What if Mills were organized into "five undergraduate schools... : School of Fine Arts, School of Natural Science, School of Social Institutions, School of Education and School of Language and Literature"?
What if it branded itself "one of America's most interesting colleges"?
What if our general education program was simply to require that students "take at least half of her work outside the particular school in which she is majoring"?
What if we minimized the importance of marks and credits and instead required that "to earn a degree, a student must cover a definite educational area and must be able to demonstrate her complete understanding of the territory covered"?
What if we offered courses in Chinese language and literature?
What if we offered courses in which 5 or 7 professors (or maybe even ALL the professors in a division) collaborated to present material and in which large fractions of the student body enrolled?
What if we took advantage of our small size and instituted a "tutorial plan, adapted from the English
university system" in which "each entering student is assigned a tutor who, as 'guide, philosopher and friend,' takes a warm and continued interest in her progress"? And may highly prepared and talented students could be "encouraged to set their own academic pace" while less prepared are coached on "how to make their efforts more effective" and reach the highest levels of achievement?
If it sounds new and exciting, be prepared for a let down. This was Mills in 1935.
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