7-page booklet for the 1942-1943 school year, a supplemental catalog with announcements. Image is of first page of document which outlines the dates of the fall and spring sessions.
BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE
BLACK MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA
Announcements 1942-43
CALENDAR
Fall Quarter Sept 28-Dec 12
Winter Quarter Jan 4-Mar 20
Spring Quarter Mar 29-June 12
Summer Quarter July 5-Sept 18
Each Quarter is 11 weeks
EDUCATION IN WARTIME
Black Mountain College has extended its curriculum and revised its calendar to meet the demands of the war. While the immediate and future need of education citizens is more imperative than ever, the present demand for practical effectiveness and speed is also obvious. The accelerated program described below makes graduation possible in three years or less; students are to be encouraged to enter as young an age as feasible; new courses both academic and practical provide training for immediate needs; and continued emphasis on a democratic way of life and on physical development build the moral and physical stamina so essential to these times and to all times.
While adapting itself to the war effort the College retains the basic function of higher education as its major objective: training in thoughtful action, transmission and enhancement of our cultural heritage, and development of a consciousness of those principles for which we are now struggling. The enormous social, economic, political, and ethical problems that the war brings with it- and which the peace will render even more colossal- can be solved only through the application of deep understanding, imaginative intelligence, and true conviction. Education cannot be improvised; good judgement requires a seasoned mind and disciplined feelings.
ENLISTED RESERVE CORPS
Black Mountain College has been assigned a quota in the Army Enlisted Reserve Corps and the Air Corps Enlisted Reserve. The purpose of the AERC and the ACER is to provide a future supply of officer candidates for the United States Army. To this end, properly qualified college students are encouraged to finish their college education and are deferred from military service to do so. Incoming first year students will be eligible to apply for such enlistment. In addition to the fundamental courses available in mathematics and the physical sciences, such students can take courses in the liberal arts and sciences. Black Mountain will co-operate with the new government plan for 18-19 year old students, when adopted.
EXTENSION OF CURRICULUM
New courses of particular relevancy to the present situation are being introduced. Some of these are immediately practical- such as surveying, first aid, automobile mechanics, photograph; others- such as inter-American affairs, Oriental history, world geography- comprise only a pertinent expansion of the liberal arts curriculum. The student’s main purpose, however, is to achieve a solid general education embodying the indispensable values of clear thinking, discipline, method, imagination, will and character.
WORK EXPERIENCE PROGRAM
In response to present demands there is considerable emphasis upon farm work this year in the work program. However, experience leading to the agreement of skills in building and construction and related to studies in architecture is obtainable through activities in connection with necessary maintenance and repair. Once a student’s personal responsibility is established, leadership is developed through opportunities to direct individual projects which range from harvesting to operating the College Bookstore. These projects are open to men and women equally. An important element in such work is the development of physical fitness. Members of the community now devote an average of three or four afternoons per week to this program.
ACCELERATED PROGRAM
Heretofore the College has been in session thirty-two weeks each years. Beginning June 22, 1942, it will be open for four quarters of eleven weeks each. Under this plan students may come for three quarters each year, the equivalent of the present program, or for four quarters, which they will be encouraged to do. Students, as heretofore, will continue to graduate when they are prepared to do so, the average time being at the end of twelve quarters.
New students who planned to enter in September, 1942, should consider entrance in June.
ADMISSION TO THE STUDENT BODY
The College has never had fixed regulations concerning the age or scholastic background of applicants for admission, since it has preferred to consider each individual case upon its merits. Although most applicants are of usual college age and have completed a four-year course in accredited secondary school, younger students, or students who have not finished secondary school, have been admitted when it seemed likely that they could carry college work. Almost without exception such students have proved to be ready for college. In the present emergency the College will encourage students of this kind to apply, provided their secondary school principals or headmasters recommend them for college entrance before graduation. Although the College knows that genuine education cannot be accelerated beyond a certain point, it does believe that those who can proceed rapidly should be given the opportunity to do so.
WAR TIME SCHOLARSHIPS
In addition to the reductions in fee mentioned below, the College is offering as its contribution to war-time education seventeen Reduced Fee Scholarships, ranging from $750 to $200. Ten of these are for men and seven for women. To make these scholarships available, the fund for fee reductions in 1942-43 has been increased to $46,000, $11,00 more than the $35,000 allotted for this purpose in 1941-42. They may be awarded to students entering during any one of the following quarters: Winter, Spring, or Summer of 1943. At the time of application they must file a confidential statement attesting their financial need for the amount of scholarship for which they apply. Candidates will be judged upon their academic achievement, character, personality, manual and artistic skill.
FEES FOR THE YEAR
Believing that a cross-section of American life, economic as well as geographical, its intrinsic to the idea of the College, and realizing that a student’s ability to pay the full cost of his education is in no sense a criterion of his desirability, the College makes use of a sliding scale in its yearly fee. This scale ranges, according to pay, from $1200 to $450 for room, board, and tuition, for the normal academic year of three quarters. In so far as possible, admission to the student body is made to depend upon personal merit. The Admissions Committee decides on each applicant, in the first instance, quite independently of financial considerations. Unfortunately, lack of endowment and limited resources do not permit as full an expression of this principle as is ultimately desired, since a certain gross income from student fees must be maintained in order to meet the operating expenses of the College. Nevertheless, during the academic year 1941-1942, over $35,000 in fee reductions was granted.
Those who can are required to bear the full cost of their education, and to pay the full yearly fee of $1200 for the academic year of three quarters. Others pay as much of this fee as they can afford, the deficiency being partially made up from gifts to the College. Since there are more applicants for admission than can be accepted, and since many of these need a large reduction of fee, the competition is, of course, greatest at the lower fee levels, particularly at the minimum fee of $450.
Within the College money is minimized as a basis for the measurement of the individual. No distinction of any kind is made between students paying reduced fees and those paying the full fee, the amount paid by each student being known only to a small financial committee, unless the student himself chooses to reveal it. No provision is made for students to work their way through the College, for the extra-curricular work done by students is regarded as educational activity and is on a voluntary basis with no references to their financial status.
There are available a few tuition scholarships whereby a limited number of students who cannot pay the minimum fee are enables to attend college for less than $450 a year. As vacancies occur in these scholarships, and as new ones are created, awards will be made to entering students, on a basis of merit as determined by the Admissions Committee. Some financial assistance, also, is available from a small Student Loan Fund to students who have attended the College for at least three quarters and whose resources have unexpectedly changed. With the exception of the loans described below in connection with the accelerated program, applicants for admission should have in sight sufficient funds for the total length of time that they expect to attend the College, since in general they will not be eligible to borrow from the fund unless unforeseeable and authentic changes have occurred in their finances. Such loans as are made must be secured by notes signed by the student and endorsed by his parents or guardian. The College believes that a student should rarely borrow, from all sources, more than about $1800 for his education; and that all borrowing should be under such conditions of repayment that the debt contracted will not be too onerous a burden after graduation.
Applicants paying the full fee must submit with their Application for Admissions a signed Financial Agreement, and a new Agreement must be signed every year that they remain in College.
Applicants for a reduction of fee are required annually to make a detailed confidential statement of their families’ financial resources on a blank furnished by the College. This statement must be signed by the person responsible for the payment of fees. From the information submitted the Committee on Student Fees sets what it believes to be a fair fee, taking into account not only the individual circumstances of each case but also the comparative circumstances of all cases. Only in this way can a reasonable equity be maintained. Although fees may vary from year to year depending upon the resources of the applicants’ families, it is generally expected that the initial fee set will be either maintained or increased in subsequent years when initial expenses do not recur. Because of rising costs the College may find it unavoidable, reduced fee has been agreed upon, a Financial Agreement embodying it will be sent for signature to the person responsible for fees; a new Agreement must be signed each year.
No student may enter or remain in residence while any financial arrangements are pending.
All fees will be set on the basis of an academic year of three quarters. Students who follow the accelerated program, attending four quarters in one year, will be charged in addition one third of the fee paid for three quarters. Although it is understood that this arrangement may work a temporary hardship on some people, and even present others from following the accelerated program, the College has no alternative since its income is largely derived from student fees. At their present average level these do not meet educational costs. Thus the total fees for twelve quarters will be the same whether they are spread over three years or four. It may be pointed out, however, that a year’s personal expenses will be saved by following the accelerated program. It is anticipated that in many cases the additional expense for a fourth quarter will have to be met by borrowing. In such cases the College will cooperate by suggesting possible sources of help where such are known and, in a very limited number of instances may be able to lend up to one half of the additional fee for a fourth quarter taken within any given twelve-month period. Such loans would be repaid during what would otherwise have been the fourth year of the student’s attendance at College. Loans for the fourth quarter may be applied for after two quarters of residence.
For personal expenses students need per quarter at least $20 to $30, exclusive of transportation.
PAYMENT OF FEES
The College will guarantee the reservation of a place in the student body only if a deposit of $200 payable upon notification of admission. This deposit is not refundable if for any reason withdrawal occurs later than thirty days prior to proposed entrance date, since such withdrawal may create a vacancy which otherwise would have been filled. This deposit is credited to the year’s account of the entering student.
The yearly fee is payable as follows:
Deposit thirty days prior to entrance Full Fee $200.00 Reduced Fee $200.00
On entrance Full fee $400.00 Reduced Fee Two-fifths of the balance
Opening date of next quarter $400.00 Two-fifths of the balance
Opening date of third quarter $200.00 The balance
If a student attends all four quarters in a given year, the extra fee for the fourth quarter is due as follows: one half of fee for this quarter thirty days prior to opening date of quarter; balance on opening date of quarter.
For new students entering more than three weeks after a quarter has begun special adjustments will be made.
The only other fees are:
Application fee $5.00
Contingency deposit $25.00
Examination for graduation $25.00
Fee for late payment of any bill $10.00
The application fee must accompany application for admission to the College and is not refundable. Applicants who are accepted by the College should make the contingency deposit of $25 within ten days of notification of acceptance, since admission does not become effective until this deposit is received. It is not refundable if the new student fails to enter. While a student is in attendance it must be maintained; but any unused portion of it is refunded upon graduation or withdrawal. Bills are payable on the date of the bill and if not paid within ten days are subject to the fee for late payment.
In cases where students are called into military services charges are made on an exact pro rata basis only for the time they have attended. Any amount in excess of this that has been paid is refunded. All future tuition payments although contracted for are of course canceled.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Arthur S. Adams, Ithaca, New York
Francis F. Bradshaw Chapel Hill, North Carolina
John E. Burchard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Samuel S. Cooley, Black Mountain, North Carolina
Fernando de los Rios, New York, New York
John Dewey New York, New York
Adrian J. Dornbush, Washington, District of Columbia
Ethel E. Dreier Brooklyn, New York
Josephine W. Duveneck, Los Altos, California
Ethel C. Forbes, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Lucy Gage Nashville, Tennessee
Sarah Goodwin Concord, Massachusetts
Walter Gropius Lincoln, Massachusetts
Anna D. Jamieson, Newton Centre, Massachusetts
Joseph Katz Nashville, Tennessee
Walter Locke Dayton, Ohio
Herminio Poretll Vila, Havana, Cuba
Malcolm Ross Washington, District of Columbia
Herbert W. Sanders, Black Mountain, North Carolina
Karl Terzhagi, Winchester, Massachusetts
Robert R. Williams, Asheville, North Carolina
