Triumph for the Trimester

Charles Hall, a strapping (6 ft. 4 in., 210 lbs.) farm boy from Murrysville, Pa., graduated from high school at 18, third in his class, president of the student council, a two-letterman in basketball. He entered the University of Pittsburgh in 1959, when Pitt inaugurated its year-round trimester calendar. Last week, five years after Hall left high school, Pitt Chancellor Edward H. Litchfield draped the academic robes of a Ph.D. in mathematics around his husky young shoulders.

Hall not only enrolled in all three 15-week semesters (only two are required to remain in good standing) but also piled on a few extra credits. As a result, he got his B.S. in 2 1/3 academic years. "Those four days of rest between sessions really perked me up," said Hall, who was perky enough to marry a Pitt nursing student and become the father of a son.

Awarding Hall his high-speed degree, Chancellor Litchfield praised the trimester system for making it all possible. "It places another highly skilled man in the service of the nation at an age when his most creative years are ahead of him," he said. It sure did. As a freshman, Hall had registered in the R.O.T.C. The day after he became a Ph.D., 2nd Lieut. Hall left for the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

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