1976MarchApril

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TRINITY

COLlEGE

LIBRARY--

RECEIVED

APR 3 U 1976

TRINITY REPORTER VOLUME 6 NUMBER 5

McNulty McNulty says the program, which has been under consideration for months by the Educational Policy Committee, should be of special interest to freshman students. "We are giving them," he says, "a gargantuan feast in which they can sample dishes never available before. Then they can go back for more of the ones that please them. The same opportunity is now available for upperclassmen." The course will run through two full semesters - from September 14 to April 26. Lectures will be given on Tuesday evenings so that interested members of the community may attend. Registration details for the

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TRINITY COLLEGE, HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT

New Program Ready for Fall One of the enduring values of Trinity is its willingness to experiment. Soon to be announced is a new program, admittedly experimental, which proves the point. The program thrusts in three directions - toward the students, toward the faculty, and toward the general public. It is interdisciplinary to a degree never before known on the campus. It requires no formal registration. It will discuss complicated issues and theories more or less in layman's terms. It is designed for intellectual excitement. It will grant course credit without cost and without examination. Only a 50 percent attendance record is required. Plus a critique of the lectures attended. No grades, no failures .... The title of the course is "Horizons," a title which is meant to indicate that the course will pursue the now and the f•1ture as well as the relevant past. Structured to introduce students to academic disciplines they might otherwise never experience, "Horizons" will focus on what is· happening- today-in history, political science, psychology, mathematics and literary criticism, for example. Altogether, lecturers from 23 different academic departments will discuss the key current or emerging ideas in their fields. As English Professor J. Bard McNulty, who is the program's coordinator, puts it, "We want to show the student what is 'up front."'

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general public will be announced soon. A major rationale of the new course is to introduce students to disciplines outside his field of major interest. As President Lockwood noted in his annual report (October, 1975), the open curriculum begun at Trinity in 1969 was expected to contribute to this broadening of intellectual horizons, since it permitted a wider range of course choices with no requirements outside of the major. The reverse, however, was true. Students took the opposite course. Studies showed a shift of 15 percent more intense preparation in the student's major. "Horizons," it is hoped, will help to reverse the trend. Students will be able to choose at will from among lectures in the areas of American Studies, Biology, Chemistry, Classics, Comparative Literature, Dance, Economics, Education, Engineering, English, Fine Arts, History, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, Sociology, Theatre :A.-ts, artd Urban arrd -E-miin::mmenta.-1 Studies. Many of the lectures will be accompanied by demonstrations, slides or film.

Typical of the ground to be covered are such topics as how computers are changing the study and interpretation of history; new trends in literary criticism emphasizing psychology; the dynamics of urban and suburban stresses; the psychology of perception (precisely how does one see the "same" person in photographs taken at ages 18 and 70?); and the implications of mind-altering drugs, food additives, birth control drugs and other chemicals. Dean of the Faculty Edwin P. Nye also thinks the new program may have what he terms "a serendipitous effect." He points out that faculty members work hard to keep abreast of developments in their own field, let alone others. "Here is a way for faculty to talk to each other in a different context," he says. "What we will be doing," says Professor McNulty, who is also secre~ tary of the faculty, "is to provide accomplished lecturers who will discuss recent events and developments in their fields in terms that are 'popular' in the-hesl nse-'--::__- rhat is, inreil'ectaaflj rewarding and at the same time interesting to a wide spectrum of the community."

Senior Wins Watson Fellowship A Trinity College senior has received a $7,000 fellowship grant which will enable him to study in Scandinavia for most of next year. Stephen J. Thomas of Peoria, Illinois, has accepted a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship grant to study the folk instruments and folk music of Norway, Denmark and Sweden. When the year is over, he hopes to have mastered such traditional instruments as fiol (fiddle), the nykelharpa (key-fiddle) and -the hummel (a cousin to the Appalachian dulcimer). In addition to formal study of archives, Thomas plans to travel from village to village, recording the music and playing with the village musicians. In Sweden he expects to stay at least two months in the province of Dalarna. "The recordings of the fiddlers from Dalarna I've heard are very beautiful and said to be the best in Sweden," he says. "I especially want to track down the spelman, the local musician who is called for all weddings, celebrations, and funerals." An accomplished guitarist and player-byear, Thomas says he expects few problems with the instruments or the music. In Norway he plans to spend some time in the province of Hardanger. Here, he says, one of the few ancient folk instruments, the Hardanger fiddle, is still played and Thomas is arranging to study with Sigbjorn Osa, the finest living Hardanger fiddler.

Thomas defines folk music as that which "has been handed down orally, not written or recorded. This indicates the song's wide acceptance. The other important requirement is that the song be played on the country's traditional instruments." He expects to buy a nyckelharpa as soon as possible and when he returns to the Swedish province of Dalarna "the midsummer's festival will have begun and I can sit with my nyckelharpa and take part in the celebration." Trinity College is one of only 35 private colleges and universities invited by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to submit candidates for the prestigious fellowships. The fellowships provide a break in which the graduating senior may thoroughly explore his or her particular interest in a disciplined way while developing a more informed sense of international concern.

Apprentice Research Grant Awarded By NSF Trinity College is one of only 165 institutions throughout the country to be awarded grants in the National Science Foundation's Undergraduate Research Participation Program. Altogether, 627 proposals were submitted by various schools for NSF consideration. The NSF announced in March that it has awarded the College $19,000 to enable students to engage in inde-

MARCHI APRIL, 1976

Presidential Campaign Issues File Created The College Library is establishing a consolidated Presidential Campaign Issues File. The File will contain all the position papers of each of the candidates now seeking the office of President, and will be located in the Government Documents Department of the Library. To date the Library has received the posJtJOn papers of Ford, Reagan, Carter, Bayh, Byrd and Udall. Trinity expects to receive shortly the position material from Jackson, Wallace, Church, Harris and possibly, Shriver. The project is the result of the combined efforts of Peter J. Knapp, Reference Librarian, and Clyde D. McKee, Jr., a member of the Political Science Department. Professor McKee said, "There is an obvious need for the Presidential Issues File. Recently my environmental law students were debating which of the candidates had the clearest and strongest positi.ons on environmental policy. None of the students had ·reao any of the candidates' environmental position papers. The same was true with my state and local government students. With the File, faculty members will be able to prepare assignments using comparative issue analysis, an area that has been under-utilized as a teaching method." The purpose of the project is to provide a convenient resource for students, faculty members, reporters, and members of the Hartford community who wish to compare the policy positions of the various candidates. Peter Knapp is enthusiastic about the project because it encourages students to delve deeper into the resources of the Library. He said, "Once students have examined the positions of the candidates, they may wish to research the issues thoroughly and thereby come to appreciate the excellent collection of government documents and reports in our Documents Department. We are one of the few depositories of government documents in the entire Capitol Region and are pleased to make the Issues File available to members of the general public."

pendent research and study. The grant will fund research to be conducted this summer by ten Trinity students who will work in the areas of biological sciences, chemistry and engineering. Biology Professor James M. Van Stone, assisted by eight faculty members, will guide the students, mainly on a one-to-one basis. The interdisciplinary projects are designed to expand the students' knowledge of basic research techniques and to help them develop scientific creativity.


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