Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-05

Based on a belief that the postwar
period has forced educational institu-
tons to what is conceded by many
American educators to have been an
overemphasis on unbalanced and pre-
mature technical training, the execu-
tives of the Foreign Service School OF
Georgetown University announced yes
terday a decision to place the school on
semi-graduate basis
! Reasons for this fundamental change
in the curriculum of the school after
10 years experience in training for for
eign service we're given in a statement
signed by DR.. w. Coleman Nevis, S. j.,
president of the university: DR.. Edmund
A. Walsh. S. j.. regent of the school;
DR. William F. Notz, its dean: DR.. James
! Brown Scott, chairman of the graduate
committee, and DR.. Thomas H. Healy,
assistant dean and secretary OF the
executive committee.
AS a result of wide survey and fire.
quent consultations with graduates in
| the field, the school has arranged that
with the beginning of the next academic
session. two years of preliminary studies
will be required, devoted mainly to such
cultural subjects as will properly pre-
| pare for the more specialized and tech
|
ing. There professional studies will be
continued more particularly in the last
three years of the course. it was eX-
! panied, thereby extending to f1ve-year
period the courses for students who
are devoting their entire time to the
work of the school.
| The two years of preliminary studies,
! it was explained, may be taken either
at the School of Foreign Service or the
Low id will Nn oNNpnfnd
! students from a recognized college OF
! liberal arts.
| College Training Essential.
Believing that one desiring to enter
upon a foreign service career should
have at least some college training, the
two years of preliminary study, it was
explained, would provide more leisure
for the formation of that liberallzed
state of mind which should prove the
best guaranty for a wise efficient and
moral administration of the tremendous
political and economic power devolving
upon the coming generation in Amer
ice"
The foreign service department.
having met the necessity OF providing
for competently trained personnel for
the conduct of our foreign trade and
international relations" the statement
duueu. tldS ulSlGGu us faculty. anu SCu-
dent body, past and present, to CO.
operate in rendering the next decade in
the schools existence as adapted to the
new needs in American education as
were the first 10 years to the economic
needs of the postwar period"
Declaring it would be a surrender of
its fundamental obligation as an educa-
tional institution to subordinate the
spiritual, cultural and moral elements
in character to temporary material de-
mands." the statement points out that
one prime reason for the change to
semi-graduate basis is the need to de-
vote more attention Ito the production
Of leaders than to leadership in pro-
duction."
The overemphasis placed on unbal-
anced technical training as demanded
by the specialized national needs aris-
ing from the new political and economic
pre-eminence suddenly thrust upon the
United States by the fortunes of war,
the statement declared, was largely
responsible for the neglect of that
broad and liberal background which
assures an intelligent and fruitful ap-