Lampy's arraignment of the College Office has a tone of seriousness in it; and well it might. The organization in Harvard's administration building is most imperfect. Many undergraduates know this to be a fact through experience; probably the administrative force itself would hesitate before denying it. The sub-Freshman fights his way into college between opposing statements on his standing. The Senior gives up the ghost when he finds that no one can solve his concentration problem.
Situations like these should not occur. True, University Hall is a musty old building, far too inadequate to meet the needs of the present day. But the office force, handicapped even as it is by lack of physical equipment, should certainly function in a more organized manner. For instance, the business of the Elective Office should never have been so concentrated in one person, that when the person left this year, the office found itself well-nigh helpless,--a ship without a rudder. It is true that when errors occur involving an undergraduate's standing, the deans will always rectify them,--the deans are ever willing to hear all complaints but the fact that an error is always corrected does not justify it in the beginning.
What the University needs, and that right soon, is a new administration building and a force organized scientifically along lines of efficiency. This costs money, but the powers that be should find it. Such a move would be economy in the long run.
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College Taxation.