Graduate Schedule Won't Do For Nieman Fellows--Hopkins

The Nieman Fellows must not restrict themselves to regular graduate courses if they expect to get the most benefit out of their one year at the University, is the decision reached by Frank S. Hopkins, holder of one of the nine original fellowships given last year, in an article in the current Harper's.

"One must plan one's work without regard to the academic requirements and then use the resources as they fit in," Hopkins states.

"Quest for Wisdom"

The article, "Quest for Wisdom," tells the experiences of the first nine newspapermen to receive the scholarships donated by the late Mrs. Lucius W. Nieman, widow of the publisher of the Milwaukee Journal, in their "one big academic splurge."

Ranging from 25 to 40 years of age and coming from newspapers in New England, the Middle West, the four reporters and five editorial writers were given the run of the University and allowed to take or audit any courses they wished.

New Departure

"The University received us with the greatest kindness and interest, yet, it was apparent, not without a certain apprehension," says Hopkins. "The Nieman Fellowships were a new departure in academic procedure and no one knew how newspapermen would adjust themselves to life at Harvard, nor how wide might be the gap between the points of view of journalist and scholar.

"Fortunately," he continues, "the problem adjusted itself as the year rolled along. The University was experimenting and we were inevitably the guineapigs.

No Insuperable Gap

"It was soon demonstrated that there was no insuperable gap between newspapermen and university teachers. Many of the faculty were as much interested in our experiences as we were in their ideas; the very differences between us proved to be the basis for numerous friendships, and on every side we met with a cordial reception."

Hopkins cites the weekly dinners at which the Fellows had an opportunity to meet members of the faculty as one of the most enjoyable features of the year.

"They provided an informal atmosphere in which we got better acquainted with one another and with many distinguished guests, and they furnished us with mental refreshment and a great many important ideas on which to chew," he says.

He names Dean Landis; Heinrich Bruening, professor of Public Administration; Felix Frankfurter, then a member of the Law School faculty and now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; Granville Hicks, at that time Counselor in American History; and Archibald MacLeish, whom he describes as "a sort of a liaison officer between us and the University," since then appointed Librarian of Congress, as among the most stimulating professors with whom the Fellows came in contact.

Individual Solutions

The article tells how each man solved his own individual problem of what courses to take. One concentrated in Latin American history, another in the sciences, the other seven in "the broad field of public affairs," taking courses in labor economics, agricultural economics, unemployment relief, and Southern regional problems."

Hopkins is an editorial writer on the Baltimore sun.