CLEARING AWAY THE BARRIER

The more of the Sophomore class to get into closer touch with its foreign members is the step in a direction hither-to neglected by undergraduate Harvard. The foreign student under present conditions has very little chance to get acclimated. Phillips Brooke House welcomes him, and welcomes warmly, but his receptions there are necessarily of a semi-official character. Brooks House cannot and does not try to take the place for the "stranger within the gates" of the social life enjoyed by other men in the class with family anchors to windward.

The University has no class rushes or mud-battles, considered in many colleges the quickest and surest way of bringing a class face to face. The traditional Harvard man is supposed to feel that he has outgrown that sort of thing. If so he has forgotten, in his maturity, to find a satisfactory substitute for the fellowships of the free-for all.

This neglect has aroused all the criticism of "Harvard indifference." The foreign student here finds his way to personal friendships with his class-mates a difficult one to follow unless he is an athlete or inclined towards some branch of University activity. His one outlet is through the medium of the class-room, and class-room associates are not in general, of a very lasting kind.

The Sophomore officers have taken the best way out of the difficulty. The only solution of the problem lies in frequent informal gatherings in which foreign and local members can mingle without the feeling of being at an official established the thoughtless indifference of the traditional Harvard man will become a myth in fact as well as in name.