78 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IO7 



at a 2-day conference in Pittsburgh at which the Provost Marshal 

 General conferred with the university directors of the Civil Aflfairs 

 Training Schools on the question of curricula for Europe. Later both 

 the Director and Dr. Fenton conferred with the chief of the Army 

 Specialized Training Division to inform him of their plans. He was 

 far more interested in an appraisal of the area training aspects of the 

 Army Specialized Training Programs and the Civil Affairs Training 

 Schools. Although it would be difficult to give formal authorization 

 for such a review, the Board's investigators would be given introduc- 

 tions and the other facilities to aid their work. 



A list of the universities with important programs was drawn up, 

 and the two surveyors started out with this dual concept in mind, 

 namely, to ofifer concrete services in the way of materials and informa- 

 tion, and to evaluate not only the programs but the whole concept of 

 area training. This double purpose resulted in a certain amount of 

 confusion about methods and objectives which was never adequately 

 clarified by the Director. 



In March 1944 the Rockefeller Foundation held a conference in 

 Philadelphia on area studies in general, which was attended by the rep- 

 resentatives of the Board and by individuals from a dozen univer- 

 sities. Because of the survey, the Board was asked to submit a report 

 on the future possibilities of area studies. The confusion of objec- 

 tives was clearly reflected in this report, and the need for reorganiza- 

 tion was patent. 



On June i Dr. Bacon accepted an appointment in one of the war 

 agencies, and Dr. Fenton undertook the completion of the survey by 

 himself. Under a new directive, the survey now aimed at an objec- 

 tive analysis of the way in which the universities operated their pro- 

 grams and of the thinking done by the faculties on the area approach. 

 The reports were to be confidential and limited in distribution. 



The survey has covered a total of 27 universities from the Pacific 

 to the Atlantic coasts. Reports on about one-third of these have been 

 completed, and six (California, Chicago, Cornell, Carnegie Institute 

 of Technology, Grinnell College, and Harvard) have been mimeo- 

 graphed and are available for limited, not-to-be-published distribution. 

 The information included has been gathered by personal visits, inter- 

 views, and participation, and by examination of the published articles. 

 President's reports, and the like. The report on each university dis- 

 cusses the types of programs conducted ; the faculty, both permanent 

 and acquired; the resources of the institution, such as libraries and 

 others; the planning and integration of courses; the administration 

 of the programs ; the teaching techniques ; the actual curricula ; and 



