The man in direct charge of the plan, Arthur D. Trottenberg '48, feels it is still to early to tell whether the porter system will work out. "Wait four or five months and then we'll be able to tell," he says. Most of the administrative officers connected with the plan say the same thing.

One thing seems pretty sure at the present. Unless the character of incoming freshman classes changes drastically, the porter system will not expand to other dormitories. As this is written Trottenberg and those helping him have just about enough man-power to take care of the three dormitories where the plan is now in operation--Dunster, Thayer Hall, and William James Hall. As Monro says, "Right now we've taken care of everyone who wants a job that will take about the same amount of time and pay about the same amount of money as a porter job."

One reason for this porter lack is the fact that, in another innovation this year, 80 or so students are doing part of the "dirty work" in the University's kitchens. As opposed to those who work in the serving lines, these men wash dishes, clean up, and scrub pots. They are paid 86 cents an hour and get the meals they work on deducted from their board bills.

Together, the porter and kitchen jobs this year have taken off much of the pressure to find steady jobs within the University that has always burdened the Employment Office. Taylor and Monro both point out, however, that despite their desire to get students into University jobs which were formerly held by outsiders, no maids or kitchen helpers have been fired. "We have simply not hired replacements for outside workers who retired or who went to work else-where," says Taylor.

Priority Jobs Rate High

Both the porter and kitchen positions fall into the category of "priority jobs," a system that was instituted experimentally last spring and with which Holt is believed to have disagreed. Monro and Taylor have divided all jobs into two kinds--priority and casual. Priority jobs are roughly defined as those inside and outside the University which will net a student more than $100 a year. Right now most of the 500 priority jobs (300 inside the University, 200 outside) pay between $250 and $400. Some (nightwatchmen and night switch-board operators especially) earn as much as $1000.

It is by means of these priority jobs that Monro and Taylor use student employment as a means of bridging the gap between a student's estimated expenses and resources during a school year. In this job classification a slight shift in emphasis has taken place this year, with financial need gaining over ability to do the job as a criterion for getting it.

The way the system works now is about the same as it was under Holt. A student who thinks he will need financial aid during the coming school year fills out a scholarship form listing his estimated expenses and resources for that year. In a typical case a student estimates that his expenses will be $1600, his resources from his family $1000. That leaves a difference--or as the Financial Aid men usually refer to it, a "gap"--of $600 which must be filled in if the student is to continue his education.

Each man's case is an individual one and is treated as such by the Financial Aid Committee. But the Committee has certain guiding principals which it always keeps in mind. As Monro says, "All our scholarship award thinking revolves around the fact that every scholarship we give regulates the amount a man will have to work. Thus when we give a big scholarship we know that the student will have to work less.

"Consequently we try to give scholarships which will force men to work commensurate with the work--both academic and extra-curricular--he is doing at college. In return, the Employment Office alerts us about people who work very hard at their jobs. This shows us not only that a man is conscientious, but that he needs the money. A guy like that will usually be well-treated by the scholarship board."

The record of the man with the $600 gap is carefully scanned by the scholarship committee during the summer. If he has been doing Group 1 work, he will probably have the whole sum made up with an outright grant, and will not have to worry about working.

Are Students Reliable?

In most cases, however, a grant of about $200 is awarded, still leaving a gap of $400. The student is then presented a choice of obtaining a loan, going to work, or doing a combination of the two. "Some men will take a loan of $200 and get a $200 job and others will decide to work for the full $400," Monro says. "The important thing about it is that we leave students a choice, as opposed to places like Yale which do things on a rigid standard based on a man's standing in his class."

In getting jobs for students inside the University the Employment Office has been faced with two big problems; faculty skepticism as to student reliability and possible overworking of men already burdened with studies.

Miss Gladys Fales, who is now in charge of priority jobs inside Harvard, has combatted the first problem by constant checking of students employed by University departments and also by reminding such men that a bad job means a poor recommendation for placement after graduation. She says now, "I think that most University departments have been convinced that they can hire students with the knowledge that they will do just as reliable a job as outsiders."