Four Presidents Announce Plans For New College

Plans for a revolutionary "dream college" which would "train students to educate themselves" have been announced by the presidents of Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and the University of Massachusetts. The new institution would initiate teaching and administrative practices vastly different from those prevalent in most colleges today.

In its statement of aims, the planning committee declared, "We propose a college which frees both faculty and students from the system which makes education a matter of giving and taking courses to cover subjects."

To be located in western Massachusetts, the 1,000-student co-educational college would be a liberal arts school "of highest quality," employing only half the usual faculty. Hadley has been suggested as a suitable place for the institution, which might double or triple its enrollment several years after its founding.

Lectures, scheduled sporadically if at all, would give way to undergraduate seminars and a centrally located library as the principal means of instruction. There would be no "departments" or "fields," and individual "majors" would be eliminated in favor of acquiring mastery of the "recognized fields of knowledge"--humanities, physical sciences, and natural sciences.

For all its advantages, the new college would be cheaper to run than most existing colleges, the planners maintained. There would be no hierarchy of administrative officials, and additional funds would be saved by doing away with intercollegiate athletics, fraternities, and sororities.

The plan is the result of a study financed by the Ford Foundation, which is interested in new ways of saving money in education.