physical sciences), andStuart Tave, professor of English(representing the humanities). Aftersix months of deliberation, Boothwas the man they chose.Although he has been on leavefrom his teaching duties duringthe autumn quarter, Booth will nev¬ertheless continue to teach bothgraduate and undergraduate cours¬es in the future, in addition to hisresponsibilities as Dean. Last year,he served as chairman of the Eng¬lish composition staff in the college.AS HIS FIRST announcement,Booth said that Norton Ginsburg,professor of geography, will remainas associate Dean of the college.Beared as a MormonBooth was bom February 22, 1921,in the rural community of Ameri¬can Fork, Utah, near Salt LakeCity. His parents were teachers and he was reared as a Mormon.Booth received his Bachelor ofArts degree from Brigham YoungUniversity at Provo, Utah, in 1944.He earned the Master of Arts de¬gree in 1947 and the PhD in 1950,both from UC.He taught English at HaverfordCollege in Pennsylvania from 1950to 1963, and from 1953-62 was pro¬fessor and chairman of the depart¬ment of English at Earlham Collegein Richmond, Indiana. His appoint¬ment to the Pullman Professorshipat UC followed.Booth’s The Rhetoric of Fictionwas published by the Univerify ofChicago Press in 1961. This bookwon the Christian Gauss Award ofthe Phi Beta Kappa Society for anotable work of scholarship, andwas called by one reviewer “thebest critical work on fiction sinceHenry James.”“THE STUDY OF English liter¬ature and composition is my firstlove,” says Booth, “but I havealways had a strong interest inscience.” This interest was apparentas he signed up as a chemistrymajor during his first year afThis is the last MAROONof the autumn quarter. Pub¬lication will resume on Jan¬uary 5, the first Tuesday ofwinter quarter.Brigham Young. However, heswitched to English at the end ofhis sophomore year. Booth’s inter¬est in science has been reflectedin recent years in his work as aconsultant on style in the develop¬ment of the chemical bond approachto the teaching of chemistry at thehigh school level. This is one ofthe nationally recognized methodsfor teaching chemistry at the sec¬ondary school level.Served during World War IIBooth served in the US Armyfrom 1944 to 46, as an infantrymanand as a teacher.He was a Ford Faculty Fellowin 1952-53, and a Guggenheim Fel¬low in 1956-57. On the Ford fellow¬ship, Booth concentrated on read¬ings in the history of philosojhy.BOOTH ALSO SERVED fourmonths in 1963 as a consultant toseveral African secondary schoolsand universities on the teaching ofEnglish and literature.Booth is a member of the ModernLanguage's Association, the NationalAdvisory Council for the DanforthFoundation Associate program, theNational Council of Teachers, ofEnglish, and a member and formerNational Executive Committee mem¬ber of the College Conference onCommunication.Married to UC'erBooth was married in 1946 to theformer Phyllis Barnes, who wasborn in Salt Lak j City but spenther childhood in Long Beach, Cali¬fornia. She did her undergraduatework at Brigham Young and at UC.Mrs. Booth is now a graduatestudent with the committee on hu¬man development, working towarda PhD in clinical psychology. She iswriting her master’s thesis on “ZuluDreams,” using materials collectedwhen she accompanied Booth onhis African trip in 1963.THE BOOTHS HAVE three chil-dren: Katherine, 15, Richard, 13,and Alison, 10. All are studentsin the UC Lab School.UC provost Levi explainswhy Booth recommendedWayne Booth is a “fortu¬nate choice” for Dean at atime when the College will“take a real, hard look at theproblems it is lacing, according toUC provost, Edward H. Levi whowas Acting Dean for eight monthsand was responsible for the choiceof the new* Dean.Levi recommended Booth to Pres¬ident Beadle after extensive consul¬tation with almost every other Col¬lege faculty member to find the bestreplacement for Alan Simpson, whoannounced his resignation in July1963 to become head of Vassaer Col¬lege. In a Maroon interview lastweek, Levi enthusiastically praisedBooth’s qualification for the job.-BOOTH HAS GREAT concernfor and experience in undergradu¬ate liberal education,” Levi said,lie lias shown “high scholarly stand¬ards and great creative ability, suchas in his book. The Rhetoric of Fic¬tion. This is an extraordinary work,”Levi emphasized.Booth helped form new ways ofteaching English composition whileat Haverford College in Pennsyl-v;inia and Earlham College in In¬diana, before he came to UC. At:Havenrford, for instance, he intro¬duced what he calls a “radical” ex¬periment in the freshman composi¬tion course, slightly resembling Eng¬lish 107-8-18-117-18-19, with whichUC is now experimenting. Thecourse involved tutors for each stu¬dent. providing for “an exciting con¬frontation with ideas,” Booth says.A ‘‘creative scholar"This record shows that Booth is“a really creative scholar himself,in making newr contributions to waysof looking at the humanities,” andin confronting curriculum problems“because of his interest in under¬graduate education,” Levi said.Because Booth taught at UC forthree years before moving to Haver¬ford College in 1950, “he has beenable to see it both as an insiderand as an outsider,” Levi pointedout.BOOTH WILL undoubtedly needall these talents in his ncwr job. forthe new' structure of the Collegeproposed by Levi this summer andajjproved by the College faculty twoweeks ago is a departure fromthe old ways of administering a Col¬lege.The Levi plan would set up five new“divisional colleges” parallel to thepresent four graduate divisions, butalso including a “general college.”Responsibility for planning the cur¬riculum would be transferred fromtl»e faculty as a whole to a newCouncil of forty members.The new' plan, it is hoped, willremove the blocks which now, inLevi's opinion, prevent the Col¬lege from taking advantage of theadvice and assistance of the many faculty members now working most¬ly in the graduate divisions.Heed plan for whole'Hie College under Alan Simpson“progressed greatly,” Levi com¬mented, but Simpson’s efforts toinvolve tlie entirp University fa¬culty in College programs were im¬peded by the old structure. “Whilein form die College was in chargeof the whole four-year program, infact it wras not,” Levi said. Instead,most third- and fourth-year coursesand programs have been to a greatextent planned and taught by fa¬culty members who owe primaryallegiance to the graduate schools.Wliat’s more, Levi said, “nobodywas trying to keep jurisdiction” fortfte College.REFERRING TO die changingst atus of the College during the pastten years, Levi commented that“there probably w7as a time whenthere was a lot of fear — fear thatthe general education courses wouldbe chopped up and made meaning¬less, and that the graduate divi¬sions were either interested only intheir own work, or interested intaking over the College. Inmy discussions as Acting Dean withmany students and practically alltlie College faculty, I didn’t, find anyreason for believing this few waswell based,” Levi said.Need free discussionsTlie problem now is to “open diedoors and windows and have thekind of structure in which tile ques¬tions about the liberal education cur¬riculum are going to be discussed,”Levi commented. “This is now' oneof (lie best colleges in the country;I’m sure it will be the best college.But this means we must have thebest faculty minds discussing itsprograms. You couldn’t do this ina period when tlie College was re¬covering from a scries of changeswhich left its basic philosophy insome doubt.”Colleges in general, Levi agrees,are faced with a challenge created by advances in the material taughtby many high schools, and, at theother end, by increasing desire toattend graduate schools and the con¬sequent pressure to take specializedcourses. According to Levi, the prob¬lem the UC College must deal withis to find ways of “treating newknowledge which has usually beentreated in specialized courses” aspart of the liberal arts curriculum.UC has already made groat con¬tributions to American education,including “making clear that liberaleducation for undergraduates doesnot consist solely of humanities. Tlieunderstanding of the sciences andthe scientific method is an impor¬tant part” of liberal education, Levicommented.Importance of liberaleducation'Die future of liberal education atUC is important both for tlie Uni¬versity as a whole and for the com¬munity served by tlie University,Levi feels.“PART OF the justification for aCollege in a groat university' is theflow of strength that can be gainedfrom tlie talent in tlie graduateschools to the undergraduate pro¬gram. Tne other reason lor theCollege's existence,” Levi said, “isthat it can be a co-ordinating in¬fluence for all the divisions,” whenfaculty members from all areasmust sit down ;ind discuss whereeach man's discipline fits into ageneral education. “This double re¬lationship is terribly important forthe whole university,” Levi em¬phasized.To strengthen the College, Leviwould like to see some particularchanges in the program, besides liisproposed revision of the administra-" tivc structure. “I’m concerned withthe absence of seminars in die thirdand fourth years. No one lias in¬troduced them, because no one wasin charge of looking at all fouryears as a unified arrangement.But it is important for students tobe able to wwk on their own in thetliird :md fourth years. Tlie facultyand students should try to developdiscussions to pull everything to¬gether” in these years, Levi sug¬gested. .THE JOB FOR tlie new Dean (toimprove the College) will have con¬sequences spreading beyond tlieQuadrangles. “Tlie University has aresponsibility to tlie community, andto the community of scholars,” Levicommented, “because, more thanany other institution, we are trainingtlie people who are the future lead¬ers of education, and the people wlioare going to be leaders in the wrorldcommunity. They must have theability to comprehend many fieldsof knowledge.” This is where theCollege, and its new Dean, are im¬portant. EDITORIALBooth the ideal choiceWe wrote in this column in early October that w.“anxiously await the appointment of the new Dean of theCollege, and hope that, whatever specific aducational philos¬ophy he expounds, he will realize Ixith that the curriculumis predominantly for the betterment of the students andthat the best students will continue to be attracted to UCby a progressive, realistic curriculum which is congruemwith the skills and background the student will need in laterlife." Now, with the appointment of Wayne Booth as tlu*new Dean, the time is ripe for a re-evaluation of this state¬ment in view of Booth as a man and Booth as a Dean.Booth as a man, lx>th academically and personally, seemsideally suited to the task. His academic work and viewpointare refreshingly candid, and he is clearly dedicated to rootingout all forms of intellectual pomp and unproductive or mis¬leading academic effort. Booth the man is also attractivein that he shares many of the components of the Kennedysyndrome: he is young, energetic, serious, concerned, and ofproven ability. It is hard to imagine stodgineas and stagna¬tion under Booth, and, since he is young enough to rememberhaving been a student himself not too long ago, it is safe toexpect that he will not slight the students in favor of thecollege faculty, or, indeed, vice versa.Beside his previous academic experience and his vigor.Booth brings to the office of Dean his past experienceat the University of Chicago. All told, he has l>een herefor a total of seven years as a student and as a memberof the faculty, and the knowledge of UC’s ways that hemust have collected will help him toward providing a collegewhich will both help future citizens and be an appropriateand constructive part of the entire university community.If they had wanted to, Provost and Acting Dean Edward H.Levi and his Dean-choosing committee of five could have“gone outside.” The fact that they didn’t indicates not onlytheir respect for Booth but aiso their desire to keep thecollege in the hands of someone who has a firsthand impres¬sion of wdiat UC has stood for in the past and of what, asa natural consequence, it should probably stand for in thefuture.Booth as Dean, therefore, is close to an ideal choice.His job will be not only to spout educational philosophy butalso to put it into actual practice, liis job will be not onlyto straighten out the current curriculum so as to achievestability but also to push ahead from there. Finally, liisjob will be not only to coordinate the energies of the stu¬dents and faculty but also to lead them in a particular andhopefully well-defined direction. Booth, as a widely respectedand brilliant teacher, seems more than capable. We wislihim the best of luck.UC students viewnew dean of collegeBooth: appeal of clcansliip strongOn becoming Dean of the College. Wayne Boolhmade the following statement:“I would have said, a month ago. that no collegeadministrative post could tempt me. No one wholoves teaching rind writing takes on administrativeduties lightly. But 1 discovered, when the invita¬tion to become Dean of this College came, that theappeal was far stronger than anything I had knownbefore. My past experience hero, beginning twenty-two years ago, has taught me a deep respect forthe College as it is. To have some voice in deter¬mining what such a college will become is an honorthat I simply cannot resist.“1 HAVE NO bluejx-int for a new college. But T dohave some idea of the kinds of problems we simplycannot avoid. Many colleges are now plagued, forexample, by a phony war between “generalists”and “specialists,” and it is clear that we cannotavoid here the genuine issues that lie back of thewar. But as it is usually fought, the war is phony,because the two opposing camps are so badly sim¬plified that they bear little relation to true educa¬tional values. Anyone who surveys the innovationsthat; arc produced by the combatants will find thattoo many of them are simply devices for accelera¬tion, devices that in effect curtail the time when thestudent is able to learn for the sake of learning.‘ ‘ Many students in America now find themselves.wider intense pre-professional pressure even beforethey enter college, and it is often pressure of thekind that the best professionals would like to resist.The steps up the educational ladder are too often taken dully, dutifully, with no sense of the sheerexhikration that comes from the free pursuit ofideas.“AT CHICAGO we have a tradition ol hard thoughtabout, the difference between good and bad kinds of■general education’ and the equally important dif¬ference between liberal and illiberal kinds of spe¬cialization. I am hoping that by re-examining andextending this tradition, under the proposed reor¬ganization into five collegiate divisions, we can dis¬cover a variety of ways to combat those deadeningtrends that have led some men to pronounce theliberal arts college moribund.“If a (jollege is viewed as a glorified preparatoryschool, to be judged only as it ‘finishes’ studentsfor tlus or that sector of the university or society,then it may as well turn over its functions to thehigh schools and graduate schools. But a collegeshould be a place where adolescents become adults,where young men and women discover not merelytaken dully, dutifully, with no sense of thehow to get ahead but what men can do to makelife worth living. Such a college will become in¬creasingly relevant as the problems of the “lesiurosociety” becomes more complex.“We inherit a splendid college, but it is a collegewhich, because of its vitality, js peculiarly chal¬lenged by intellectual changes in every field. If weare as energetic, daring, and responsible as ourpredecessors have been, we should be able to builda college so good that thirty years from now ouralumni will be flooded with nostalgia for the gloriesof a past which is our immediate future.”iW’iiiimniHifl'iiiiitiiiiniiii (Editor1* »ot«: The following »«o»s or*por.onol views on Mi* new d*on it oteacher by two Colteoe students wbe bnvetaken courses from him.)When T heard that Mr.Booth had licen selected asthe new Dean of the College,I was surprised and delighted,because I was sure Ihat he wouldbe an administrator concerned withand responsive to the problems ofthe undergraduates. My delight,however, was temjiered a bit by thetliought tliat his duties as an ad¬ministrator would certainly limit histeaching activities — that the Col¬lege would be lasing a fine and sensi¬tive teacher.He did not like to give lectures,but when the weight of the coursematerial necessitated them, liewould apologetically give talks. Hislecturettes were generally on a theo¬retical level, as I recall, explicatingnot a work of art, but a method ofapproach to such works. He neverspoke for more than half tlie period,as he wished to leave ample timefor questions, in order to make surethat everyone had understood andcould use tlie material presented.HIS LECTURES were tight, con¬cise, and well-organized, but his tineforte was in leading discussion. Forhim, the purpose of the discussionwas discovery, discovery by the stu¬dents of ideas wliich were before in¬expressible to them, discovery of thesimilarities of disparate thinkers,discovery of critical methods of at¬tack to literature which were previ¬ously foreign to their way of think¬ing. His hand was neither so lieavytliat the discussion became an “in¬verted lecture,” nor was it so lightthat it became a mere “bull ses¬sion.” We students knew tliat wewere in the process of seriouslyworking with ideas. Tlie process wasexciting, and there was a great dealof serious, actives class participa¬tion.He was at liis best, and his stu¬dents were at their best, in smallgroups. I remember well a seminargiven at his home — the lopic was one which at first seemed impossi¬ble to the students: the applicationof Arislotle’s Poetics to tlie <ce»>-ingiy formless novel Catch-22. Trxtalk began aimlessly, because n<>:i<of us liad strong ideas on the sub¬ject, but soon Mr. Booth began t<thrust in a question here and tin tiinviting us to elaborate on someobservation we had made, asking f«ra generalization, criticizing, ui\ in.counter-examples to our generaliza¬tions, until the talk began to takeshape. T*ue seminar went on for overthree hours, and for myself, 1 hav «never had a more exciting intelleitual experience of the sort.He was at his best in small grouu-because his method- was truly Sn-cratkx He never would make astrong statement if he felt he coul<rlicit tlie same response by adbnrquestions. He taught the course ma¬terial, but above all he taught hi-students to organize ihcir ownthoughts, to read with sensitivityand comprehension, anti to thinkcritically for themselves."Hell of a nice guy"WAYNE BOOTH, as chairman »'English composition Course lastyear, was remarkable for severalreasons. For one, he was the onlyteacher who served cider, crackers,and cheese at his own expensewliile holding meetings with hi.s sindents at his home. For another, h*encouraged individual expressionand interest in the topic duringclasses, while being liberal aboutturning papers in on time.His classes w’ere further dis¬tinguished by a refreshing lack «>lectures, tree discussion, and an ap¬parent love for reading papers aloudin class. He made English comp •*different kind of course (better!).There can be only one conclusionabout Booth: he is a hell of _s furoguy. . • *CHICAGO MAROON Dec. 8, 1964The history of the College at UC updated(Editor's h ole: T hr forthcoming reorganization of the Collegeunder the "Lewi plan,” and the appointment of a new Dean to effect thechange, mark a new period for a College which has seen a great manyexperiments and precedent-setting efforts in the past. A look at this past,, useful at this point. The MAROON therefore presents a short historyof the College, adapted and updated from an article by Laura R. Godof-,hy, then MAROON editor-in-chief, which appeared in a special College( urriculum, Supplement on December 5, 1962.)THE C0L1JSGE was founded as but o*te pail of the University ofChicago. Unlike many other universities, UC was born “full grown.”— notjust as an undergraduate college with which graduate and professionalschools later became affiliated, bin as a center of graduate and under¬graduate education.In UC’s early days, unclergradu„;es amended two Colleges: first, aj.mior college and then a senior col¬lie. The junior college was re¬garded by UC's first president, Wil¬liam Rainey Harper, as merely an, xtercaon of secondary school. Underdie somewhat fixed junior collegecurriculum, all students studiedlanguages, science, and mathe¬matics: most were required to studyKnglish and history.HARPER INTRODUCED the inlocation of tour graduation oere-: nonies each year because he felti lie student should “receive his,:i];!ona not because a certain num-iht of years has passer! and a <‘er-rrin day in June has arrived, biti i-iure his work is finished.”Senior college forspecializationAs ad minis tr a tors, and faculty wireI .nth to allow junior college studentsII o senior college courses, the jun¬ior college gradually became re¬garded merely as a span betweenhigh school and the senior college,where the student could seriouslyspecialize. Harper felt a studentliotdd know what he wanted tostudy when he came to the Univer-■ :'y.'Hie first Dean of the CoHege,Harry Prate Judson, succeeded Har-p.-r ;»s President of the University.•ladson envisioned a one-year gen-i ral education college followed by atitree year senior college for spe¬cialization. His plan, however, wasnever enacted..Tud.son placed more emphasis onvocational training than had Har¬per. Agreeing with Harper that theremust be “no inflexible bar againstadvancement," Judson tiiought k“quite possible to obtain a general. .ilture in a College course and yet. . . plan a good part of the work soihat k will lead directly toward »irofessfon already chosen."DURING II1S ADMINISTRATION.»here w as almost no faculty concernfor tlie College. Attendance at Cd-l«ge faculty meetings in the two\ear periixi following World War Iaveraged lees than fen. Hie lack ofan autonomous College hurt leaching.standards. Judson, like Harper, con-sidered research of prime import¬ance, and so graduate studentstaught undergraduate courses, ^mdthe annual turnover was high.Doldrums during 20’sTn the 1920's a number of depart¬mental courses offered in the firsttwo years were taken in many com¬binations. and produced ‘no com¬mon foundation of basic general edu¬cation.”“Generally students didn't discussintellectual matters because theydidn’t have anything in common totalk about,” said Aaron Brumbaugh,a former dean of the College.FI WAS SUGGESTED that theCollege be dropped altogether.Chacnoey S. Boucher, dean of theCollege in the late 1920 s, explainedwhy the College continued: it pro¬vided the departments with an op¬portunity to select promising re¬search students; it brought in reve¬nue which helped pay for researchand graduate instruction; and it at¬tracted contributions from its ak«nni,who were wealthier than graduateschool alumni.Judson’s successor, Ernest De-Witt Burton, wanted to move theCollege south of the Midway withits own faculty, budget:, dean, budd¬ings, and equipment, and accept stu¬dents after their soplKxmoce year o£high school. His plan was stale¬mated in debate and it was not untilMax Mason took over the presidencyof the University that it was agreedthat the College would remain a 'part of the University.Ernest Hatch Wilkins, dean of theCollege under Burton, introducedUC’s first survey course, “The Na¬ture of the World and of Man." atwo- quarter course featuring lec¬tures by leading UC scientists. Itssuccess prompted oiher departmentsto design similar courses.Reorganization proposedIn 1928, a faculty committeechaired by Chauncey Boucher wasappointed to study a reorganizationof the undergraituale curriculum.The committee's report would haveabolished the credit system, underwhich students graduated after com¬pleting a certain number of coursehours.It would have substituted require¬ments that the student pass com¬prehensive examinations. To gradu¬ate from the junior college, examsin English, a foreign language, na¬tural science and math, social sci¬ence, and an elective comprehensivewhich might include preliminaryspecialized work, would have beenrequired. A bachelor’s degree fromtlie senior college would face an examin his major field and another inhis minor.THE DAY BEFORE the facultywas to discuss the committee's re¬port, however. President Muson re¬signed. Three years later, underChancellor Robert Maynard Hutch¬ins, a “New Plan," somewhat simi¬lar to the Boucher committee re¬port, was adopted for the College.The Hutchins college startsTie plan was preceded by an ad-miuistrative reorganization of theUniversity, which created five divi¬sions: the College, and the graduatedivision of biological sciences, phy¬sical sciences, humanities, and socialsciences.“The College” was given controlonly over the first two years ofwork, loimerly the period of the“junior college.” The graduateschools took over from the old “sen-nior college,” and the third- andfourth-year programs were moreclosely linked to graduate programs.A COLLEGE FACULTY, largelyautonomous and divorced from thedivisions, came into being. A staffcame into existence for each collegerixir.se and planned it. Syllabi w’ereintroduced to encourage independent 'IlilllMlIVllMt i'H'llHli ■!,„William Rainey Harper,first president of the Uni¬versity, did not want tofound, a College whichwotdd grow into a univer¬sity with time. He wantedto start with a full-fledgeduniversity. He wanted schol¬ars from all over the worldto come to Chicago, wherehe would found a precedout¬breaking University in acity that cared little forprecedent. A college wouldbe part of the university—hut not the most importantpart. And, with brilliant skillat getting what he wantedfrom everybody he met, in¬cluding John D. Rockefel¬ler, that's what he got.Emery Filbey, who helpedKimpton design the Post-Hutchins College.study. Ck*S6 attendance was madevokmtary.The curriculum jippiied Hutchins'stheory of a universal scheme ofeducation: “Education implies teach¬ing. Teaching implies knowledge.Knowledge is truth. Truth fs every¬where the same. Hence educationshould everywhere be ■‘he same.” What everyone should knowTlie course of study in the Collegeconsisted of “the greatest books ofthe Western world, and the arts ofreading, thinking, and speaking, to¬gether with mathematics, the bestexplainer of h.anan reason,” saidHutchins. Such u curriculum would“endue the elements of our commonhuman nature." This course of studycould help T»-epore the vexing forintelligent action. . . They will havelearned what has been done in thepast and what the greatest men haveiliought. Huey win have learned tothink themselves. If we wish to laya bfteis for advanced study, thatbasis is provided.” In addition, I heCollege could serve as a terminusfor those students who would endtheir forma! education in H.GRADUATION FROM the juniorcollege was to be based on the com¬pletion of seven comprehensiveexams: English composition, biology,physical sciences, humanities, socialsciences, and two elective sequenceswhich represented a second full yearof work in two of the four general.subject matter areas.Mathematics and a foreign language were also required, but theywere submitted by most students ashaving been completed in highschool. Instruction in mathematicswas not even offered in the College;students could fulfill the require¬ment only through the homo study-division.Comp exams introducedUnder this new plan, a step whichwas to last in some degree rightup to the present was introduced:uniform comprehensive exams. Un¬der the new system, students couldproceed at their own rate and couldtake an exam whenever they feltready for k. All courses were com¬pulsory except for English Compo¬sition, which could be avoided byplacement.In 1933, jurisdiction over the lasttwo years of the University highschool was transferred to the Col¬lege faculty, but it was not until1937 that the new four year entitywas recognized officially as the “Col¬lege.”THEN IN 1936. prior to this offi¬cial recognition of the College, afaculty curriculum review recom-ntended further undergraduatechanges. Fifteen comprehentriveswere required for graduation: threein humanities, three in social sci¬ences, three in reading, writing andcriticism, three years of a com¬bination of physical and biologicalsciences, one year of philosophy, andtwo years of electives. In addition,students were expected to prove competence in a foreign languageand in mathematics.Then came World War TI and agreat decline in enrollment. Facul¬ty members took advantage of thepaucity of students, however, toturn once again to the developmentof undergraduate education. The re¬sult was another changed College in1942. The two and four year pro¬grams were combined, and the“Hutchins BA” was awarded uponthe completion of the general edu¬cation requirement.Several course changes weremade at this time. Mathematics, his¬tory of western civilization and gen¬eral language study courses wereintroduced, and Humanities III waschanged so as to accommodate workin a foreign language.College in big troubleAS A RESULT of this, by 1950the two year BA program found it¬self in trouble. Other colleges, whenconsidering applicat ions for graduateschools, could not look on the twoyear BA as representing more thantwo years work. Hius, students whohad spent three or four years at UCwere not being' given credit fortheir extra time. Enrollment droppedas a result.In 1951, amid dropping enrollmentand a steadily worsening neighbor¬hood situation, Lawrence A. Kimp¬ton was named chancellor. He com¬mented at the time that the prob¬lem with the UC College was thatit was not. relating to “the totalAmerican educational process.” Fur¬thermore, although he felt that theHutchins BA “was the finest systemof general education devised thatthe US had ever seen,” he finallydecided continuing- to award it.KLMPTON’S DECISION took con¬crete shape in 1954, when the FilbeyReport:, composed by then vice-pres¬ident Emery T. Filbey, added oneyear of specialization to the 14-compBA program. The BA, according toFilbey’s report., was to be awardedjointly by the College and the divi¬sions, thus reducing the College’sautonomy. The College immediatelycountered with ite still-existing tuto¬rial studies and professional or/tionprograms.Hie Filbey Report met with agreat deal of opposition. Throughout1954, students demonstrated in frontof the administration building, infront of Kimtpon’s home, and outsideof faculty senate meetings. Neverthe¬less, the report was enacted, and fouryears later the College was modifiedstill further.The "New” new CollegeA committee appointed by Kimp¬ton took over a year (1957-8) tocome up with its recommendation,but the final result has great bearing on the College of today. Hie com¬mittee \s report established the Col¬lege as a complete four year institu¬tion, devoting two years of work togeneral education, one year to spe¬cialization, and one year to “freeand guided electives.” Concentrationrequirements, the report said, couldin no case amount to more than2yk years of work.PERHAPS MORE impudani, theCollege faculty was re-empoweredto determine the degree require¬ments for its various programs and toactually award the degrees, thus re¬turning the autonomy that it haulost in 1954.Akin Simpson was appointed in1959 to administer this “New' NewCollege'’ program as Dean of theCollege. He said at the time that“we have balanced the claims 06specialized training against those oigeneral etktcaition. We have weighedthe claims of individual choiceagainst an earlier faith in uniform i-ty. . ”Simpson cuts compsSampson's first move was to reducethe number of comps to ten. IhfoLeft two years for each of humani¬ties and social sciences, one yearfor each of foreign language, Englishcomposition, mathematics, physicalsciences, biological sciences, ^id twoquarters of the history of WesternCivilization.Although Simpson expected at theoutset that students would on theaverage place out of five of their29 required quarters, he turned outto be overly optimistic. A new sys¬tem was then instituted, the “mitiga¬tion system,” which allowed advisersto excuse requirements in caseswhere a student had done well butnot well enough on any given test.IN RECENT YEARS, tlx- compsystem has been dying a gradualdeath. The only holdouts are theWestern civ. sequence (which wasraised to a three quarter require¬ment in 1962), all foreign languages,and the first year of social sciences.All the other original members ofthe ten comp plan now award gradesevery quarter. . |.mThe "Levi" CollegeHte next major change in theCollege Is the creation of an areacolleges system and a more repre¬sentative faculty College Council, asstipulated in the “Levi Report,” adocument prepared last summer byProvost and then Acting Dean of theCollege Edward H. Levi. New deanWayne Booth has expressed his sup¬port of it, and several changes shouldbe forthcoming in the near future. Inthe meantime, the College finds it¬self where it lias always found it¬self: in a state of change and up¬heaval, with the final end the pro¬duction in the best passible way ofboth scholars and citizens.Dec. 8. 1964 CHICAGO MAROON • 3New dean is distinguished literary criticNew dean of the College,Wayne Booth, won immediatedistinction as a literary criticthroughout the English-speaklng world with the publicationof his comprehensive study. TheRhetoric of Fiction, in 1961 by TheUniversity of Chicago Press.The book won Booth the ChristianGauss Award from the Phi BetaKappa Society, and has achievedremarkably uniform acceptance inthe United States and Great Britian.Modern Language Review (Lon¬don, 1962) expressed what comesnear to being a consensus:. . this is a major criticalwork which should be requiredreading for everyone concernedin the academic study of prosefiction, and which at the sametime has much to offer to re¬viewers of novels, writers andthe general reader.’'The Yale Review said The Rhet¬oric of Fiction “must be ranked asHistory ofWayne Booth’s appoint¬ment to the deanship of theCollege makes him the elev¬enth dean since the Collegewas established as the undergraduatebranch of UC 58 years ago.The previous deans are:Alan Simpson, professor of history,who became dean on May 15, 1959.He resigned effective June 30, 1964,to become President of Vassar Col¬lege.Robert E. Streeter, professor ofEnglish, who served as dean of theCollege from February 1, 1954, toSeptember 30, 1958. He is now deanof the University’s division ofhumanities. 'F. Champion Ward, professor ofphilosophy and psychology, who wasdean from February 1, 1947, toFebruary 1, 1954. He resigned tobecome an educational consultant tothe Ford Foundation, and since 1958has been Director of Near East andAfrican programs for the FordFoundation.Clarence Henry Faust, professorof English. Dean, 1942-46. Resignedto become Director of Librai s,Stanford University. Now Vice Presi¬dent, Ford Foundation.Aaron John Brumbaugh, professorof education. Dean, 19C6-41. Resignedto become Vice President, American one of the important critical achieve¬ments of our time.”NOVELIST WALLACE Stegner,director of the creative writing cen¬ter at Stanford University, wrote inThe American Scholar that The Rhet¬oric of Fiction “shows signs of re¬placing all the standard discussionsof the art of fiction among thegraduate students of English whowill be professors of English to¬morrow; . .Ransom ravesJohn Crowe Ransom, patriarch ofthe “New Criticism” and one ofthe most honored academic mindsin America today, made this evalua¬tion of Booth’s book:I do not imagine that there isanother critic in the field; eventhough there are now manybrilliant critics there, who canhandle the complex of methodsso easily and yet so subtly.The image which I have of thetotal book is of an indispensablehandbook of the art, with refer-UC deansCouncil on Education. Later servedas President of Shimer College.Now consultant for Research andDirector of the Planning Commissionfor the Board of Control, State ofFlorida.Chauncey S. Boucher, professorof history. Dean, 1926-35. Resignedto become President of West Vir¬ginia University, then President ofthe University of Nebraska. He diedin 1955.Ernest Hatch Wilkins, professor ofromance languages. Dean, 1923-26.Then President of OberlLn College.Now retired.David Alan Robertson, associateprofessor of English. Dean, 1920-23.Then Assistant Director, AmericanCouncil on Education, and President,Goucher College. He died in 1961.James Rowland Angell, professorof psychology. Dean, 1910-19. ThenPresident, Carnegie Corporation, andPresident, Yale University. He diedin 1949.George E. Vincent, professor ofsociology. Dean, 1907-10. Then Presi¬dent of the University of Michigan,and President, Rockefeller Founda¬tion. He died in 1941.Prior to 1907, the undergraduatebranch of UC was divided into sen¬ior and junior Colleges, each with itsown Dean.Big first effort: find talent(Continued from page one)we shouldn’t think of ourselves as aglorified prep school, we do have atremendous impact an the graduateschools because of the quality—goodor bad—of the students we turn out.“IT’S GOOD TO have so many whogo into graduate work, but we shouldalso watch that liberal educationdoesn’t get swallowed by the badkind of professional education. If,through general education, we canget students to think far themselves,they will be, in the long run, bestprepared for their professions.“The humanities departments mayneed strengthening, but the sciencedepartments, as general educationcomponents, may need strengthen¬ing too. A student who doesn’t learnscientific methods can’t be called aliberally educated person. The prob¬lem in some other places is thatmoney is spent more for technicians,people who do what others tell them,not people who can thnk.Search for best talent“My first big effort will be tofind the very best people in thecountry, on or off campus, for thefive ‘associate deans’ who will headthe five sections of the new College.. . . Finding the best men is im¬portant. . .“The other important immediateconcern is also related to the ar¬rangement of five new divisions forthe College. It has been said thatthis may pose a problem of com¬munication among students in thevarious fields, but this problemexists now. One important way tocombat this may be with the ar¬rangement of whatever new dormi¬tories are built. . . . Tlve dorm sys¬tem will expand, but it should not be thought of negatively as a way ofcoddling students, but affirmativelyas a way of stimulating communalintellectual life.“ANOTHER VERY importantmeasure in which I am interested,however, is to alleviate the shortageof social centers around campus.There are not enough places whereconversations can take place. ... Ihave in mind some sort of class-seminar centers with kitchens, sothat students in each of the fivedivisions will have really comfortableplaces to meet and talk. They wouldbe in easily available spots on cam¬pus, and there should be lots ofvisiting back and forth with peoplein other areas.Build new centers forintellectual conversation“When I came here at first, ftwas a great revelation to find Iwasn’t tlie only one who liked intel¬lectual conversation. . . . But someof the best places for social meetinghave been closed. I will try to seethat new centers are available.”Asked about Dean of StudentsWarner A. Wick’s statement that“you can’t have a great universitywithout a place to buy beer,” hepaused and then said, “Take a di¬rect quote: ‘Having come from apuritanical background (I was raiseda Mormon),’ Booth could not allowhimself to be quoted on the subjectof beer; however, he would allow aquote that read: ‘you can’t have agood university without a place totalk with each other over refreshingbeverages.’ ” “You see,” he added,“I’ve known about becoming Deanonly about two days, and alreadyI’m good at constructing diplomaticeuphemisms.” ences to a hundred or so worksof fiction, and a hundred or socritics who have given their in¬terpretations of method and pro¬cedure. It is like a one-volumeencyclopedia in which any prac¬tising critic will find the sort ofargument which he himself hasbeen using, but adapted to thewhole immense range of effects,many of them quite differentfrom his own. Mr. Booth knowsjust about all the major novelistswho write in English, or who havebeen rendered into English andhave entered into the possessionof English readers; he never dis¬cusses the theoretical procedureswithout reference to their ori¬ginals, the novels themselves.But he knows just about all theimportant critics of fiction, too,and is as wide and easy in hiscoverage of them. So his bookshould have a good market; stu¬dents of fiction must have it bythem on the desk. ... It shouldbe supreme for ten or twenlyyears, and after that. . . . well,by such time its merits mightbe that of some sort of classic,a beautifully organized discoursein an exceedingly complex fieldthat would always be good toread.”As his first book indicates, Bco’.h is a champion of the virtues ofclear, direct English.Booth is now working on a secondbook about how to write readableEnglish, and ako is engaged in along-range study of the “poetics" offiction.Has contributed muchHe has contributed articles, re¬views and stories to many learnedjournals, and writes a regularcolumn in the Carleton Miscellany inwhich he satirizes the bad writing of“people who should know belter.”Much of his academic work hasbeen directed toward ways to im¬prove the teaching of English compo¬sition.IN 1963, HIS discourse, “Boringfrom Wi.hin: Hie Art of the Fresh¬man Essay,” inaugurated a series ofOccasional Essays in the Humanitiespublished at The University of Chi¬cago*. In this essay Booth observed:The seventeen-year-old who hasbeen given nothing but common¬places and cliches all his lifeand who finally discovers ateacher with ideas of his ownmay have his life changed, and.. . . when his life is changedhis writing is changed.In a recent address to the CollegeSection of the National Council ofTeachers of English, Booth ques¬tioned the PiCmature use of criticism in tiie teaching of literature. Hesaid:We must remember, first, tliebard truth that for every hourthe student spends reading Boothor Hoffman or Fiedler or Craneor Frye he will have one lesshour for Shakespeare, Fielding,or Yeats. We should certainlynever teach any critic, at anylevel, unless we are sure thatevery hour spent on liim willgenerate mare and better read¬ing of the literature he deals with.Booth edits the “Department ofAmerican” in Carleton Miscellany.In this space, he conducts a constantwar on bad English. In the April,1964 issue. Booth mimicked thelanguage employed so often in tech-nioal reports with this lampoon:It is only in recent months . . .that an accurate measure ofmixed metaphorosity has beendeveloped, and an index of cor¬relation ranking worked out toenable the investigator to deter¬mine the precise effect of mixedmetaphors on the communica¬bility, or information-load, of agiven passage. It has alwaysseemed logical to hypothesize, ofcourse, that a colorfully mixedmetaphor would increase theproject able rating.Simpson joins praiso for Booth,reminisces over ov/n reignFormer Dean of the Col¬lege Alan Simpson joined inthe congratulations for hissuccessor, speaking of his“warmest admiration for Mr. Boothas a scholar, an educator, and ahuman being” in a Maroon telephoneinterview from his new home inPoughkeepsie, New York, the siteof Vassar College of which Simptonis President.Simpson cited Eooth’s “combina¬tion of scholarship of real distinctionwith a very keen sense of responsi¬bility for the welfare of the under¬graduate and concern for aneducation which is comprehensive.”Faculty pleased with BoothTHE COLLEGE FACULTY wasvery pleased with the way Boothperformed after his appointment tothe George M. Pullman chair ofEnglish, Simpson said. This pro¬fessorship was created far a manwho was a “first class scholar” andwho “would interest himself instandards of writing.”The chair was established in 1962in honor of Harriet Pullman Scher-merhorn, daughter of George M.Pullman, inventor of the Pullmanrailroad car and founder of thePullman company.Booth brings to a University-con¬nected college much experience thathe has gained in liberal arts col¬leges, Simpson pointed out, givinghim a sort of "double experience.”As a human being, Simpson con¬tinued, Booth demonstrates “integ¬rity, a sense of responsibility, andconcern for human problems.SIMPSON POINTED OUT thatBooth was one of the faculty mem¬bers who took the lead last yearin effecting the merger of the Col¬lege English staff with the graduatedepartment of English. This movewas made as part of Simpson’sover-all goal of bringing the Collegefaculty into greater contact and co¬operation with the graduate depart¬ments. Joint appointments havebeen made in many other Collegeareas and the parallel graduatedepartments.Gen ed modifiedSimpson was appointed Dean in1959, following a period of re-organi¬zation of the College curriculum,which saw many of the general edu¬cation requirements modified.His aims, he said, were:• ‘To sustain Chicago’s best tra¬ ditions in undergraduate education,including the vigorous devotion ofChicago students to the intellectuallife; the concern for teaching; andthe cultivation of general education;• To get the divisions and profes¬sional schools to take a more activeinterest in the welfare of under¬graduates ;• To improve the standing ofCollege teachers by giving themappointments based in the depart¬ments if they desired, and by ‘sub¬stantially improving’ College sal¬aries;• To encourage creative thinking,such as the ‘exploration of the ideaof multiple colleges;’• To improve the physical homeof the College, by taking over Gates-Blake (formerly a dorm) far fac¬ulty offices, making Cobb Hall into,eventually, a ‘real center for theCollege,’ and improving residentiallife.”Toured England, RussiaSINCE HE LEFT Chicago, Simp-son said, he toured Britain, wherehe inspected the new “red brickuniversities” which have been builtsince the war and which are doingexciting new things with the cur¬riculum. Afterwards, he touredRussia for five weeks, inspectingthe status of women. “They still think a room nine meters square Isenough for a family,” he said, butpointed out that Russian womenhold many more high posts thando Western women.Tlie working status of Russianwomen has two facets, Simpsonnoted. One is that die economicsystem works to practically forcethe woman in every family to geta job to supplement her husband’sincome. The other side of the coin,however, was shown with somefrank interviews Simpson had withseveral professional women inMoscow.HE SAID, when he asked themwhat they would do if they reallydidn’t have to work, more thanthree-quarters responded they wouldprobably stay on the job. Workingevidently offers them a release fromthe pressure of the household, Simp¬son surmised.Now back at Vassar, Simpsonsaid he is enjoying his new position.Vassar has made such new stridesas the acquisition of $25 million innew grants and gifts for expansion.While he finds his new post atVassar “tremendously exciting,”Simpson said no one who has spenttime at UC could help but remem¬ber it warmly. “UC is one of thegreat institutions of the world, andthe College is one of the brightestjewels in its crown,” he said.4 • CHICAGO MAROON Dec. 8. 1964