DEAN LOWES PREDICTS BIG FUTURE FOR GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AT HARVARD

The close connection of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences with the College and the growing influence of that graduate school upon higher education in this country form the basis for an article by Professor John Livingston Lowes, Ph.D. '05, in the current number of the Alumni Bulletin.

Professor Lowes has held the position of Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences for one year and is now resigning, his resignation to take effect next September. He will devote himself to his teaching and to creative writing. Professor George Henry Chase '96, Acting Dean of the College, will take office in September as the new Dean.

Enrollment From 212 Institutions

"In the first place, no other department of the University stands in such intimate relations with the College as does the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. The two are in reality coordinate, since by the statutes they are 'together under the immediate charge of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.' The school draws its authority, under the Governing Boards of the University, from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and, like the College, it exercises its functions through that Faculty alone. Unlike the other graduate and professional schools, it has no separate Faculty. Its courses are courses in the College, and its instructors are members of what is usually thought of as the College Faculty.

A Graduate School in Fact

In other words, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences dovetails into the College, and the College into it, through courses and instructors common to both, although obviously there are many courses in the College closed to graduates, and many courses in the Graduate School of a character too advanced to be ordinarily open to undergraduates. The difference between the activities of the College and those of the Graduate School is a difference of degree and method, rather than (as in the case, for example, of the Law School and the Medical School) a difference of kind. So much at the moment for the unique place which the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences occupies among the departments of the University.

It is of course, a Graduate School in fact as well as in name. Barring rare and exceptional cases (there are but four out of 763 this year), only graduates of colleges and scientific schools of recognized standing are admitted to registration in the School, and a study of that registration discloses some not uninteresting facts. In the first half of the present year (which is taken as a basis because for it authoritative figures from all departments of the University are accessible) the members of the School represented 195 American and '27 European and Oriental colleges and universities. In other words, there were enrolled in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences graduates of 212 different institutions. That in itself is a fact which, put on its inferences, tells a story of far-reaching influence. In the Law School, for the same half-year, the number of American and foreign institutions represented was 175; in the Medical School, 120; in the Graduate School of Business Administration, 177. No other graduate department of the University, accordingly, draws from so wide a range.

Graduates Serve in Many Colleges

"The influence of this school can be fully realized only through personal knowledge, but figures will give a little help. There were last year in the Faculty of the University of California 50 men whose graduate training, wholly or in part, was received in the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and of these men 40 were of professorial rank. The University of California represents the Pacific Coast. But the figures for the Dartmouth Faculty were precisely the same--50 men from this School, of whom 40 were of professorial rank. Stanford has 27 men on its Faculty from the Harvard Graduate School; Bowdoin, 32. In the Middle West, the University of Wisconsin has 39 men from this School in its Faculty; the University of Illinois, 34; Northwestern University, 33; the University of Chicago, 23; while in the South the University of Texas has 16, the University of North Carolina, 15. These figures are representative only; they could be carried out in scores of other institutions. If higher education is to be perpetuated in this country, it must be largely through the graduate schools of arts and sciences. And even Harvard men are often unaware of the part in this service which is being played by Harvard."