A Point in Time at Wellesley

To connoisseurs of the East's fabled "Seven Sisters" women's colleges, Wel lesley girls stand out as a bit odd, at least as seen in stereotype. They are not given to the long hair, bulging book bags and breathless brilliance found at Radcliffe. They lack the Junior-League-socialite attitude of Smith. Vassar's ear nest, do-gooder zeal eludes them; nor do they share the compulsive egalitarianism of Barnard students. They are neither so muscularly athletic as the Bryn Mawr girls nor quite so country-sweet as the Mount Holyoke lasses. Their distinguishing characteristic, in short, is that they don't stand out. They tend simply to be wholesome girls who make normal, well-adjusted housewives and civic-minded citizens. One important reason for that reputation is Wellesley College President Margaret Clapp, 55, who emphasizes a well-balanced liberal-arts education for her girls. She is a sharp critic of what she calls "the smorgasbord school," where students get a wide, undirected choice of elective courses that adds up to a smattering of everything and a challenge from nothing. She prefers what she calls the "plate dinner-and-dessert" menu, in which basic courses are balanced with a few enticing extras. That philosophy comes fittingly to Margaret Clapp, who was a writer of poetry, a teacher of English, a Ph.D. and a respected historian before moving to the 500-acre, 90-year-old Massachusetts school 16 years ago (TIME cover, Oct. 10, 1949). In addition to setting a brisk, workmanlike tone for her students, "Miss Clapp" (never "Dr.") enhanced the character of the school itself with an admirable admin istrative skill. Keeping student enrollment to a steady 1,700, she doubled the college's endowment from $30 million to $62 million, increased faculty salaries from a 1950 average of $4,291 to last year's $10,020. Apparently, after 16 years Miss Clapp reckoned that she had completed her job. Last week she announced that she will resign next July. "I am convinced," she said, "that Wellesley is at a point in time when it will benefit from fresh vision and new leadership." Characteristically, she then proceeded to instruct her faculty on how to elect a committee to help choose her successor, and even on what to do in case of a tie vote. Whereupon, without fuss or fluster, she skipped off to a secluded vacation. Few faculty members shared her serenity and poise, and many failed to squelch the tears that flowed at the thought of Miss Clapp's leaving.

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