DURING THE 1950s AND 1960s the most rapidly growing segment of the university was the College of Special Studies. It had started out as the Tufts College Extension Service or the Division of University Extension in 1939, and became the Division of Special Studies a decade later. In 1955, when Tufts College became Tufts University, it was redesignated as the College of Special Studies, one of the four undergraduate divisions of the institution. By the end of World War II it was the administrative liaison agency for two affiliated undergraduate professional schools (The Bouve-Boston School of Physical Therapy and Physical Education, and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts). It also temporarily supervised the Summer School, established in 1946, until a separate director was appointed. More than 800 students were enrolled in the summer session that year. Between 1947 and 1951 three other undergraduate professional schools were affiliated and placed under the umbrella of Special Studies. The original proposal in 1939 had provided that the Extension Service "should carry credit toward an undergraduate or graduate degree." Although no specific degrees were mentioned, in the 1950s, graduate students in evening courses could earn credits toward the EdM degree.

By 1953 the evening division, which had been one of the original parts of Special Studies but had been suspended during World War II, was reinstituted. Twenty courses were being offered by 1956. Total enrollment in all parts of Special Studies rose steadily, from 150 in 1952 to more than 700 in 1956. Expansion seemed to be the order of the day. In 1954 Tufts was even considering an affiliation with Lasell Junior College in a cooperative program with the medical school to establish a nursing program with degree-granting authority.

The College of Special Studies also administered some special grants such as one in 1955-56 from the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) for work in vocational rehabilitation. The coordinator was a Tufts alumnus. Another grant by the same

As part of the increasingly far-flung activities of Special Studies, beginning in 1958 courses for college credit were offered through educational television station WGBH (Channel 2) in Boston. During the 1950s Tufts was a financial contributor to the Lowell Institute Broadcasting Council. The first such course was presented by a member of the English Department. All told, by 1960 the ten subdivisions of the College of Special Studies, with a total enrollment of almost 850, were providing Tufts with an annual gross income of almost a quarter of a million dollars.

In September 1954 a series of fifteen evening seminars known as the Executive Training Program was offered by Tufts for junior executives, superintendents, and plant foremen wishing to improve their backgrounds in economics and personnel relations. It was staffed largely by members of the Economics Department. Enrollment was first limited to fifty, but the program was oversubscribed and was repeated in the spring of 1955 and again in 1955-56, with more than forty companies represented. Advanced seminars which included business administration were added the second year. There was sufficient demand for seminars to hold one series (with a class of twenty-four) in the Sylvania plant in Salem.

As a means of further linking the university with the business and industrial community an apprenticeship program was begun in 1954 which lasted for more than a decade. It was subsidized by the General Electric Company in Lynn and was administered through the College of Engineering, with Percy H. Hill, Jr., as the coordinator. In September of that year thirty General Electric employees were admitted for the equivalent of a two-year program in mechanical engineering spread over four years and offered in late afternoons and evenings. Upon successful completion of the two-year program the students received Associate in Science degrees. Those qualifying academically could then transfer to the College of Engineering with junior standing as full-time day students. Over 300 candidates applied to General Electric when the program was announced; of that number, 54 were selected for final screening, and 30 of them were admitted by Tufts. Thirty were admitted each year for the duration of the program.

The General Electric Company decided to phase out the program (for financial reasons), beginning in 1963, and the final

It was Kelley's responsibility to oversee and coordinate the work of the constantly enlarging College of Special Studies as well as to provide liaison with the rest of the institution. Internal organization was kept to a minimum, partly because all of the affiliated schools had their own programs, personnel policies, curricula, and degree requirements. The faculty consisted of all those giving instruction in various parts of the Special Studies complex, including those from Tufts. Faculty personnel changed constantly because a high proportion of the instructional staff taught part-time, usually with the rank of lecturer. An attempt was made to keep each of the disparate parts of the college informed through an Executive Committee and a Curriculum Committee (redesignated as the Administrative Committee and the Program Review and Evaluation Committee, respectively). Until 1976 no bylaws for Special Studies were ever adopted.

They were revised and updated in 1982. The closest approximation had been those governing the old Division of University Extension adopted in 1941, and were woefully out of date by the 1950s. A committee had been appointed in 1959 to prepare bylaws but nothing was done at the time.

In 1960 a search was begun for a new name for the college, on the ground that there was a certain invidiousness attached to the term "special studies," implying that the constituency were all "special students" who could not meet the academic requirements of the rest of the institution. According to Wessell, for one, there was an element

In an attempt to bring College of Special Studies students more firmly into the Tufts orbit, degrees with distinction were authorized in 1958, with the same criteria as for Tufts and Jackson. Fifteen such students were awarded various degrees of honors that year. A request was made in 1960 that Special Studies students be included in the annual Academic Awards ceremony, but there is no record that this was ever done.

Pressure had begun to mount by the early 1960s within some of the affiliated schools to have their programs not only approved by the appropriate professional accrediting agencies but to have their specific degrees both recognized and awarded by Tufts. Their accrediting bodies were reluctant to recognize the sufficiency of the generalized BS in Education degree - the only one then awarded by the College of Special Studies. A plan was therefore worked out in 1962 to have not only Bouve, Eliot-Pearson, and the Museum School but also the Department of Education and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences accredited in teacher education. The organization thought to be the appropriate one was the National Council for Accreditation for Teacher Education (NCATE), which had itself been involved in an internecine jurisdictional struggle with other accrediting agencies in the field. Daniel Marshall, chairman of the Department of Education, was given the complex and rather thankless task of assembling the required background material and coordinating the effort. There were months of negotiation, by correspondence and telephone, and the collection of mountains of descriptive material, position papers, and supporting documents from the five divisions of the university involved. The reaction of NCATE, even before the actual visitation was to have taken place (after much delay) in the fall of 1963, was so critical and so largely negative regarding the situation at Tufts that the institution withdrew its request for review. After all of the effort expended, the whole project was cancelled.

The major areas of concern by NCATE were the lack of a central and unified administration of the Tufts programs, the complete lack of uniformity in everything from admission standards to academic expectations, faculty personnel, degree programs, and arrangements

Wessell had never been particularly happy with the College of Special Studies or with the affiliated school arrangement, all of which he had inherited from his predecessor. It had grown rather haphazardly, "with little influence or control by the University." He was insistent that the students in undergraduate professional programs be exposed to a much more thorough grounding in the traditional liberal arts and sciences than their programs allowed. This was, as he told the trustees, "the most important principle in planning the University's future development." At the same time he recognized the importance of an opportunity, especially for the women who made up the bulk of affiliated school enrollment, "to acquire a modest competence in courses or programs that have clear professional or vocational relevance."

The tug-of-war between the two goals was well illustrated by Tufts' relations with the Bouve-Boston School, whose students obviously had a quite different orientation and set of career goals than those in Jackson. Until the mid-1950s almost all liberal arts courses taught for affiliated school students by Tufts faculty were segregated from or different from those in Tufts and Jackson. For example, instead of the basic survey in Western Civilization offered to Tufts and Jackson students, Bouve students took a separate one-year course in World History which was not offered in the regular curriculum.

Beginning in 1956 an attempt was made to integrate Bouve students into regular sociology courses, but with rather mixed results. There was also some attempt to bridge the gap between Bouve and Tufts by making joint administrative appointments. In 1960 Catherine L. Allen, who served on the Bouve staff, was also Director of Special Activities for Tufts. But the integration of Bouve and Jackson students in such matters as student government and social activities was never realized, by mutual consent. The professional rather than liberal arts character of the Bouve curricula was illustrated by the substitution, for purposes of accreditation, of the BS in Physical Therapy for the BS in Education. The first such professional degree was awarded to twenty-one Bouve students in 1961. It solved the somewhat awkward situation which had developed in some schools that

There were several alternatives for solving what Wessell considered to be a serious problem which concerned Tufts' educational philosophy as he saw it. The least satisfactory solution was closer integration of the professional schools with Tufts, but each retaining its own corporate identity. A second possibility was to sever all connections with Tufts. Another possibility was to merge them completely into the institution.

The first school to which a policy of disaffiliation was applied was the Forsyth School for Dental Hygienists, which had become associated with Tufts in 1949, when the curriculum had been extended from one year to two. The non-degree program had been accredited in 1953 by the Council on Dental Education of the American Dental Association and again in 1957. The decision was made in 1962 to disaffiliate rather than to associate with Tufts dental school, and was accomplished as of 30 June 1964. The school was transferred to Northeastern University, where it became part of their Health Services division. However, some clinical work involving the students continued to be carried on in the Tufts dental school.

The president turned next to the relationship between Tufts and the Bouve-Boston and Eliot-Pearson Schools. He believed that both schools should be merged completely into Tufts, with the possibility that a fifth year of primarily professional-vocational training might be added. But above all, he believed that their students should not only receive the liberal arts background he felt was so necessary, but that they should meet the same degree requirements (and admission standards) as regular Tufts and Jackson students. The significantly lower Scholastic Aptitude test scores of Special Studies students was documented in 1957. The average verbal score was 457 and the quantitative (mathematical) average was 443, with 84 percent of Liberal Arts, Jackson, and Engineering students scoring higher than Special Studies on verbal aptitude; 92 percent scored higher on mathematics aptitude scores. In the winter of 1962 he asked trustee authorization to confront the two schools with the alternative of merger or disaffiliation.

What had precipitated his request for a decision by the trustees regarding the relationship of these schools to Tufts was the fact that both were laying plans for independent expansion of graduate programs and physical plant - all without consultation with the university. The president felt that continued pursuit of such aims would "result in a situation that would be in complete disharmony with

In the spring of 1963 Wessell read to the faculty of the College of Special Studies a memorandum which he had prepared, entitled "The Academic Aims of Tufts University as They Relate to the College of Special Studies." He made three major points: The university was to remain relatively small; its goal was to "fulfill well a limited number of carefully selected academic responsibilities"; and the basis for all curricula was to be the liberal arts and sciences. Therefore, anyone earning a bachelor's degree should meet essentially the same requirements as Liberal Arts, Jackson, and Engineering. Whatever professional specialization occurred was to take place at the master's level, with a strictly limited number of pre-professional courses at the undergraduate level. He left no question as to the alternative facing Bouve and Eliot-Pearson: Merge with Tufts on its terms or disaffiliate completely.

When he informed the Bouve trustees in December 1962 of the alternative of disaffiliating or merging, Wessell had predicted that they would vote to disaffiliate and would probably relocate at Northeastern. He was correct on both counts so far as Bouve was concerned. The Bouve trustees were unwilling to change their basic educational plan; namely, a four-year undergraduate program combining both liberal arts and professional courses. Wessell continued to insist that purely professional studies be deferred until after completion of the requirements for the bachelor's degree. The agreement to disaffiliate became effective as of 1 July 1964. During the transition period, graduating seniors were given the option of receiving Tufts or Northeastern degrees. The last Bouve student to complete her degree requirements at Northeastern but to receive a Tufts degree graduated in June 1968. Arrangements were made to have the land and the two buildings on the campus owned by Bouve transferred to Tufts.

President Wessell followed the same policy regarding the Eliot-Pearson School as he had with Bouve. Affiliated in 1951 as the Nursery Training School of Boston, it had become Eliot-Pearson in 1955, three years after the retirement of Abigail Adams Eliot, one of the two individuals largely responsible for its creation. There had been the same attempt as with Bouve to work through two boards of trustees - a sometimes awkward arrangement. Eliot-Pearson had its own curriculum and its students had their own organizations. There

The Eliot-Pearson trustees voted to merge with Tufts as of September 1964, and the students were given the option of continuing the BS in Education program through the College of Special Studies until 1968 or transferring to Jackson; 30 percent elected to enroll in the latter. The separate Eliot-Pearson degree program ended in 1968 and the property of the school was transferred to Tufts. In order to retain the identification of the former school the provision was made that the name be retained for ten years as part of the title of the Department of Child Study which the school had become. A Board of Visitors to the newly created department was immediately appointed.

The situation regarding the Boston School of Occupational Therapy (BSOT) was somewhat more complex in the 1950s and 1960s than for the other affiliated schools. The relationship continued for many years to be halfway between complete separation and complete absorption by Tufts - the least desirable alternative in Wessell's estimation.

When he became president, BSOT was in the process of completing its ninth year of affiliation with Tufts. The school, established as the first of its kind in 1918, originally awarded diplomas instead of degrees after three years of training. Upon affiliation with Tufts in 1945 a five-year program was inaugurated which enabled students to obtain not only a diploma and a liberal arts background but a BS in Education from Tufts. The school, which had been established as a volunteer effort during World War I, was financed in part by proceeds from a series of Boston Morning Musicales sponsored by public-spirited and socially prominent women in the Greater Boston area, beginning in 1928. (A complete set of programs through 1977 is available in the Tufts Archives.) For its entire history as an independent school, enrollment was limited exclusively to women. It was not until 1967, after seven years of merger with Tufts, that a male received a degree in occupational therapy.

The curriculum was much the same as it had been when the affiliation was worked out in 1945, except that there was greater

When merger was completed in 1960 BSOT became the Department of Occupational Therapy in the College of Special Studies. The merged school was known also as "Tufts University-Boston School of Occupational Therapy." The former Board of Governors was invited to become a Board of Visitors. A year after merger had occurred, the degree of BS in Occupational Therapy was substituted, on an optional basis, for the BS in Education, for those desiring professional accreditation. The department was periodically reaccredited by the American Medical Association and the American Occupational Therapy Association. In 1967, as an indication that BSOT had come into closer relationship with Tufts, the university policy on academic freedom and tenure was extended to its faculty. As a further indication of the attempt to raise standards, a non-degree certificate program operated by the former school was discontinued.

The new relationship resulted immediately in a sharp rise in enrollment, from eight new students in 1959 to twenty-seven in the fall of 1960. Enrollment totalled eighty by 1962-63. New BSOT students lived in houses near the Meford campus but upperclass students who were involved in clinical work in Boston had to find their own housing until shared dormitory facilities with Jackson and Eliot-Pearson students were provided in the 1960s.

The merger of a once-independent school with a university inevitably posed problems of all kinds. Such was the case with BSOT, which had maintained its own existence for some forty-two years and had to make major adjustments when merger took place in 1960. A slowly but steadily mounting tide of complexities was climaxed in 1968-69 by the serious and prolonged illness of the long-time head, Veronica C. Dobranske, a graduate of the school in 1936, who had been a member of its faculty since 1947. She was director of curricula from 1949 to 1955, and its dean from 1955 until its merger with Tufts. When BSOT became a department within the College of

In 1960 representatives of the TU-BSOT Alumni Association met with Dean Kelley to discuss matters of growing concern involving, among other matters, curriculum, faculty, a proposed graduate program, and relationships with Tufts. The general tenor of the discussions was one of dissatisfaction with the situation as it then existed. A poor image of the school was thought to exist which would adversely affect both admissions and faculty recruitment and retention. The Board of Visitors which had existed for several years was virtually defunct, so potentially valuable advice and wisdom were lacking. There was criticism because the offering of a graduate program had been delayed in the face of a developing need within the profession.

There was much distress over the apparently ambiguous relationship of both faculty and students to Tufts. Administratively, BSOT was placed in the College of Special Studies in Medford but physically was located in the medical complex in Boston. Shunted as they were for three of their four years between two campuses, students were never effectively identified with either and thus enjoyed only "second-class citizenship." The same unfortunate situation prevailed regarding the faculty, who had no meaningful relationship with either liberal arts or the medical school. The best solution seemed to be the transfer of the occupational therapy program to the College of Liberal Arts and Jackson or Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Students would live in a Medford setting for the first three years, and move to the medical school for the final "professional" year. It was also advisable to consider dropping the title "Boston School of Occupational Therapy" and absorb the program as an integral department of the university rather than as a subdivision of the College of Special Studies. There seemed to be little merit in "clinging to an identity that no longer conveys status but even perpetuates separatism."

A site-visit evaluation committee of the Council on Medical Education acting in collaboration with the American Occupational Therapy Association made its report in 1973. It voted to grant accreditation "with qualifications." Aside from a number of recommendations and suggestions dealing with curricula and technical matters, the committee called attention to the undesirability of the school's maintaining its own admissions office. The practice served "to reinforce the separation that pervades major components of this university." A centralized administrative structure was suggested. The committee

Full accreditation had been achieved by 1975. By then, student enrollment had increased to 200, with six full-time faculty members as part of a total staff of eleven. A master's program in occupational therapy was adopted in 1977. A special task force was appointed in 1978 to evaluate BSOT, and among its recommendations was even closer integration into the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Almost all of the steps had been taken by 1982 when BSOT was separated from Special Studies and made a constituent body within Arts and Sciences. Bylaws were adopted reflecting its new status. The sense of isolation and alienation felt by students and complained of by BSOT alumnae in 1973 was alleviated when the headquarters were relocated in 1982 from Boston to a former elementary school leased from the city of Somerville, and within walking distance of the Medford campus. The last remaining vestige reflecting the origins of what had been an independent school and had become a department was the retention of the word "School" in the official title. Until a change could be made in this rather anomalous label, the Tufts trustees continued to recognize "Tufts University-Boston School of Occupational Therapy" as a school, and in 1982 the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences was appointed "dean" of what had actually become a department. Such were the complexities and paradoxes of academia and the persistence of the past.

The situation regarding the relations between Tufts and the Museum School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts was simplicity itself as compared to BSOT. The affiliation had been made originally in 1945. The arrangement enabled students in the school to enroll in Tufts and earn a BS in Education. In 1956 a new program was arranged with Tufts whereby students could earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree as well as a BS in Education by pursuing the same sequence as for most of the affiliated schools; namely academic studies at Tufts and professional subjects at the Museum School. In 1956 formal affiliation between Tufts and the school was renewed. This meant, by 1964-65, a registration of 125 students enrolled through the College of Special Studies. In order to make basic courses in

A further option in the Tufts-Museum School degree program was introduced after a combined five-year AB/BS and Bachelor of Fine Arts curriculum was approved in 1979. A master's program in Fine Arts was administered through the graduate school rather than through Special Studies. By then the Museum School undergraduate professional degree program was the only one remaining in association with the College of Special Studies or its dean. In 1975 a recommendation (never acted on) was made by the provost to incorporate the Museum School into Arts and Sciences.

[] For a biographical sketch and appreciation, see the Criterion (Fall 1982), p. 9.