SCHOLARSHIP, WITH A WORD ON PHI BETA KAPPA.

Recognizedly all men cannot be scholars. In the College, however, there has existed and still exists a mistaken disregard of scholarship. Plenty of men of energy and ability in every class never take Phi Beta Kappa seriously, or at least do not take it so until after their chance of winning it is gone. There is something wrong with undergraduate opinion, something beyond the indifference of the unenergetic which is a price of freedom and individualism.

Concerning the question of Phi Beta Kappa and scholarship there is of course no unexceptionable doctrine. Certain members of Phi Beta Kappa have had their conception of life narrowed to books: certain non-members have attained a very full measure of success after graduation. But in the long run the concentration derived from attention to studies has proved the greatest benefit of a college course. To turn the attention of the undergraduate mind more surely to this fact, a number of changes would help. There are two which seem immediately feasible.

In the first place Phi Beta Kappa should adopt an absolute basis of scholarship for election. Its elections at present are based, with rare exceptions when a man is known to have attained, his place dishonestly, upon marks. The leading eight men in a class compose the Junior eight; and the next twenty-two, the Senior twenty-two, actual college records determine chiefly the composition of the additional ten. The announcement of its basis, however, says that eight of the first twelve men in the class are elected in Junior year, and twenty-two of the next forty-four in Senior year; and that the additional ten are men whose records have been marred by sickness or other causes not affecting their good character, or men whose worth has been attested by their professors. These clauses are generally understood to mean that it exercises a right of selection according to a man's character and all-round ability from say the sixty-five high stand men in the class. It is understood to elect men somewhat on a basis of character when as a matter of fact it elects them on an almost absolute basis of scholarship--marks being in the long runs, the best indication of scholarship. Consequently the general opinion is often that the Society is short-sighted in its choice of men, and it loses prestige. Make it purely honorary for the thirty of forty high stand men of the class, and what ever popular opinion of certain of the men elected may be, it will be recognized that they are elected because they have won out in a set competition. When this absolute standard is deviated from, make it plain that such deviation has occurred only because a man has won his marks dishonestly. There is no need for delicacy in reflecting on the reputations of such men.

In the second place the Freshman should receive more instruction about the opportunities for and rewards of scholarship. He should be told in speeches, through the papers, and in every possible way exactly what Phi Beta Kappa is, what its standards are and what it means; the requirements for a degree with distinction and what it means; and the nature of the First and Second Groups and the innumerable scholarships. At present his advice on the subject is largely indefinite. He is told that scholarship is a fine thing, but not what it requires and what he can derive from it. To remedy this would not be a very difficult task, especially when the incoming class is concentrated in three dormitories.

It must always be remembered that the struggle for a proper valuation of scholarship is a problem of turning the popular opinion of the college, and turning it toward something which the general tone of American life does not favor. The change is a slow one -- we believe that it has been operating with the higher standards of scholarship during the past few years--and is still far from accomplishment. Every move which will influence it should be made; the two suggested are evident and practical.