For some time now, Professor Carl Friedrich has been petitioning his classes to support him in a campaign for a new lectern. At present, the lectern consists of two boxes and a small tilted stand which has a tendency to fall off. Professor Friedrich is not a hyperactive or even overly nervous lecturer--yet the stand on which his notes are placed slips off without much provocation.

Similar troubles afflict Professor Arthur Schlesinger. Yet he has succeeded in getting an outrigger placed on the lectern to keep his briefcase from slipping off. The Schlesinger case, however, only exemplifies the initiative required of a professor when he wants the University to provide him with basic needs. Professors Bate, Harbage, and Demos are similarly afflicted, but more passive.

As a last resort, Professor Friedrich has appealed to whatever passes for Christmas Spirit in a large and cold University to provide him with a new non-slipping, non-collapsible lectern. It is only fitting that he do so, for a lectern is something of a symbol in the academic community. Professor Demos has had to use an empty waste basket placed upside down upon a desk. Professors Harbage, Bate, and Demos have suffered passively with the two boxes and the tilted board technique.

It would be nice if the men in University Hall (who sit behind well polished mahogany desks) gave the professors a real lectern. But results might come faster and prettier if Professors Bate, Demos, Friedrich, Harbage, and Schlesinger all chipped in and bought one them selves.