Almost 2000 men and women of Greater Boston will begin this week to take advantage of the afternoon and evening courses offered by the Commission on Extension Courses. Some of the courses have held their first meeting, but registration in them is not yet closed. The Commission on Extension Courses, representing the University, Tufts, M. I. T., Boston College, Boston University, Wellesley, Simmons, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Massachusetts Board of Education, and the Boston School Committee, had last year a total registration of 1496, and the year before of 1807.

The University Extension Courses are offered by the Commission on Extension Courses of which Dean J. H. Ropes '89 of the University is Chairman, and of which President J. A. Cousens of Tufts, President William Devlin of Boston College, President Henry Lefavour of Simmons College, President L. H. Murlin of Boston University, President E. F. Pendleton of Wellesley, and others are members.

Eighteen men will be on the teaching staff this year, of whom ten are members of the Faculty of the University. Among the more prominent are Professor C. H. Grandgent '83 and Professor W. B. Munro '99. Professor John Patten Marshall of Boston University, well known as a critic of music, is also on the staff. The English courses have always been the most popular offered in Extension Work with over a hundred enrolled in almost all the courses offered. But Professor Marshall's course on Analysis and Appreciation of Music, which had an enrollment of 168 last year, being the second most popular course, is expected to have an equally large number this year.

An especially timely course is that on "Present European conditions, their causes, development and character," which will meet every Wednesday at 4.30 P. M. at Boston University under the direction of Professor A. I. Andrews of Tufts College. Dealing with the recent changes in the geographical, political, and economic life of Europe, this course has attracted over one hundred students already on account of its value not only to those who have to teach modern European history, but for those who wish to understand the background of the events now transpiring day by day.

Another course of special interest in view of the Dante anniversary held last year is the course on Dante, conducted primarily for students unfamiliar with Italian, by Professor Grandgent. The works of the poet will be studied and discussed in translation. This course will hold its first meeting this evening at 7.30 at Boston University.

Professor Munro is offering a new course in Government which assumes a general knowledge of governmental organization. It includes such subjects as the relation of public authority to the problems of industry, commerce, labor, finance, public utilities, public health, education, and the protection of life and property.

Most of the courses are supported from the endowment of the Lowell Institute. By the provisions of the founder of the Extension Courses, the price of a course was to be equivalent to the cost of two bushels of wheat. As a result the Commission has set a fixed rate of $2.50 for a course running half a year and $5.00 for a course continuing throughout the whole year. Fees for those courses not supported by the endowment fund are slightly higher.