NEEDS OF THE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Dean Donham of the Graduate School of Business Administration in his annual report, published in part in the news columns of today's issue, calls attention to the pressing need of the school, a matter so important that it must have immediate attention, if the school is to accomplish all that was expected of it, when it was founded. In the work it has already accomplished, the Business School has proved conclusively that there is a real demand and a great need for some institution to bridge the gap between college and business, particularly for men who have been taking a liberal course while at college. That such an opportunity should, be limited; either in the number of students that can be eared for, or in the scope and standard of the training, is highly detrimental, both to the University's reputation and welfare and to the safety of the American ideal of a four-year liberal college course.

By limiting the admission to any department, merely on the basis of numbers, the University would be admitting that she had reached the limits of her capacity for service to the country in that branch of education. This would immediately cause a lessening of her prestige and national influence.

Dean Donham in his report makes it clear that without a graduate school for training in business methods, the combination of vocational and liberal education in the colleges is bound to occur. This is obviously not for the highest good of the best standard of culture in the United States.

The obvious solution is the enlargement of the facilities for graduate study of business conditions which at present are available only at the University.

The immediate needs of the school are a building and a larger teaching staff; the former calling for an immediate outlay, the latter for an endowment of no mean proportions. Taking into consideration the University's present high cost of operation, with its resulting annual deficit, the problem becomes extremely difficult, especially in view of the still uncompleted Endowment Fund drive. It would seem, however, that a drive for funds for the Business School would make a particular appeal to men not graduates of the college, who themselves, have a vital interest in the development of business efficiency. The training given in the Business School is of distinct value to the business men of the community in ensuring them a steady supply of men able to handle intelligently the industrial problems and situations. The initial prejudice against the theoretical Business School graduate has largely died out, and it is now realized that a knowledge of theory does not exclude the ability to make practical applications. The presence of Mr. Vanderlip as a lecturer at the school indicates that business men are in accord with the theory that business efficiency can be studied as a science. However, whether assistance from men outside the circle of the University itself can be obtained or not, the responsibility must not be shirked, if Harvard is to maintain its reputation for service to the community at large.