LIMITING THE STUDENT BODY

President Hibben of Princeton has made a break with tradition in limiting the growth of the University to 2000 students. Heretofore it has been the custom to rank a college by the number of its students rather than by its intellectual achievements; it is this that President Hibben hopes to escape. Princeton's aim, according to the words of its president, is to became "not a big university, but a great university."

Up to a certain point it is advisable for a university to continue its growth but there comes a time when its very size acts as a check to the maintenance of its standards of quality. One of the chief factors in college life should be a close, association between the students and the professors, an association which cannot be continued when the student body grows to an unwieldy size. This, with the feeling of unity which springs up in the small college, is perhaps the most important contribution of the college to the world, and it must almost inevitably be lost when each additional student becomes no more than a member of the undergraduate body who absorbs such knowledge as is passed over the counter to him. The personal relationship is a vital one, and one not to be too carelessly ignored or discarded.

It may be objected that a permanent limitation in size will work against the democratic principles which have so long been the boast of American universities, but the result would probably tend toward a greater rather than a diminished democracy. The only method of selection open to the university which artificially limits its student body would be that of competitive examinations open to all applicants, a process which in itself would help to climinate from the university much of its present deadwood. The mere bangers-on of the universities would become a thing of the past.

The Boston Transcript sums up the matter in a single sentence: "The fetish of size, in education, is a fatal one." The purpose of a university is not alone to instruct and inspire the greatest number but also to make that instruction effective. The loss of the personal touch in education cannot be counterbalanced by the fact that a greater number of students are being taught.