THE REORGANIZATION OF THE ENGINEERING SCHOOL

More than twenty years ago the Governing Boards of the University had decided to convert the then existing Lawrence Scientific School into a graduate school. It was not until someone noticed that the Gordon McKay bequest, which had just been received at the time, mentioned that the fund must be "kept accessible to pupils who have had no other opportunities of previous education than those which the free public schools afford" that the impossibility of this step was realized. Thus it was that the school continued as part of the college, with its own graduate department attached.

By the present time, however, it has been realized that the contemplated step of two decades ago was a wise one and that the provisions of the will are now outworn. A complete reorganization of the Engineering School is now desirable and it seems possible that one can be effected which will not disregard the McKay bequest altogether. That something along this line is imminent can be gathered from President Lowell's report in which he points to the growing number of graduate students, tells of the inadequacy of the present system of combined undergraduate and graduate teaching, and speaks of forthcoming improvements in the graduate department.

The Engineering School should be put on the same basis as all of Harvard's professional graduate schools, having the A.B. degree as an entrance requirement and offering courses in its restricted field. It should have only men who are of graduate school age and caliber and who have decided upon engineering as a career. The course should be of definite length in years--probably three--with a recognized degree conferred upon those completing it. In the same manner in which the Medical School makes college chemistry and zoology a prerequisite the Engineering School would require the student to have taken college mathematics and physics courses. But the chance would be there for a student to concentrate in some cultural subject in college and still enter the Engineering School.

This latter point seems especially desirable. An engineer has less opportunity--and, perhaps, also less inclination--than a doctor or a lawyer to continue his cultural studies later on in life. He should be encouraged to get a liberal foundation in college before beginning to specialize in his profession.

The present undergraduates in the Engineering School are in an anomalous position. Some of them are going on in Engineering, others not; all of them have a required number of engineering courses to take but still are burdened by the distribution requirements of the college. Under the reorganized plan the man who intends to make of engineering a vocation will get the major portion of his training in concentrated form in the Graduate School of Engineering. For the man who merely wants a bit of knowledge on the subject some of the present courses in Engineering Sciences can be retained in the college curriculum. These can be designed for men not going further in the subject in the same manner in which Biology A is not intended for men concentrating in Biology or Zoology or men who will go on in medicine. It is in the support of these courses that the McKay bequest will be administered according to the letter. Contemporary conditions are such that its spirit will hardly be violated in any case.

If changes in the Engineering School are forthcoming they should be far reaching. The time is ripe for them.