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Artist
Unknown BMC (Primary)
Title

Black Mountain College Bulletin 1949-1950 (Vol. 7, No. 1, March 1949)

Date
1949
Century
20th century
Medium & Support
Ink on paper
Object Type
Archival Documents
Credit Line
Black Mountain College Collection, gift of Barbara Beate Dreier and Theodore Dreier, Jr. on behalf of all generations of Dreier family
Accession Number
2017.40.044
Copyright
In Copyright, Educational Use Permitted
Courtesy of the Theodore Dreier Sr. Document Collection, Asheville Art Museum
Description

14-page stapled booklet with cover bearing BMC logo and a table of contents. Matte paper, off-white. BMC 1949-50 Bulletin. Includes an introduction, explanation of organization, curriculum and study, fields of study, plan of study, graduation, general information, admission to the student body, fees, procedure, financial assistance, other financial information and summer session information. Does not include faculty profiles or advisory board list.

*Front cover features black circle with BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE BLACK MOUNTAIN N.C. wrapped around it. Logo designed by Josef Albers

BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE BULLETIN 1949-1950
Summer session 1949 9:00am July 6 through August 31
Fall semester 8:30am September 21 through February 1
Winter vacation beginning December 17, through January 3
Spring semester 8:30am February 6 through June 14
Spring vacation beginning March 31, through April 9

INTRODUCTION 5
ORGANIZATION 6
CURRICULUM AND STUDY 7
FIELDS OF STUDY 9
PLAN OF STUDY 10
GRADUATION 10
GENERAL INFORMATION 11
ADMISSION TO THE STUDENT BODY 12
FEES 12
PROCEDURE 13
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE 13
OTHER FINANCIAL INFORMATION 14
SUMMER SESSION 14
Black Mountain College Bulletin Volume 7 Number 1
March 1949
Issued four times a year in March, April, May and November. Entered as second-class matter November 4, 1942, at the Post Office at Black Mountain, North Carolina, under the Act of August 24, 1912.

INTRODUCTION
Education loses meaning unless its goal is directed toward the dual question: what kind of life is most desirable, and what is the best preparation for it? Historically the underlying purpose of education has always been to equip the student with the knowledge, attitudes, and habits of thinking and doing which prepares him for active participation in the life of his contemporary period. As the main currents of thought change from period to period, so do educational principles. Now that the individual is coming, regardless of background, to be considered worthy of respect, possessing human dignity, and entitled to a voice in his own destiny, his effective participation in life requires a different sort of educational preparation than did that of his forbears.
Today’s confusion, wherein old certainties, crumbling away, have not yet been replaced by new ones, confronts the individual with the necessity of re-solving many private and social problems concerning his place and function in relation to the world. Of him is now required the ability to act and the judgement to act wisely. The task of education, therefore, becomes that of preparing young people by developing as highly as possible their latent capacities for intelligent, self-reliant responsibility.
Successful education cannot be expected unless teachers are masters of what they teach, recognize the relation of what they teach to the society in which they teach, and have a sympathetic understanding of those whom they teach. Nor can it be expected if students lack a desire to learn sufficiently strong to overcome the lure of trivial distractions, or on the other hand if they are so devoted to a specific interest that they ignore other spheres of life. Freedoms carry their own limitations, and to accept the duty imposed by the freedom demands much of the individual.
In an endeavor to implement these principles, Black Mountain College was founded in 1933 by a group of teachers and students as a college of liberal arts which should be coeducational, where ultimate control should rest with the Faculty, where established methods of education could combine with newer, experimental methods, and where faculty and students should share responsibility of living decently, productively, wisely, in a relatively small community.
ORGANIZATION
The charter of the College places ownership of its properties and control of its affairs with the Faculty. The Faculty is directly responsible for educational policy and discipline. From its membership it elects a Board of Fellows empowered to make appointments and administer finances. The Faculty elects the Rector from the Board to preside over that body; and the Board elects a Secretary and Treasurer. Thus there is no sharp cleavage between administrative and the educational functions of the College.
In the belief that to become responsible requires undertaking responsibility, the Faculty provides that a large share in the running of the College shall fall to students. The chief student officer, the moderator, elected by students from among themselves, is a legal, voting member of the Board of Fellows. He and other student officers meet from time to time with the Board or the Faculty. Students serve on committees, including the Admissions Committee, largely govern their own affairs, and take charge of many aspects of college and community life. Occasionally questions affecting the social unit as a whole are discussed at general meetings where everyone- students, faculty, personnel, and other members of the community- has a voice.
The main function of the Black Mountain College community is to provide a fruitful environment for education in academic, creative, practical, and social pursuits. Since the ideal of democracy is not its form but the enjoyment of it, set organization of daily life is held to a minimum. Policies and procedures are generally arrived at by agreement rather than by rule. Life at Black Mountain may be said to fall into several overlapping and interrelated areas: the curriculum, including class and individual study; community concerns, including welfare regulations and work problems; recreation, including concerts, exhibitions, movies and other entertainment.
CURRICULUM AND STUDY
It is growing increasingly clear that the age of isolated specialization is over. The advanced scientist now perceives that to augment his knowledge of science he must understand the general principles of field heretofore regarded as unrelated to science. The same is true of music and the arts, of the philosopher and the economist, the historian and the writer. At the middle of the 20th century, the emphasis- in painting as well as in political theory- is on what happens between things, not on the things in themselves. Today the area of exploration, the premise underlying systematic thinking, is that of function, process, change; of interaction and communication. The universe- including man and his interests- is seen, in microcosm and in macrocosm, as the continuously changing result of the influence that each of its parts exerts upon all the rest of its parts.
This does not mean that factual knowledge of a given subject is of negligible value. On the contrary, to understand a process between two things carries an obligation to know a good deal about the two things. But knowledge, to be useful to an intelligently responsible man or woman, cannot consist solely of an additive accumulation of unrelated data or collection of memorized formulae. To become effective each acquired datum or formula acts on and is acted upon by all those previously acquired, and through this interaction the concepts erected from the integration of previously effective knowledge are slightly altered.
The process of learning varies greatly among individuals depending on their educational background, native ability, and seriousness of intent. It has been the experience of Black Mountain College in its sixteen years of existence that, roughly speaking, entering students fall into two general categories; those who are somewhat mature, reasonably sure of their major interests, and in possession of the ability to study; and those who do not yet know in what field they wish to specialize, what they want to do after leaving college, or how to go about their work. The college curriculum, therefore, is flexible so that students may elect those studies which they believe will best meet their needs. There are no required courses, and courses vary from semester to semester according to current demand. Since faculty members are free to teach what they wish in the manner they prefer, classes are conducted in several ways- as lectures, recitations, seminars, tutorials.
Along with the advanced work, both guided and self-directed, suitable to students of some training and maturity, the curriculum provides for the needs of younger people lacking the knowledge of how to study. Here the purpose of the College is to evoke in the student those habits of work which enable him to acquire knowledge in any field. Once thus equipped, he gains an ability for independent work which prepares him to deal with life under almost any circumstances. In this aspect of teaching the emphasis lies on “how” rather than on “what,” on method rather than on subject, on process rather than on object.
How to work can be learned regardless of what subject furnishes the material to work on, but the learning process is greatly facilitated by interest in the subject. Since Black Mountain College offer courses in four main fields- the arts, language and literature, science, and the social sciences- students may approach the acquisition of method by the avenue of their preference.
A faculty advisor is appointed for each entering student. The student may choose him own advisor after his first semester. The ratio of teachers to students is one to five or six so that the student receives a considerable degree of personal attention. Except when a student is sure of what he wants to do, the first part of his stay is regarded as a period of investigation; all students who have not previously done so are encouraged to take courses in art, language and literature, science, and the social studies in order that they may discover their major interest through selecting from the known, or that they may gain some understanding of fields other than their own.
Since education at Black Mountain takes place in the setting of a community and is conceived as a balance between the intellectual, creative, and social arts, the academic curriculum is supplemented by practical experience in craftsmanship, physical work, and group responsibilities. In workshops such as bookbinding, printing, weaving, woodworking, students may acquire the rudiments of the manual skills demanded by a craft, as well as an acquaintance with its principles and methods. Pleasure in concrete doing is often as great as pleasure in abstract thinking.
Replacing the usual organization of sports and physical education, the College provides a program of work in connection with maintaining its physical existence. Although it is not required, all members of the community able to do so are expected to share in the work of running the community; upkeep of buildings and grounds, occasional design and erection of new buildings, woodcutting and road repair; library and administrative work; office, kitchen, housekeeping routines. Actual experience gives a certain manual dexterity and a familiarity with handling tools and with such mechanical techniques as plumbing, carpentry, wiring, fire-fighting, clerical work.
A farm of about 30 acres, owned by the College but operated as an independent unit, provides practical experience in a basic, productive enterprise. Its role is threefold; to furnish milk, meat, vegetables, and eggs to the college kitchen, to improve soil fertility, and to serve as a laboratory for academic subjects bearing on agriculture and its relationship to society.
Through the work program the student derives not only healthy exercise but a sense of the details arising from living in a group. He learns to collaborate with others and to undertake with them enterprises for the common good. A fundamental human problem is the search for the point of balance between the needs, rights responsibilities of the group. The College feels it will have accomplished its purpose if students depart with specific knowledge in their field, techniques of work transferable to other fields, integrity and self-respect coupled with respect for others, and the ability to participate actively and with discrimination in the life of society.
FIELDS OF STUDY
Work in the arts depends upon the eye and the hand. In music it depends on the ear and the hand. Any branch of art carries with it a severe discipline different from but as rigorous as that inherent in physics or mathematics. But the disciplines in art are not necessarily measurable in terms of language. Truth depicted in graphic line, in solid mass, in sound, is none the less valid for absence of verbal expression, and its effect upon the human being is an extremely important part of his experience.
The specialized training yielded by language and literature goes further than the obvious advantages of reading and speaking a foreign language; it reveals the habits of thought and the structure of a language different from that native to us. In this era of universality the individual conversant with only one language and its concomitant thinking processes is limited in his understanding not only of the heritage of literature but of current thought.
Upon the sciences- physics, chemistry, mathematics in particular- today’s thought places the burden of leadership. As in the past, what scientists learn affects philosophy, ethics, religion, art, technology, economics, sociology. Scientists discover that atomic energy can be controlled; for what purposes it shall be controlled depends upon the will and desire of human beings at large.
No one who has not studied what groups of people have done in the past can sensibly arrive at an opinion as to what society can do and should aim at. The social sciences embrace such realms as the recorded history of events, the customs and habits of social units, the relation of social units to each other, the integration of the individual and the group, methods of transferring goods from producer to consumer, the earth’s capacity to produce in relation to the needs of the earth’s population.
Black Mountain College, realizing that knowledge transcends subject, that each field carrier its own techniques, that theoretical training is inadequate without practical experience, and intellectual education is inadequate without social adjustment, has directed its teaching methods its courses, and its daily life to this complex and manifold end. There is provision for the individual needs of each student who enters.
PLAN OF STUDY
Although there are no required courses and no number of credit hours, the beginning student without conviction as to his ultimate goal is expected to undertake a diversified, general program. The courses he elects are intended to increase his knowledge in more than one field, and to clarify the direction of his interest. The entering student who knows the direction of his interest and has already investigated the other main fields may concentrate upon the field of his interest. In either case when it is evident that the student is ready to specialize, he prepares a plan of study in his field with the collaboration of his advisor. Permission to prepare for graduation depends upon faculty approval of this plan, and upon written and oral examinations in the fields in which he has studied. The student is also expected to have learned to work by himself and assume responsibility in the community.
A comprehensive examination is made available each year to those students who wish to find out how they stand in general knowledge and maturity, as evaluated by the Faculty. The progress of each student is periodically discussed by the Faculty as a whole. Although records are kept for reference and for possible transfer of credit, no academic grades are given to students.
GRADUATION
When a student has completed his plan of study he asks to be examined for graduation. If the Faculty finds his work satisfactory, an outside examiner is invited to the College. For the student intending to continue his studies and knowing which graduate school he desires to enter, the College attempts to obtain an outside examiner from that school. Otherwise the College invites the best available examiner in the field of the student’s major interest.
The examiner usually requires papers covering the student’s field of study. These are followed by oral examination. Exhibitions or performances may supplement the papers. Graduation is decided upon by the Faculty, which bases its decision on the report of the examiner and on the student’s entire record at the College.
The work demanded for graduation is equivalent to that required for a Bachelor of Arts degree at colleges and universities of long-established standing. Black Mountain College confers a Certificate of Graduation. Its students have done commendable work in leading graduate schools.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Black Mountain College, at an elevation of 2,400 feet, is situated in the Great Craggy Mountains of Western North Carolina, a section noted for its climate and scenery. The College is just off US 70, some five miles east of Asheville. Direct pullman service connects Black Mountain with New York and Chicago via the Southern Railway, and the Delta Airlines has an airport in Asheville.
The property of the College comprises approximately 700 acres of farm and mountain woodland, and a small lake. There are 30 buildings- student dormitories, cottages for faculty families or married students, dining hall, library, workshops, two small music buildings, a farmhouse and barns. Classrooms and individual studies for faculty and students are provided by the Studies Building, designed by A. Lawrence Kocher and created by students and faculty members.
At Black Mountain College personal contact between students and teachers is constant. Students and faculty live on the campus, have their meals together in the dining hall, and work together on maintenance and various aspects of daily living as well as in the classroom.
Members of the community take care of their own rooms.
Clothing should be appropriate for walking in the mountains and working outdoors. Ordinary clothes should be suitable for country living in warm and cold weather. Since old clothes or work clothes are worn during the day, an extensive wardrobe is not necessary. Evening dresses are worn occasionally at parties or concerts.
The kitchen cannot furnish special diets.
No pets may be brought without special permission. Firearms, if brought, must be kept in the office. Students may have cars, but there are no garage facilities.
ADMISSION TO THE STUDENT BODY
The College, which limits the number of the student body to 90, has no fixed regulations concerning the age or scholastic background of applicants for admission, since it prefers to consider each individual upon the merits of his case. As a rule, the prospective student present college preparatory credits, a transcript of previous work, five references, and health and oculist certificates. If grades are low, there must be some evidence of compensatory qualifications. The Admissions Committee looks, among other things, for seriousness of purpose in the applicant. This is difficult to judge in advance, and the ability to work with others needs to be tried out. Applicants who are admitted are, therefore, invited to participate in college and community life for a year, subject to review at the end of each term. At the end of each year those who have shown sufficient capacity for working on their own responsibility in the areas of their own interests and in those of the group are invited to return for further study, with the possibility of graduation.
FEES
Black Mountain College charges a fee of $1600,* which covers tuition and room and board for the regular academic year of two semesters. There are no other fees except the occasional items listed below. The schedule of payment is as follows:
On notification of acceptance, to reserve a place (non-refundable) $200
On opening day of fall semester 800**
On opening day of spring semester 600
Students unable to pay this fee are referred to the section below on financial assistance. It is the specific desire of the College that students otherwise qualified should not be excluded for financial reasons.
The fee of $1600 is intended to cover all of a student’s expenses except those that are purely personal, and the following items:
Application fee $5.00
Contingency deposit 25.00
Examination for graduation 35.00
Fee for late payment of any bill 10.00
*The College reserves the right to change this fee if costs increase.
**Plus contingency deposit of $25.
PROCEDURE
The College write a Financial Agreement with each student each year, setting forth the terms of attendance. The Agreement is signed by the student and by the person responsible for the payment of fees. It is validated by the prepayment of $200. No place is reserved for any student until the signed agreement and the prepayment are received. The prepayment is not refundable. It is a payment in advance on the student’s fee, and is so credited. The Agreement and prepayment complete the admission and make it effective.
The contingency deposit, due on opening day, must be maintained while the student is in attendance; breakage, damage or loss are charged against it, but any unused portion is refunded after graduation or withdrawal. Fees are payable on schedule and if not paid within ten days are subject to the fee for late payment. The application fee must accompany any application for admission, and is not refundable.
The inclusive fee for the eight-week Summer Session of 1949 is $380, subject in general to the same sort of financial terms as the fee for the other semesters. Detailed information will be sent on request.
Veterans planning to attend under the provisions of the GI Bill should write for details.
FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE
Believing that a cross-section of American life, economically as well as geographically, contributes to the educational value of the College, and realizing that ability to pay the full fee is not a criterion of desirability, the College tries to make financial assistance available to qualified students who need it. In so far as practically possible, admission is made to depend upon personal merit. Those who can are required to pay the full fee. Others pay as large a share of the full fee as they can reasonably afford.
In order to arrive at a fair figure, those who cannot afford the full fee of $1600 are required to make an annual confidential statement of their financial resources on a blank furnished for the purpose by the College. On the basis of this statement the Committee on Student Fees grants reductions up the maximum amount of $600; that is to say, under no circumstances should the prospective student expect that his net fee will be less than $1000.
There is no provision for students’ working their way through College. No distinction of any kind is made between students on the basis of what they pay. Their participation in the work program is without regard to their financial status.
The Derek Bovingdon Memorial Loan Fund makes possible occasional small loans to students who need money to complete work already begun at the College. The fund is not intended for loans to entering students.
OTHER FINANCIAL INFORMATION
No student may enter or remain in residence while financial arrangements for the current year are pending.
A new Financial Agreement must be signed in advance each year the student remains in the College, and must be supported by the regular non-refundable prepayment. The College reserves the right to alter individual fees from year to year in the light of changed circumstances.
Physicians’ services and special medicines must be paid for individually.
For personal expenses students should have $50 to $90 each semester exclusive of transportation.
The College is not responsible for loss, theft, or damage to students’ property arising from any cause.
SUMMER SESSION
In addition to the fall and spring semesters of the regular academic year, the College conducts a summer session in July and August of about eight weeks. Its regular winter faculty is augmented by a Guest Faculty of men and women highly distinguished in their fields who are otherwise engaged during the winter. Along with academic courses, the curriculum provides for workshop groups, discussion groups, and individual work, as well as special projects such as, in 1949, the plan to build a new Science Laboratory.
The summer session offers an excellent opportunity for a short period of intensive work and experimentation in stimulating, congenial surroundings. It also affords an opportunity to observe the process of education in the setting of a community. As a rule, some of its summer students apply for admission into the following terms of the regular academic year.

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