Every girl has a different study plan, arranged according to her educational desires. This is one of the best-loved of the progressive ideas. In most courses the nature of the work undertaken is mapped out by both students and the professor at the beginning of the year. This freedom imposes many responsibilities, but Bennington students meet them honestly. The Harvard undergraduate, with his often lackadaisical approach in required reading, would be against at the amount of work most Bennington girls grind out every evening. There are few distractions on weekdays. On week ends, the distraction embraces Williams men who roll into Bennington with their flashy convertibles and blond crew cuts. There is a good deal of antagonism between Williams men and Bennington girls, the attitude of many girls is summed up in the popular saying, "after all, Williams men are all we get."
The Bennington faculty deserves mention for the amount of work required of each professor, generally two course, five to ten tutees, and a great deal of informal intellectual activity. Bennington professors have no contracts with the college; if student don't like them, they usually wash out. In answer to the charge that professors must feel a bit uneasy as the end of the year approaches. Burkhardt says that once a professor is accepted, he almost always gets the yearly nod from his students. Student opinion about tenure is expressed merely by waling up to college trustees and talking.
The faculty, packed with Harvard graduates, is strong in the music and drama departments. Erich From is probably the best known of the professors; his specialty is a senior division course entitled "Human Nature and Character Structure." Max Salvadori is another widely acclaimed intellectual. He is known mainly for his work in drafting the present Italian constitution.
Over enthusiastic girls sometimes claim that the students "can hire and fire the faculty." This is not true, although student government is very powerful.
Everybody in the college community-including staff members-vote for the undergraduate judicial committee, which has one faculty member sitting with it. All student disciplinary problems come before this committee which has the power to recommend that a girl be expelled or put on probation.
The basic units in the college are the 12 houses, which are governed by an elected student chairman; there are no "house mothers." Thus perhaps the most important Committee for voicing undergraduate opinions is the all-student Executive Committee on which these dorm chairman serve.
Student opinion is essentially as respected as the administration's. President Brukhardt says, "We treat the students as adults, because they're not that yet."
By the way, the Government is planning to make a movie of Bennington as "the typical girls college...