NEW HAVEN, Jan. 27, 1896.

Much general interest has been taken in the letters on various defects and needs of Yale life, in the opinion of faculty members, which the News published during the present year. The last letter, by Professor W. G. Sumner, takes a rather optimistic view and gives some sound advice to the student body. Professor Sumner has been closely identified with Yale for almost as long a time as any member of the faculty, so he knows whereof he speaks when he declares his convictions that the undergraduates here appreciate learning more than they did thirty years ago, a point which will be incredulously accepted among many in spite of the experience and trust worthiness of its author. His opinion is, that the individual desire for learning and improvement is the only source of university improvement and that graduate assistance would better not be asked in any branch. "The history of athletics for ten years past has seemed to me to prove that the more others than undergraduates have meddled with that matter, the more it has been muddled and spoiled," is his view of one athletic question.

The conference of colleges to be held at Columbia College on February 1, to discuss the best methods of establishing a uniform system of entrance examinations, will have the following gentlemen as the Yale representatives: For Latin, Professor E. P. Morris; for Greek, Professor T. D. Seymour; for French, Professor J. Luquiens; for German, Professor A. H. Palmer; and for Mathematics, Professor A. W. Phillips. President Dwight has appointed these and may add another representative, for History.

The New York Alumni appointed a committee last November to look into the status of debating at Yale. Its report was made at a large and representative meeting on the 17th inst., and from the needlessness of further action at present, a resolution was unanimously adopted to assure Yale of the deep interest which the association felt in the revival of debating. The subject will receive more careful and deliberate attention later. The Board of Arbitration in the matter of the disposition of the Morrill Fund, and the damages due Yale and the Storrs's Agricultural College has awarded Yale $154,000 from the state, after a three years' suit.

About sixty-five men have started training for the track athletic team, the long and middle-distance runs being well represented. The long distance men will run out of doors in favorable weather and the sprinters will work on the Commons lot, the other candidates working entirely in the Gymnasium. The Gymnastic Association will decide the all-round championship of the university on February 12, a month before the exhibition at Princeton.

One of the chief objections to the rowing tanks in the Gymnasium is that the water cannot be made to circulate rapidly enough to imitate the motion of a shell. A plan which will probably be adopted is an endless chain of paddles to quicken the circulation of the water, to revolve in the inner trough on each side of the boat by steam power. If this plan proves practicable it will greatly lessen the drudgery of practice.

The Glee and Banjo Clubs gave an excellent promenade concert on Monday evening and the Junior Promenade on the following evening was a complete success. The class Germans were well attended and the shortening of Promenade week did little to marrits enjoyment.

YALE NEWS.