Elder Condemns Accelerated Ph.D.

J. Petersen Elder, Dean of the Graduate Schools of Arts and Sciences, yesterday criticized a proposal to step up the pace of Ph.D. production.

The acceleration proposal was made by Dr. Earl McGrath, former United States Commissioner of Education. Calling the present course of Ph.D.'s "dangerously inadequate," McGrath said that the shortage of teachers may reach crisis proportions in the next five to ten years. Unless colleges and graduate schools plan together now, he warned, an awakening to the situation will come too late for action.

In opposing McGrath's plan, Elder pointed out that any Ph.D. earned in less than four years would be of inferior quality. "I would view with great alarm any plan for a Ph.D. in two or two and a half years," Elder added.