perior and Pittsburgh, t h e chairman of the section is ex-ofricio a member of all com mittees; in N o r t h Jersey he is only on the standing committees. I n Western Con necticut, the treasurer is automatically made chairman of the membership com mittee. To provide facilities for section meetings including the hall, dinner arrangements projectors, and sometimes entertainment, 8 sections a p p o i n t committees on arrange ments; Akron appoints a meeting com mittee, and N o r t h Jersey and Chicago ap point house committees. Entertainment is handled by a. specific committee in 10 sections, and 3 others delegate this to a social committee. I n Northeastern Ohio, the program committee plans all social functions. Virginia has an entertainment and attendance committee which exercises a double function. Some sections have a standing nominat ing committee while others appoint a special committee for this function; some committees report a single slate of candi dates while others are instructed to pre sent 2 names for each office. Many in vite nominations from the floor or accept write-in votes on the ballot. A few sec tions maintain a by-laws or constitution committee through which amendments are submittedEighteen sections a p point publicity committees, and a number of other standing or special committees are appointed t o deal with matters which will be considered as special activities to be discussed i n subsequent installments of this report. Both regular a n d special functions are t h e responsibility of Kansas City's unique activities committee. Headed by the chairman-elect a n d includ ing the secretary and 5 other members, this committee has charge of finances, programs, membership solicitation, educa tional activities, and professional func tions; in fact, i t directs all of the section's activities. Various duties are assigned t o its members who may, if they wish, call upon other members of the section for assistance. T h e list of local section officers and the outline of committee organization is usu ally carried as a standing page in the local section publication where there is one, b u t some of those sections which do not have publications distribute "organization charts" of o n e form or another. The Western New York Section annually dis tributes a mimeographed list giving the addresses and telephone numbers of all of its officers a n d committee personnel, and the Southern California Section prints this information on a single legal-size sheet. I t is sent t o every member with the an nouncement of the October meeting and copies are given new members as they join daring t h e year. An organization chart showing i n block outline t h e relation ships between the m a n y committees, of ficers, and o t h e r agencies of the section is prepared by Chicago. 2188
J o b Manuals
A "Guide for Officers and Committees" has been assembled by the South Jersey Section. I t was written by the officers a n d committee chairmen of the year 1943, each supplying the information for the position he then occupied, and assembled by Lyle A. Hamilton. I t lists in outline form the duties of all those who have a part in the operation of the section and is actu ally an expanded form of the by-laws. T h e Washington Section distributes a 4-page printed folder of the standing rules of its board of managers which lists t h e respon sibilities and procedure of its operating personnel. T h e Chicago Section, however, goes fur ther than this b y preparing a series of job manuals in order to provide a repositor}" for the accumulated experience of commit tees and officers and to give new incum bents a background from which to work. Everyone who has acted as chairman of a local section membership committee in re cent years is familiar with the "Suggestions for Local Section Membership Commit tees", distributed by the Washington office and based on a document developed in the Southern California Section. T h e Chicago job manuals a r e similar to this. T h e y were prepared by Miss Wagbo, the exe cutive secretary, on the basis of reports of officers and committee chairmen and are revised annually t o incorporate new ideas or techniques developed by those who have used them. Except for those which describe specific duties like ticket selling, they do not specify how a n y job must be done but merely acquaint the new officer or committee chairman what has been done thus far so he can carry on from there. T h e paragraph headings in a typical manual are as follows: "Statement of Sphere of Activity", "Selection of Com mittee Personnel", "Conduct of Commit tee Meetings", "Objectives of First Com mittee Meeting", "Follow-up of First
Committee Meeting", "Procedure for Carrying on the Regular Committee Work", and " B u d g e t " . Detailed instruc tions on specific duties then follow. F o r example, in t h e manual for the house com mittee, these include " I n v e n t o r y " , "Order ing Supplies", and " L o a n s of E q u i p m e n t " ; samples of welcome letters to new members are given in the hospitality committee manual. T h e most extensive manual, 21 mimeographed pages, covers the duties of a director. Since a director has to deal with all phases of the section's activities, the m a n u a l n o t only discusses his duties and relations to others within the section and t o the public, b u t outlines all section activities and policy declarations and concludes with a calendar of the year's program. T h e success which this program has en joyed in Chicago was best described in t h e publication, The Chemical Bulletin: This type of m a n u a l went far toward achieving its purpose. No longer did the committee chairman h a v e t o spend long hours "wading t h r o u g h " unorganized files of material in order to learn the details of his j o b . He now had a t his finger tips a concise presentation of the best methods evolved t o date. He was now able to start where his predecessor had finished, adapting his own plan of action to the re quirements of the current situation. In fact, the new type of j o b manual proved even more successful than had been modestly anticipated—for immediately the fresh committee devised improvements in methods and a t only a fraction of the expenditures of time a n d effort t h a t would have been necessary w i t h o u t this organ ized information before them. I t is believed that this new method points the way t o the building of an in creasingly effective section. Chairmen and other officers, though they have al ways been generous of their time and effort, should n o t h a v e to start "from scratch" each year, nor should the results of their efforts be lost t o the section after their term in office. T h e new method of "job m a n u a l s " provides a positive means of incorporating t h e results of this effort and experience into the current and future life of the section.
Progress Report Number 12 of the Committee on the Professional Training of Chemists T "HE HE Committee on the Professional TRAraining of Chemists met in Rochester,
Ν . Υ., Oct. 16 t o 18, 1945. Annual
Reports from A p p r o v e d ments of Chemistry
Depart
Careful study was made of data received in response to the annual questionnaire sent to each department on the SOCIETY'S approved list covering its activities for the last college year. The committee is grateful for the prompt and generous re sponse on the p a r t of department chair men during these very busy days. From some of t h e data the following tables based on reports from 136 schools (137 departments, New York University having 2) have been prepared. C H E M I C A L
A c a d e m i c Year o f 1 9 4 4 - 4 5 Chemistry graduates certified (527 men, 338 women)
865
Chemical engineering graduates certified
820
Number and Rank of Staff Members A n t i c i pated for Coming Year (137 departments) Total Total Total Total
of of of of
full professors associate professors assistant professors instructors
452 266 283 246
Total with P h . D . degree Total with M.S. degree Total with B.S. degree
1068 141 38
Departments having 10 or more full-time members Departments having 5-9 full-time staff members Departments having 3-4 full-time staff members A N D
E N G I N E E R I N G
43 63 31
N E W S
Approximate Number of Publications Reported 1942 1525 1943 1406 1944 1198 1945 897a a The number of publications reported for t h e p a s t year was affected b y lack of staff and lack of students, as "well as by regulation of holding wartime scientific and technical information pending release a t a later date.
Visitation Program
T h e committee believes every school on t h e SOCIETY'S list should be revisited a n d re-evaluated a s soon a s conditions become n o r m a l . The visitation program will b e gin within t h e next t w o years. Student Q u a l i t y Examination
T h e committee discussed at some length m e a n s of obtaining a n objective evalua tion b o t h of s t u d e n t quality a n d of train ing in t h e various institutions cooperating in t h e program. Careful consideration w a s given t o a well-known examination which h a s been used over a period of years by several universities a n d colleges in t h e United States. While t h e committee realizes that n o single examination can af ford a complete basis for evaluating either m e n or d e p a r t m e n t s , i t is inclined t o b e lieve t h a t approved schools should request all students t o t a k e this examination dur ing t h e middle of t h e senior year. Several g r a d u a t e schools already require t h i s ex a m i n a t i o n as a s u p p o r t for an application for a n assistantship o r fellowship. Over a period of years t h e d a t a from this exami n a t i o n might p r o v e to be avaluable addition t o t h e procedures n o w used for determin ing whether i n s t i t u t i o n s a r e receiving s t u d e n t s of a d e q u a t e quality a n d providing t h e m with t h e p r o p e r training. F u r t h e r consideration will b e given to this m a t t e r before final a c t i o n i s t a k e n . A d d i t i o n t o List of A p p r o v e d Schools
T h e University of Oregon, Eugene, Ore., w a s added to t h e list of schools t h e c o m m i t t e e d e e m s qualified to offer profes sional training for chemists. T h e t o t a l of such schools a t this d a t e is 137. National Research Council Predoctoral Fellowships
T h e committee w a s asked t o assist in m a k i n g recommendations for t h e N a t i o n a l R e s e a r c h Council predoctoral fellowships. I t was also a s k e d for suggestions in naming a committee to s t u d y such applications a n d m a k e r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s concerning them. Outstanding Students Whose Education Was Interrupted by the W a r
T h e committee s e n t o u t a letter a n d questionnaire J u l y 1 1 , 1945, to d e p a r t m e n t s of chemistry a n d chemical engineer ing o n the S O C I E T Y ' S list, requesting t h e n a m e s and a d d r e s s e s of outstanding s t u d e n t s whose e d u c a t i o n was interrupted by t h e w a r . I t . w a s felt t h a t t h e n a t i o n ' s technological competence was threatened V O L U M E
2 3,
N O .
23
by t h e disruption of t h e training of chem ists a n d chemical engineers during t h e war, and i t w a s believed i m p o r t a n t t o secure the release of especially capable m e n from the a r m e d services to permit t h e m t o re sume their training a t the earliest possible date. T h e r e was a very fine response to this request, lists being received from 105 chemistry departments a n d 35 chemical engineering departments. Graduate Training T h e Council of t h e A M E R I C A N C H E M I
CAL SOCIETY at i t s meeting in Boston in September 1939 a d o p t e d certain m i n i m u m standards for the bachelor's, m a s t e r ' s , a n d doctor's degrees a n d instructed t h e Com mittee on Professional Training of Chem ists t o evaluate the various educational institutions in United States which award these degrees. T h e evaluation of the various institu tions giving the bachelor's degree with a major in chemistry proved to b e an ex tensive program and this fact together with the advent of the war has m a d e i t im possible f o r the committee t o consider graduate work i n institutions of higher learning. At this meeting t h e C o m m i t t e e on t h e Professional Training of Chemists con sidered t h e advisability of proceeding with a program o n t h e evaluation of those i n s t i t u t i o n s which a w a r d m a s t e r ' s a n d doctor's degrees. It was aided i n its dis cussion b y Roger Adams, University of Illinois; I. L. Baldwin, University of Wis consin; and D. W . Gilbert, University of Rochester. Several other chemists a n d university administrators were also con sulted, a n d one m e m b e r of t h e committee attended the meeting of t h e Association of American Universities a t D u r h a m and Chapel Hill, N. C., o n October 11 t o 13, 1945, at which t h e problem of accredita tion of graduate schools was also discussed. T h e committee h a s decided t h a t steps should b e taken, since t h e situation is somewhat urgent at t h e present time. Of the 137 institutions approved b y t h e S O CIETY for undergraduate work in chem istry, approximately 100 a w a r d t h e master's degree a n d approximately 60 a w a r d also the d o c t o r ' s degree. However, during t h e past few years a n additional 70 to 80 institutions have a w a r d e d m a s t e r ' s degrees i n chemistry, a n d several h a v e awarded doctor's degrees. T h i s would indicate "that there a r e m a n y institutions awarding advanced degrees which, a t t h e same t i m e , are n o t considered t o have t h e staff, equipment, a n d curricula a d e q u a t e t o train professional chemists receiving t h e bachelor's degree. A. further considerable increase i n the number of institutions awarding advanced degrees is t o be ex pected, a n d it i s essential for t h e good of the c o u n t r y that such advanced work be m a i n t a i n e d on a level which will place t h e United States i n t h e forefront of t h e scientific nations of t h e world. It is recognized t h a t university admini
« D E C E M B E R
10,
1 9 4 5
s t r a t o r s have been annoyed and incor venienced by a n abundance o f questionnaires e m a n a t i n g from various sources. It is t h e desire of this committee not to add a n y m o r e than absolutely necessary to this burden. Therefore t h e present tent e plans of t h e committee m a y be outli Λ as follows: 1. T h e i n s t i t u t i o n s will be r e q u e s t e d to furnish the list of staff m e m b e r s who have directed or w h o are a u t h o r i z e d to direct t h e research of g r a d u a t e s t u d e n t s working for t h e m a s t e r ' s and doctor's degree. 2. I n case a n y of the faculty members listed under (1) above h a v e n o t published a t least t e n scientific p a p e r s (excluding book reviews, popular articles, and review articles) during t h e l a s t t e n years, the list, including d a t e a n d sources of s u c h publica tions, should b e furnished. 3. A representative g r o u p of organic chemists w h o are c o n d u c t i n g graduate work o n a full professorial s t a t u s and w h o are widely k n o w n for their contributions to scientific l i t e r a t u r e will be asked to ex amine the list of faculty m e m b e r s directing research work in organic chemistry. Simi l a r procedure will be followed for faculty m e m b e r s conducting research in physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, etc. T h e r e c o m m e n d a t i o n s of t h e v a r i o u s groups will b e compiled for committee study. 4. When t h e information concerning t h e faculty m e m b e r s has been assembled, t h e c o m m i t t e e contemplates a conference with t h e c h a i r m a n a n d / o r o t h e r repre s e n t a t i v e of e a c h chemistry d e p a r t m e n t , d u r i n g which t h e entire situation within t h e d e p a r t m e n t and within t h e school or college will b e discussed. W h e n t h e four steps listed above are complete, t h e committee will decide w h e t h e r or n o t sufficient basis has been obtained for publication of a list of ap proved schools granting a d v a n c e d degrees. T h e publication of such a l i s t would be deferred until conferences with all depart m e n t s had b e e n held and until each depart m e n t was fully apprised of t h e a t t i t u d e of t h e c o m m i t t e e t o w a r d it. It i s c o n t e m p l a t e d t h a t t h e appraisal will b e confined t o those b r a n c h e s of chemistry w i t h i n t h e chemistry depart m e n t itself. F o r instance, t h i s would ex clude biochemistry w h e n t h a t subject is t a u g h t in medical school o r in other branches of t h e university t h a n the chem istry d e p a r t m e n t ; i t would also exclude chemical engineering unless i t is included a s p a r t of t h e chemistry department. It m a y b e necessary to specify certain fields of chemistry in which a given department is deemed t o be competent to conduct g r a d u a t e training. I t will t a k e t w o or three years t o s t u d y a n d review all the institutions offering g r a d u a t e training. T h e committee would welcome sugges tions and criticisms from t h e members of t h e SOCIETY concerning t h e above pro jected program. S. C. LIND Η . Β. W E I S E R W . G. Y O U N G
W. A. NOYES, J R . , Chairman E . M. B I L L I N G S ,
Secretary
November 2 1 , 1945 2189
