In order to offset the shrinking in the amount of outside work available to undergraduates since prosperity began Hoovering around a hypothetical corner, the Temporary Student Employment Plan was instituted. That it has been generally successful in alleviating the depression for students is hardly to be questioned; and it may be accepted as equally axiomatic that the Plan should be continued. The question is where is the money to do this coming from; and neither God nor Mr. Conant seem to know.
Yale, however, in a somewhat omnipotent mood has found a way out, a way that is so simple that one wonders why no one thought of it before. Yale merely approached her alumni and suggested that if any of them had any money left, they might allow sentiment for old Eli to overcome them and contribute to a fund to be used in aiding undergraduates. The response was all that could be desired; Yale collected some two hundred thousand dollars, which makes it possible for her to give more aid to students than any other college, thus surpassing Harvard for the first time.
Since this attempt by Yale has been productive of such gratifying results, there is certainly no reason why Harvard should not try the same policy. Harvard graduates have shown in the past that they are in no way lacking in generosity, and they can probably be counted on to continue to show it. Intensive and successful drives have been recently conducted in order to build chapels and business schools; it is surely not too much to ask that the same thing be done on a minor scale in order to make possible the continued existence of a system that is not only highly meritorious but highly necessary as well.