Such minds have demanded more of their professors in terms of time and quality. An increasing amount of attention has been focused upon the means of communication between the student and the professor; the most obvious and most criticized being the lecture system.

The lecture platform aspect of the professor-student relationship was described in General Education in a Free Society as the Olympian level. This lofty level will be improved only when Departments pay more attention to teaching and, more important, when the individual professor makes greater attempt to improve his teaching technique.

The other level of contact was referred to as the earthly, where "the teacher sits on the same level as the student, discussing the truth as it appears to each." While it is highly dubious that a University Professor will sit with a freshman discussing truth, it is possible that in the House dining halls, in an occasional meeting during office hours, and hopefully at an open house, a professor might chat with students more often than at present.

Attitude and Time

The question is largely one of a subjective attitude and a quantity of time which is difficult to measure. But in all, the professor's problem is largely that he wants to do too much rather than too little.

This can best be seen in the amount of time the professor spends on administrative details--at least a full afternoon aweek. Yet few professors if any shirk these duties as they firmly believe that for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences toremain independent, the faculty must do its own administrative work.

In recent years, professors have also spent increasing amounts of time working in the public domain as political advisers, government officials, and advisers to private industry. Rather than a luxury, this practice has come to be considered an important and worthwhile part of the academic life. As one Government professor said, these jobs are the "raw material" of the text books.

The professor is encouraged to follow such pursuits during sabatticals. If a professor wishes to concentrate entirelyupon research or a political campaign, he can take off one year in every four, and he will usually find some foundationor committee to pay him for his trouble. Occasionally the Dean's office or the Departments themselves have even had to apply pressure to halt a mass exodus.

But if the strains of conflicting roles call for improvement in the best faculty, several faculty members point out that there is also room for improvement among the undergraduates. As one professor said, "We are faced with either bringing the faculty down to the student's level of the student's up to the level of the faculty."

The student level would be raised, according to this professor, at the expense of athletes, class presidents, sons of alumni, and children of wealthy families. Such a move would discourage universal men among the students, but would make the College a community of scholars. These students would stimulate the faculty and thus encourage closer contact.

But rather than solve the problem, this might make the professor shortage even more keenly felt. Nevertheless, a less extreme application of this theory was discussed by Dean Bundy in the Fall 1955 issue of the College Board Review.

The Dean urged putting more pressure on the secondary schools by demanding more polished students and fewer "diamonds in the rough." He advocated the selection of the better trained student, when other qualifications are equal.

If the level of the student continues to rise, the professor will find his lectures are being better understood, and thus the students will find more areas untouched, more questions unanswered, and more loopholes.

Hopefully the professor will be encouraged to improve his lectures and to spend more time with his undergraduates. He and his instructors and teaching fellows have not fully met the present demand. They will find it more difficult to meet the future situation unless they make a concerted and conscious attempt to solve present failings.ARTHUR M. SCHLESINGER, Jr., took a year off to write for Adlai Stevenson in the last campaign.