Similar System Suggested

This suggests that a similar elasticity of system and administration might be adopted with signal advantages at Harvard, provided the present college mass were to be divided into groups small enough to establish complete mutual personal contact and understanding between students and teachers. Moreover, there is no reason why some such college groups, like Balliol at Oxford or Kings at Cambridge, should not constitute themselves wholly on the "honors" system, and thus demonstrate their thesis for the encouragement or warning, of other colleges.

Obviously, the suggested subdivision would, if carried into effect, greatly facilitate intelligent selection of candidates for admission; limitation of numbers, already imposed at Harvard, enforces selection, and surely any measure which will make equitable selection easier than it can be at present is to be advocated. The foregoing considerations relate chiefly to educational and disciplinary administration and therefore may only remotely appeal to Harvard men at large.

But other aspects of student life in Oxford and Cambridge, which may more directly interest Harvard men, and which I have had opportunities of observing, strengthen my opinion that an establishment of resident student groups at Harvard, analogous to the English colleges, will restore to the undergraduates all the opportunities for social contacts, foundations of lasting friendships, and mutual intellectual stimulus which the men of my generation enjoyed in full measure and which the smaller colleges offer today. Even in the larger English colleges, like Christchurch at Oxford, and Trinity at Cambridge, mutual acquaintance extends over the whole undergraduate body, and each student can claim a relatively large number of his fellows as intimate friends.

Whole College Are Friends

All become imbued with the spirit of the college, which is as real and potent as it is indefinable. The achievement of one who wins a "double first" in the university examinations is a triumph shared by the whole college with as much enthusiasm as that of the athlete who wins the "blue". There prevails also a generous appreciation of any degree of merit manifested by a member of the college, and an equally wholesome willingness to make allowances for aberrant peculiarities, provided these do not conflict too sharply with

In short, I found in the Oxford and Cambridge undergraduates a practice of taking and generously judging, each according to his merit as a man, which approaches closely to the ideal of social attitude and conduct, and I believe that the compact solidarity of the college is responsible for this whole-some condition. I am of opinion, therefore, that there exists a strong case for dividing the Harvard undergraduate body into compact and wieldy groups, and, by necessary implication, making academic residence, so far as possible, a condition of membership in a college or group.

If the graduates of Harvard will observe how the recent additions to dormitories have been grouped with the older buildings, they will perceive that under the far-seeing leadership of President Lowell the college dwellings are already physically adaptable to college groups. The trend of thought among the undergraduates, who are intimately in contact with the social conditions now prevailing, as shown by the report of the Student Committee, further encourages the hope and expectation that Harvard will soon progress to a stage where the advantages to the student, of a small college, can be enjoyed in full together with those of the large and cosmopolitan university