Deputation work, an activity long neglected in the University, was organized for the first time at a meeting held in Phillips Brooks House last night under the the direction of the Phillips Brooks House Association.

At the meeting, at which about 25 men were present, Mr. W. C. Ross, secretary of the M. I. T. Christian Association, and John Robinson of the Boston University Divinity School, spoke, describing the value of deputation work and the most effective means for organizing such work. Both men have had considerable experience in deputation work. Mr. Robinson, both at Boston University and the University of Southern California, where he studied formerly, has been active in this form of social service. Mr. Ross is also a pioneer in this form of work. As an undergraduate at Dartmouth in 1908-9 he organized some of the earliest deputation groups of Dartmouth men, who visited various schools and communities in New Hampshire in an effort to bring before the high school students of the locality the value of college life and college training. Later, as a graduate, Mr. Ross carried on this work at Dartmouth in 1913, and he is now engaged in similar activities at the Institute of Technology.

Deputation Work Done at Other Colleges

The practice of sending small groups of college men to interest younger men in college is a form of social service engaged in by many of the leading colleges of the country. Dartmouth, Technology. Yale, Princeton, Wesleyan, Boston University have for several years been sending groups of their undergraduates to establish contacts with men in secondary schools nearby. Only last year Yale sent over 40 deputation's to schools and communities in southern New Haven.

The value in strengthening a friendly interest between the preparatory schools and the college was stressed by both speakers.

According to the plans formulated last night by A. D. Phillips '26, chairman of the committee in charge of the work, the various men who have signified an interest in deputation work will be divided into small groups or teams, and each week end from the first of January until the end of the college year it is hoped to send at least one such deputation into some community in Eastern Massachusetts.

In most cases arrangements will be made by the Phillips Brooks House Association with the minister of the church or the head master of the school through which the college men would meet the boys of the community. By means of this contact, through church or school, it is hoped, that each deputation will be able to exert a valuable influence on the boys through athletics, hikes or personal talks, and to stimulate in them a real interest in college.

Enough men signified an interest in deputation work at the meeting last night to form at least five groups. It is expected that still other men will join in the service before the end of the year.

The undergraduate committee which is in charge of the work, consists of: A. D. Phillips, '26, J. J. Maher '26, and E. W. Martin '26.