PRESIDENT'S REPORT STRESSES NEED OF NEW DORMITORY ACCOMMODATIONS

The announcement that the University is to have a new Freshman dormitory, given by Mr. and Mrs. George A. McKinlock of Chicago in memory of George A. McKinlock Jr. '16, who was killed in the war; a study of occupations into which Harvard men have gone after graduation; a detailed analysis of the Harvard system of general examinations for graduation and of the tutorial system; and a plea for students to enter college at an earlier age than is now customary, were features of the annual report of President Lowell to the Board of Overseers, made public last night.

Discussing the McKinlock gift and the need for other dormitories and for a new chemical laboratory, President Lowell said:

Suburban Conditions No Longer Exist

"If the rapid increase of students following the war has not yet come to an end, the prospect of a further growth in the undergraduate body raises serious problems. One of them is that of dormitories, and indeed of housing of any kind. The Dean of the School of Business Administration points out in his report that the construction of the subway, by bringing Cambridge closer to Boston, has caused many people to seek apartments here, and suddenly transformed the conditions from those of a suburban to those of an urban place. This has rendered the question of housing for all our students much more acute. It has been most evident in the case of the Freshman Halls, which have rooms for five hundred men, including the proctors. When they were built that was enough for all the Freshmen who did not live at home, but it is far from being so now, and beside the newcomers in the College more than a score of Engineering School Freshmen also live there. Shepherd Hall, a building belonging to the University, and Drayton Hall, a private dormitory, have therefore been reserved for Freshmen, with a provision that they shall take their meals in the Freshman Halls not far away, thereby sharing in the common life. These two dormitories hold 67 men, but there are in addition 94 Freshmen living in other dormitories and boarding houses in Cambridge, beside 151 living at home, a part of whom would, no doubt, be in the Freshman Halls instead of at home were there room for them. By the generesity of Mr. and Mrs. George Alexander McKinlock of Chicago, a fourth Freshman Hall will be built in memory of their son, George Alexander McKinlock Jr. '16, a gallant officer who fell at Beray-le-Sec. on July 21, 1918. We are deeply grateful for this memorial to a brave soldier, which will be an inestimable boon to generations of future students living in the hall that bears his name.

"For other students, as well as for the Freshmen, more dormitories are sorely needed. Of late years there has been a widespread and growing recognition of the importance of community life in the formation of character among students. One hears it even in parts of continental Europe where dormitories have hitherto been quite unknown, and in America many of the eastern colleges are now much better equipped with halls of residence than we are at Harvard. Save for our dire need of chemical laboratories, no greater benefit could be conferred upon the University, and no more enduring memorial can be created, than by a dormitory for students."

At the close of a description of the system of general examinations for graduation and the tutorial system, President Lowell spoke of the aim of a college in these words:

"At Commencement many years ago Lord Playfair quoted the saying that the function of the two great English universities was to teach men to spend, that of the Scotch universities to teach them to earn, an income respectably; and he added that American universities existed for both of those objects. This cryptic remark might be the subject of endless discussion. The aim of the American college should be, not to give its students the technical training and tools of their future occupation, but rather to fit them to be citizens, to develop those qualities that lead to the better life both for themselves and for the community.

Younger Students Rank Highest

On the subject of the age of students entering college he said:

"The number of Freshmen admitted to Harvard College by examination was larger in 1920 than in 1919, and in 1921 increased nearly 30 per cent over 1920. This year it has remained almost unchanged; for although slightly more candidates took the examinations the number who succeeded in passing them was a little smaller, being 754 against 773 a year ago. It seems not improbable that, for a college with an entrance examination like ours, the great increase in students that followed the war has reached its limit. Of those entitled to be admitted 698 entered, against 709 last year. A considerable number of candidates who pass the examination always fail to enter; some of them because in June they have not definitely selected their college, others for reasons of health of means of support, while not a few are kept out for a year on the ground that they will derive more profit from college when older. This last reason seems in almost all cases a mistake. Statistics compiled by Dean Holmes some years ago showed conclusively that the younger students were better in scholarship and conduct than the older ones.

Should Enter at Seventeen

"This result is no doubt due in part to the fact that the student who enters young is on the average a brighter, more industrious, more serious boy than one who completes his school days at a later age. But there is also something in taking each part of the educational process at the appropriate time. Many a student enters older than is wise and then strives to go through his college course in three years, thereby substituting a year in school for one in college, although for the development and maturing of his capacity the latter is far the more valuable. With the long preparation now required for any professional or commercial career our youth tend to enter upon their life's work too late, and to lay the foundation for their career at a time when they should be actively engaged in it. That often creates a desire for knowledge directly useful to the neglect of despening and enlarging the outlook on life; an impatience with studies that would have been appropriate earlier, but are irksome when taken too late. Any youth of ordinary ability can be prepared for our examination at seventeen. At that age he is quite competent to pursue college courses, and four years afterward, when he is twenty-one, is as late as he ought to begin the study of his profession or the apprenticeship for his career. In the case of young men who pass the examination for admission and then postpone their entrance, there is a further disadvantage. Their course of study is necessarily broken or diverted, and it is often hard for them to take up again the normal current of work. The transition from school to college, from set tasks performed under a regular supervised assignment of time to a freer self-direction--a change in which many students are in danger of losing their bearings--becomes more difficult if in the meanwhile their attention has been turned into a different channel and the momentum has been lost."

More Graduates Enter Business

A chart accompanied the report, showing the occupations into which Harvard graduates have gone during the past 25 years, indicating a decrease in the proportion of men entering the ministry, and a rapid increase of men going into business, this latter increase appearing "to have been made in part at the expense of medicine, but chiefly of law and education." The decrease of those entering the ministry President Lowell spoke of as "a source of great regret," adding that it "is the more notable because it does not appear to accompany any progressive diminution of religious feeling among the undergraduates." Of the changes in the numbers of men going into business, law, and education he said:

"The most striking fact that appears in the chart is the large proportion, and rapid increase, of graduates who go into commercial and industrial pursuits. In 1896 it was thirty-five per cent of the class, and rose to over fifty-five per cent in 1916. This is in itself by no means undesirable. That the men engaged in business affairs, and especially those who occupy positions of great power and responsibility, should have a broad education and a large outlook on life, is altogether for the advantage of the nation. Perhaps our colleges could do no better work than forming the minds and characters of such men; and if the growth in the total number of college students is due to the fact that youths who look forward to a business career are turning to the colleges more than in the past it is altogether a healthy sign, provided the colleges do not take it as a reason for substituting a technical business training for the greater purpose of enlarging and deepening thought. Whether the attraction of business will prove permanent or not is difficult to foresee. The result will probably depend upon the extent to which men of affairs find that college graduates are more useful to them and show more resourcefulness and enterprise, with no less industry, than other men. If they do find this they will tend to prefer graduates who have made good use of their time in college.

Law and Education Suffer

"The gain in the proportion of graduates entering business occupations appears to have been made in part at the expense of medicine, but chiefly of law and education, each of which in the course of the twenty years fell about nine per cent. So far as education is concerned this is a reversal of a previous tendency, for between 1870 and the close of the century the proportion of Harvard graduates going into teaching increased very much. The report of the Bureau of Education shows on the other hand that the percentage of graduates entering the bar had, with some notable fluctuations, on the whole declined since the Civil War. The statistics of the Law School tell the same tale. For a score of years from 1872 the men from Harvard College formed more than half the college graduates in the School, and until 1910 they furnished more than one-third, whereas in 1921-22 they were less than one-fifth. In that year, indeed, there were in actual numbers over one hundred less graduates of Harvard College in the School than in 1905-06 when they reached their highest point. This is clearly due, not to temptation to go elsewhere, but to a falling off in the proportion of graduates of the College who enter the profession. In the five years from 1801 to 1805 it was almost 38 per cent; in those from 1856 to 1860 it was nearly 35 per cent; in the four years 1896, 1897, 1899, and 1900 it averaged about 25 and 1-2 per cent.