DEAN G. A. GRUBB

College of Dentistry

HE future College of Dentistry will be determined by a vision of the needs and demands of the future and by the evolutionary development of the past. It will be a composite product, expressed in four different ways: curriculum, faculty, student body, and building. Previous to 1917 the course included three years, based upon a pre-requisite of four years of high school work. Two years have been added--one year of dentistry and one year of college work, as an additional prerequisite. Only in the last ten years has dentistry received recognition as one of the several major health agencies.

   The general drift of the dental college curriculum was towards two pre-dental years of college grade and four years of dentistry. Doctor Wm. Giess, Ph.D., of Columbia University, was commissioned by the Carnegie foundation to make survey of dental education. After three years of careful study Doctor Giess recommends that the course be rearranged to two years of pre-dental work of college grade, three years of concentrated dentistry, and a graduate year.

   We have before us, then, three plans from which to choose: the One-Four Plan (present), the Two-Four Plan (proposed), and the Two-Three-Graduate Plan (proposed).

   The lengthening of the course is attracting and developing students of a higher mental type. Whatever the faculty's decision, as to the future curriculum, a still higher mental type will be produced.

   In, five years from the time that the College of Dentistry is able to move into a new and modern building on the campus, its enrollment will be double. Such a location will give it a better understanding with the general student registration. It will have an improved standing with the national rating body. It will attract students from a greater distance and will serve a greater regional need.

   The future College of Dentistry will, therefore, have its curriculum more scientifically arranged, have a better teaching faculty, an enlarged student body of a higher mental type, and a new and modern building on the campus which will be appropriate for its specific needs.

 

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