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RECEIVED MAY 21, 1945 PRESIDENTS OFFICE
Captain James O. Fullerton ('39) 0-445503 Hqs. 76th F.A. Ba. A.P.O. 230, c/o P.M.N.Y.N.Y. Somewhere in Czechoslovakia May 2, 1945
Dr. Donald B. Tressider President, Stanford University
Dear Dr. Tressider:
I shall answer categorically your letter of last March (just received) asking former students if they intend to return to the University when they are demobilized.
I do hope some day to return to Stanford (My case is not typical, as I graduated in '39 & received an M.B.A. from Harvard in '41).
I am not particularly interested in working towards another degree -but I do want to study more languages, (including Russian), history & political scient, and perhaps some more accounting.
As this is so far from typical I'll give you my opinion of what the average army man who wants to return to college has in mind.
He wants "something that will help
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him in his business." Rightly or wrongly he wants a curriculum shorn of the socalled "cultural" courses.
Many men in my battery who have finished high school only, or perhaps junior college, would like to continue their education but feel that after 3 or 4 years in the army, they cannot afford the time. They want a two or even a one year course.
Actually, what they want is a two year course at the business school, but most of them are not prepared for it. Many of them need is to learn how to study. They will be eager, concencious pupils, but many will become discouraged if the going is too difficult at first, and disgusted if they don't immediately feel they are learning something useful.
They will probably not want summer vacations, hence the courses offered in summer quarter should not differ much from those offered in the other 3 semesters.
Many more students will probably want housing accomodations for their wives. (In my opinion few men with children will return to school.)
And they will unconsciously effect
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a wide [unintelligible] of the "case system," more practical problems & fewer lectures. I believe many of the army's so called "training aids" could well be adapted to the community lecture platform. And I am sure that motion pictures can be invaluable in the exact sciences.
I hope these ideas may be of some small value.
Yours sincerely, James O. Fullerton Captain, 76th F.A. Ba.
