Dana Bennett Durand '25, of Washington, D. C., has been announced the winner of the CRIMSON Essay Contest on the basis of his essay entitled "A Suggestion for Raising the Standard of Intellectual Preparation in the Undergraduate Department of Harvard." As a result, Durand will receive the $600 scholarship for foreign travel offered by the United States Lines for next summer.
Honorable mention has been awarded Edward Brooks Ballard '27, of Lexington, for his essay "Harvard's Dual Educational System," and James Harry Smith '25, of Tiptonville, Tenn., for his essay "Harvard's Tutorial System and its Future." Both of these essays will be published at an early date. The board of judges who passed on the 42 essays which were submitted consisted of Professor Bliss Perry, Mr. D. M. Little '18, and Assistant Dean E. A. Whitney '17.
The winning essay, as well as the two which won honorable mention, dealt with some phase of Harvard's tutorial system. Thirteen essays out of the 42 took up this subject from every conceivable angle. There was one which advocated introducing the European system of instruction; another sought divisional examinations for Sophomores: still another agitated for more creative work in the tutorial field. Other essays demanded a renovation of English A. compulsory attendance at classes, limitation of admission numbers, and a truce from attacking Harvard. Some dealt with a use for Memorial Hall, a system to establish intimacy between professors and students, a literary academy for Harvard and a school of the drama.
The winning essay, by Durand, advocates a division of all undergraduates into Distinction and Pass groups at the close of the Sophomore year. For Pass men the requirements for a degree would remain much as they are at present, but for Distinction men the four-year curriculum would be completed in three years. At the end of the Junior year the student would take his divisional examinations, and his Senior year would be devoted to such advanced work as is now done by graduate students.
The four which Durand will join is known as Number 2 of the United States Lines Tours. Leaving on July 8 from New York on the S. S. George Washington, the members of the tour will disembark at Cherbourg on July 16, where a special train will meet and convey them to Paris for two days of sightseeing in Paris and on the battlefields. From Paris they will journey to Geneva and thence to Mentrens. Milan and Genay three days will be spent in Rome, after which they will visit Venice, Lagano Lacerate intertaken, and Eurich Staffcart, Heidlbetg, Mayence, and Cologne will next be visited, after which the expedition will go through Holland and reach, London on August 15. Remaining in London until the sailing day, the tourists will embark from Southampton on the S. S. President Harding on August 19, arriving in New York on August 27.
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