In 1934, the General Education Board of the Rockefeller Foundation awarded Sarah Lawrence College a grant for two years to set up exploratory courses designed to assist first-year students “find out more effectively what educational experiences the college has to offer them and to help [the College] evaluate more accurately what this educational experience is doing for them.” (from President’s Report to the Board of Trustees, May 1935, p. 6) Exploratory courses were “designed primarily to help the student orient herself to college and to explore possible fields of interest.” (President’s Report to the Board of Trustees, May 1939, pp. 5-6) Furthermore, the exploratory courses used various materials and techniques to develop the potentials of first-year students. Final reports were prepared by various faculty involved to be used as a basis for curricular revision.
Beginning in 1935, every first-year student entering the College participated in one of the exploratory groups, forming a third of her year’s program. The grant tapered off in 1941, after which numerous reports were presented on the findings. The faculty agreed, according to President Warren’s Report to the Board of Trustees in May 1939, that the exploratory courses be retained since they met many objectives. More information on the establishment of the exploratory courses for freshman can be found in the Reports of the President to the Board of Trustees for 1934 to 1941.
The exploratory courses quickly became part of the freshman curriculum, at first being called Exploratory Courses for Freshmen (until 1961/1962), later Freshmen Studies and currently First-Year Studies.
The records consist mostly of final reports on exploratory courses from 1935 to 1938. These reports, written by faculty teaching each course, contain student papers, detailed accounts of class meetings, evaluations of student performance, syllabi, and overall evaluations of the course. All students names are changed for privacy. The folder of general material on the exploratory courses contains basic information on the exploratory courses.
See Also: Syllabi for exploratory courses in syllabi collection. Numerous publications resulted from the grant as well, some of which can be found in the Book Collection of the Sarah Lawrence College Archives. Minutes of two meetings of the Teachers of Exploratory Courses may be found in the Assorted Committee Records. Minutes of the Research Committee Meetings from 1934-1935 on exploratory courses. A five page report on exploratory courses from May 29, 1939 appears in the bound Faculty Meeting Minutes, Volume 11, 1938-1939, page 300.
1. Index to Reports of Teachers of Freshman Exploratory Courses, 1935-1936
2. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume I. Arts – Rene d’Harnoncourt, 1936
3. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume I. Arts – Kurt Roesch and John Storck (Drawing and Painting), 1936
4. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume I. Arts – William Schuman (Arts for Freshmen), 1935-1936
5. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume II. Literature – Adele Brebner (Contemporary American Literature), 1936
6. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume II. Literature – Willis Fisher (Exploratory Readings in Literature), 1936
7. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume II. Literature – Maxwell Geismar (Literature and Environment), 1936
8. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume II. Literature – Anita Marburg (Modern Problems Through Literature), 1936
9. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume III. Literature – Esther Raushenbush (Introduction to Literature), 1936
10. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume III. Literature – Genevieve Taggard (Modern American Literature), 1936
11. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume IV. Natural Science – Cuthbert Daniel and Henry Miller (Physical Science), 1936
12. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume IV. Don Reports – Mary Dublin (Freshman Donnees), 1936
13. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume IV. Don Reports – Henry Ladd (Freshman Donnees), 1936
14. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume V. Social Sciences – Jacques Barzun (Modern European History), Elizabeth Brown (Opinions and Prejudices), and Wolfgang Lange (Cultural Pressure on Individual), 1936
15. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume V. Social Sciences – David Efron (Exploratory Psychology), 1936
16. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume V. Social Sciences – Mary S. Fisher (Intro to Psychology) and Ruth Monroe (Intro to Psychology), 1936
17. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume V. Social Sciences – Lois B. Murphy (Exploratory Social Sciences), 1936
18. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume I. Arts – William Schuman (Freshman Arts) and Kurt Roesch and John Storck (Drawing and Painting), 1936-1937 Copy 1
19. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume I. Arts – William Schuman (Freshman Arts) and Kurt Roesch and John Storck (Drawing and Painting), 1936-1937 Copy 2
20. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume II. Literature – Genevieve Foster (Contemporary Literature) and Willis Fisher (Readings in Literature), 1936-1937
21. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume II. Literature – Katherine Liddell (Writing) and Kathryn Mansell (Literature and Society), 1936-1937
22. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume III. Natural Science – Oliver S. Loud (Introduction to Natural Science), 1936-1937
23. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume IV. Social Science – Wolfgang Lange (Political and Social Questions) and Charles Trinkaus (Individual and Society), 1936-1937
24. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume IV. Social Science – Mary Alice Glavin (Development of a Contemporary Community), 1936-1937
25. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Mary Alice Glavin (Development of a Community), 1936-1937
26. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Roderick Menzies (Intro to Psychology), 1937-1938
27. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Bertha Jenkins (Homemaking), 1937-1938
28. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Oliver S. Loud (Intro to Natural Science), 1937-1938
29. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume I. Arts – Lucie Jowers and Helen Worth Scott (Intro to the Visual Arts), 1937-1938
1. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume I. Arts – John Storck (Exploratory Painting), 1937-1938
2. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume II. Social Science – Charles Trinkaus (Modern European History), 1937-1938
3. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Volume II. Social Science – Walter A. Rudlin (Intro to Social Science), 1937-1938
4. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Literature – Genevieve Foster (Contemporary Literature), Katherine Liddell (Writing), and Kathryn Mansell (Literature and Society), 1937-1938
5. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Literature – Anita Marburg (Modern Problems Through the Novel), 1937-1938
6. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Mary Alice Glavin (Living in the Community), 1937-1938
7. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – John Storck (Patterns of Living), 1937-1938
8. Freshman Exploratory Program Final Reports – Jean C. Trepp (Uses of Field Work in Teaching Economics), 1937-1938
9. General, 1936-1940, 1956
10. Exploratory Readings in Literature by Willis Fisher, 1935-1938
11. Memorandum on the Exploratory Course in Introductory Psychology of Personality by Eugene Lerner, 1940
12. Report to the General Faculty from Teachers of Exploratory Courses and Dons to Freshmen, 1936