Speech Course Stress Criticized By Packard

"Harvard has not deserted rhetoric," associate professor Frederick C. Packard told the General Speech Association of Eastern States last weekend. "But rhetoric," he continued, "has deserted speech. The real trouble with speech courses is that they have been victimized by the elocutionist movement. Speech trainers are often mere coachers in a flashy showmanship."

Packard's appearance was as part of a four man panel, chosen by the Speech Association, to present the case against any emphasis of speech courses in colleges. The case for speech courses was discussed in another part of the conference.

The conference also contrasted the small speech interest in Eastern colleges with the much larger Western college departments. Of the larger universities, commented Packard, Harvard has the smallest department, with the least number of actual speech courses offered.

Packard has formulated the reasons for the University's lack of interest in an extensive speech curriculum and plans to present these reasons to the Administration for official comment sometime next week.

Harvard's Only Speech Professor

Packard, as Harvard's only speech professor, teaches four courses in the various aspects of public speaking. He has been a regular contributor to the Harvard Vocarium collection, with recordings of student dramatic productions, and of unusual visitors to Boston like Louis Jouvet.

Serving on the panel with Packard were Lee E. Hunt, Dean of Swarthmore College, and Professor Richard M. Arnold, from Cornell. They were assisted by an official of the New York State Education department.