6 “We Felt … That We Were Talking to Old Friends” Catholic and Protestant Colleges and Their Cooperation for Curriculum Reform Kevin S. Zayed On November 22, 1940, the Catherine Wheel, the newspaper of the College of St. Catherine (CSC), a women’s college located in St. Paul Minnesota, reported Mrs. S.H. McGuire and Mr. T.A. Barnhart of Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, visited St. Catherine’s recently to study the Humanities program at the college. They interviewed Sister Maris Stella about the English program and the problems of creative writing, and Sister Mona about techniques and problems of the Humanities course. They are planning on introducing such a course at Muskingum. 1 Both institutions were members of the Cooperative Study in General Education, a philanthropically funded venture where nearly two dozen institutions of higher learning worked to reform their general education programs, or the portions of their curricula that dealt with competing conceptions of culture and citizenship, between 1938 and 1945. 2 Although the CSC was the sole Catholic college in the study, a variety of Protestant denominations were represented by Allegheny College (Methodist), Antioch College (Unitarian), Bethany College (Disciples of Christ), Centre College (Episcopalian), Fisk College (United Church of Christ), Hiram College (Disciples of Christ), Hendrix College (Methodist), Hope College (Reformed Church in America), Macalester College (Presbyterian), Muskingum College (Presbyterian), Olivet College (United Church of Christ), Park College (Presbyterian), Stephens College (Baptist), Talladega College (Baptist), and the College of Wooster (Presbyterian). By many accounts, the visit was a positive experience for all involved. “A few days ago,” the associate director of the Cooperative Study wrote to CSC professor Sister Annette Walters, I had a very glowing report from the representatives of Muskingum College who visited your institution. They were simply rhapsodizing about the splendid program which you have. They were talking about the exceedingly stimulating humanities course … and about many other things too numerous to mention. 3 Sister Annette responded to this letter in kind: Change and Continuity in American Colleges and Universities : Lessons from Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Innovations, edited by Nathan M. Sorber, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/cwidaho/detail.action?docID=6272525. Created from cwidaho on 2020-09-21 09:35:34. Copyright © 2020. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.