History and Literature Forum Sees Specializing in Later College Years

The idea that Liberal Arts and the Liberal Arts college must both change greatly after this war, or they may become extinct, keynoted the History and Literature Forum on "The Liberal Arts and the War," held last night in the Lowell House Common Room.

The speakers: Clyde K. B. Kluckholm, associate professor of Anthropology; Edwin C. Kemble, professor of Physics; F. O. Matthiessen, professor of History and Literature; Preston Roberts '43, and C. L. Barber '35 were all in substantial agreement on this point. According to the experts the Liberal Arts College must not be content to remain at the present status quo but must forge ahead. One of the methods discussed by which a non-technical education could be made more liberal was a plan based on that of the University of Chicago, which forces a general education during the first two years, an expanded form of the present University requirements.

The problem of the soldiers sent back to college for further training took up a large part of the evening. Recognizing the fact that the army will not probably allow the colleges much leeway in the matter of subject material, the forum discussed the form that the subject might take, considering as a distinct possibility a super-synthesis of the best that any one field could offer