Oregon State College Responds


IN RESEARCH, resident instruction, and extension all the facilities of Oregon State College have been brought into increasingly close relation to the military program, the industrial program, and the production and distribution program of a nation engaged in highly mechanized, total war.

More than fifty staff members are on leave in the armed forces or in related industrial work. Many staff members are giving instruction to the 1,400 soldier students, selected by the Army for ability and aptitude and sent to Oregon State College from all parts of the United States for training in the Army Specialized Training Program.

The course offerings of a land-grant institution like Oregon State College are readily adapted to the demands of wartime. While a few special courses have been added, the main effect of war demands has been a refocusing of all the work in terms of the wartime situation, particularly of the immediate needs of students preparing for military or civilian war services. The courses offered in 1943-44 will depend on the availability of faculty as well as on student demand. In general, however, the regular course offerings will be available subject only to such limitations as are imposed by changes in staff and student body.

Campus life during the coming year will reflect the relation of the College to the war effort. A new schedule of opening and closing dates puts the calendar for civilian students in step with that for the soldier students in the ASTP. These soldier students will set a stiff pace. Among the civilian students the majority will be women; the male contingent will be made up in large part of men who are trying to get in at least part of a year of college before entering the armed forces; many of these will be in the seventeen-year class. Student activities will reflect the wartime interests of students.

Although most of the space in the college dormitories will be occupied by members of the college army training units, ample accommodations will be provided for civilian students in houses near the campus that in peacetime are occupied by men's living organizations; these houses will be operated under regular dormitory rates and regulations.


Remarks to instructors

From time to time it will be necessary that specific information reach all faculty concerned with teaching ASTP. It is considered best to distribute such information through the medium of duplicated sheets upon which concise statements will appear. These sheets will be sent to the various departments for distribution.

1. The present term has been lengthened by two weeks and will officially terminate on July 3. The next term will start on July 13.

2. According to most recent information, advanced classes will be filled by a complement of men assigned to upper division work and, in addition, a complement of men for basic instruction will be assigned to the College. The total number of students for next term will approximate 800.

3. Attention of all instructors is again called to the fact that we are now teaching candidates for commissions or technical personnel in The United States Army. Attributes of courses previously taught civilians do not necessarily apply to ASTP. The objective is to present fundamentals with stress on use and application rather than appreciation. To short a time exists to include and extraneous subject matter, and courses must be streamlines to fit the 13-week schedule and still cover the fundamentals as designated in course outlines.

Army examinations may be expected in each subject. Details as to the conduct of the examinations are not as yet known, although it is anticipated that the examinations will be given after twelve weeks instruction. These examinations will be of the multiple- choice type, and it is advised that some of the regular examinations be of this type so that the students may become familiar with them. The Army is anxious to have as much information as possible on each trainee, including attributes of personal character, industry, integrity, etc. Latent talents or special aptitudes may prove to be important items of information in considering the trainee's disposition. Instructors are asked to transmit any information concerned with individuals to the office of the Dean of Engineering, so that the same may become a pert of the trainee's record.

In the near future, a call will be made for text selection, etc. necessary to the conduct of the work of the next ASTP term. It is hoped that the instructors will be in a position to state their requirements with exactness. This will avoid the confusion which prevailed during the first period of activation.

Please consider that ASTP trainees are not college students in uniform. The boys face a difficult program of study by which the Army hopes to provide 40,000 or more technically trained men, the requirement of the current year. The colleges have the responsibility for this training, but such dose not infer that we proceed in our accustomed manner or necessarily along previously established lines. The objectives are not the same as in the civilian program. Definitely, we are not training men for industry.

Overtime salary amounts have been approved and sent to the business office for payment. Amounts authorized in the first payment were to June 1. It is not anticipated that there will be any overtime payment required between June 1 and June 14. Arrangements subsequent to June 14 will, of course, depend on the civilian enrollment.

As soon as schedules for ASTP classes for the next term are available, they will be distributed to the heads of departments.

G. W. GLEESON
June 7, 1943


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