A FIRST STEP

Yale's elective program, like our own Distribution and Concentration, provides both for a sampling of many fields, and a more thorough knowledge of one or two. But in the latter direction. Yale goes even farther. Certain courses are considered properly introductory to certain others, and the new plan requires a student to take some of the advanced in addition to the elementary. Thus there is a direct compulsion to progress beyond the surface of a subject.

At the University, no such compulsion exists. In fact it is possible to fulfill the Concentration rule with courses all of a more or less elementary nature. But a scheme has recently been devised which will be an incentive to deeper study, without the odium of a compulsion. Already, courses here are classified in three grades: "Primarily for undergraduates"; "For undergraduates and graduates"; and "Primarily for graduates." The courses in the latter group are necessarily open only to men who have made considerable progress in their particular fields. They deal with more minute or obtuse aspects of a subject, and they give to the student the satisfaction that is to be had from advancing a little beyond the commonplace front line. Without one or two of them, no program of Concentration is put to its full advantage. The earnest student finds in them the most profitable part of his work; and the suggestion recently made will give them additional attraction.

The new plan is so simple that it needs no defense: it is proposed to stop recording attendance in all courses of the upper group. At present, most of the students enrolled in them are graduates, for whom attendance is voluntary. Clearly, undergraduates who have reached one of these advanced courses are not in need of the restrictions which are found necessary in other cases. Presumably they have learned the importance of their work and may be trusted to cut with prudence. As a small step in the direction of voluntary attendance in the College, the Dean's Office could scarcely find a more suitable beginning. Treatment of undergraduates in these courses with the same confidence that is shown to graduates, is bound to increase the desirability of advanced work. Incidentally, if the plan is adopted, it will serve as a lesson in voluntary attendance which will help to decide whether further steps can safely be taken.