Proposed Business Course

At the final business seasion of the meeting of the Associated Harvard Clubs in Detroit, last Saturday, President Eliot devlivered an address dealing with the tendencies of higher education and announcing for the first time a proposed business course at the University.

The growing influence of the modern university depends on the efficiency of the men it produces and puts into the work of the world, said President Eliot. The past 40 years have seen some notable changes in the educational system of the American schools. The changes extend to all grades and divisions of the school work, and they have resulted in the broadening and deepening of that work to a remarkable degree. First among these developments has been the steady tendency to increase the period of residence at the University. We are now planning a new business course at Harvard which will require a degree for entrance, and which will require five or six years to complete.

A second noteworthy change is found in the tendency toward individual teaching. This is a fearfully expensive improvement, and is the main reason for the increasing cost of an education in this country. But perhaps the chief evidence of progress is found in the change in the matter of discipline and the form and spirit of government in the school.

President Eliot's speech was followed by a general discussion of plans for making a closer organization of Harvard graduates. The association elected the following officers: president, H. McK. Landon '92; vice-president, V. M. Porter '92; secretary-treasurer, L. H. Shepherd '00. The plan of the new business course is in the hands of Professor Taussig. Although the business school has for some time been under consideration by the corporation, it has not yet been taken up by the board of overseers, and has not yet been arranged in detail.