SONS OF DAMOCLES

One of the worst features of going on probation is going on; and the other is getting off. Such a statement may sound like insanity; but when a system allows a man to escape with five weeks less of actual probation than his room-mate who supposedly fell from grace at the same time, it seems that there is possibility for improvement.

Under the present arrangement the Administrative Board acts on each case as it comes up and the offender receives his notification within a day or two. But delayed marks or press of business may cause the postponement of action for a week or two; and in one extreme case a student had taken his April hours before-being notified that he had gone on probation at mid-years. Mean while the culprit enjoys the feeling of Damocles. Release is equally hard, and often there is a second period of waiting, similarly protracted, and far more irksome and seemingly unfair than the other.

The remedy is almost as self-evident as the evil. Sot a day when probation begins for each period, and-notify every one at the same time, printing on a card the corresponding date when probation would end provided the marks were sat is factory. Special cases might be brought up prior to the "probation" meeting of the Administrative Board and then be held over to take effect the same day. No one wants to find the Office an inexorable machine, but not a few of the sufferers under the present system would be willing to forego some individual attention for a little machine-like certainty.