Student Council Sponsored Salzburg Seminar Explains American Civilization to Europeans

SALZBURG, Austria--When the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies began three years ago here, it had the dual purpose of furnishing accurate information about the United States to European students, and increasing the communication between European countries, seriously disrupted by the war.

Now, with the restoration of other forms of students exchange and the obstacles blocking passage between Eastern, and Western Europe, the interchange of information among the Europeans has had to take a back seat for the moment.

Far from decreasing the value of the Seminar, however, the greater congeniality among the students from 16 European countries has made possible a franker and loss hesitant approach to all aspects of American life and to questions of American policy in Europe.

From its start the Seminar has been sponsored by the Harvard Student Council and supported entirely by private donations. The absence of any official connection with the government is becoming even more important for the Seminar's success. Facts about American society are becoming increasingly available in Europe through such channels as the Army Information Centers in occupied countries. What distinguishes the Seminar is the presence here of American student administrators and outstanding teachers from all over the United States--non Army and non-tourist individuals who have created in this eighteenth century castle the free and democratic atmosphere of an advanced American educational institution.

Close Attention

With 12 professors for 85 students, individual attention exists to an extent which is not generally possible in U. S. universities. What most impresses the European students, particularly the Germans, is the informality and friendly relationship between teachers and students. In this important respect, the Seminar is representative of American educational methods.

With the impact of America's position in Europe becoming steadily larger, interest in the program of the Seminar is steadily growing. Not only has the Seminar achieved a high reputation with European teachers, but more important, the 85 students here have been devoted to finding out just as much as possible about the United States during their six-week stay.

Curricular Inspiring

The course which the students have found most stimulating are those which deal with the American economy, American sociology and anthropology, literature, and music. Professor Kenneth Boulding of Iowa State College is lecturing on the sources of American economic ideologies, while William H. Nicholls of Vanderbilt University is informing economists and teachers from all over Europe about the American farm economy. Course in anthropology and sociology, given by Professor Clyde Kluckhohn and Florence Kluckhohn of Harvard, have been attended by many of the best students from Central European countries to who are anxious to know about the developments in that field in Americanca during the years when its study was suspended here.

European authors and English teachers are interested chiefly in the courses on the American novel, drama, and poetry, while a group of highly talented musicians is having its first contact with American made through composer David Diamond.

Any evaluation of the Seminar must, of course, come from the students themselves. But it can be said, however, that no one has any doubts that the Seminar is, as in the past, making an important contribution to the understanding of Americans and America and creating a substantial amount of good will for the U. S. in the process.