It is a general characteristic of human nature that we never appreciate our blessings until we have lost them, and the Harvard student is no exception to the rule. Living in the minds of an equipment that has been accumulating for almost there centuries, we are prone to underestimate some of the most interesting parts of the University. How many men, for instance, of their own initiative visit the Arnold Arboretum or the Botanic Garden? The University Museum draws visitors form all over the country; yet some Harvard men have never given even the most cursory examination to the invaluable Comparative Zoology exhibit or the Ware collection of glass flowers. Hundreds of students daily climb the main stairway of Widener, but comparatively few ever think of the Treasure Room. Examples ad infinitum might be cited to show how pitifully unresponsive undergraduate sometimes are to the unique resources of Harvard.
Undergraduates apathy, however, is hot confined to more exhibits. Time and time again College men are asked there opinion of Professor So-and-So, and are forced ruefully to reply that they are not concentrating in his department. Many of us have no idea as to who is on the Corporation or even on the Student Council. It is obviously impossible to follow every detail of an organization so complex as that of a large university, but there are certain facts that all students should know. Who are the class officers, the sport captains, the men on the season's varsity squads? This type of question, unfortunately, is not included in every man's academic catechism.
Alunmi often express the regret that they failed to "do" Cambridge thoroughly during their sojourn here and took too little interest in the college life of their day; undergraduates will do well to probity by their experience. The student who would get most out of his college career must be fully alive to the manifold privilege open to him at the university. The man who altogether neglects them usually proves to be an intellectual "dud".
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