The Mission of a University

During its most recent phase, Dartmouth College— substitute the liberal-arts college of your choice— has done useful things, most of them of an operational nature. It has not, however, thought effectively about the substance of a liberal-arts education.

We have instituted coeducation and the Dartmouth Plan. Both of these are on the whole large plusses. But the College has not within living memory given serious consideration to the shape and purpose of the curriculum as a whole. Both students and faculty are aware that something is missing at the core of the entire operation.