BENEVOLENT DESPOTISM

When a freshman has adopted a proper swagger, battered his hat and shredded his shirt collar, he is usually considered duly acclimated in a college. As a matter of fact acclimation goes far deeper than the skin and often requires the whole four years. The University of Maine has decided that acclimation is a growth which can be forced and accordingly has put into a practise a kind of not-house method. Those about to enter the University were called on a week parry to underlie a course of intensive preparation for college life. From Wednesday until the succeeding Tuesday, there men received physical and psychological tests to examine their fitness and listened to lectures on duties note taking, use of the library, college customs and every conceivable college topic. But the week was not all work and no play. There were smoker receptions, visits at the homes of various professors, even a picnic and track meet. The grand finale was a mass meeting of the class for or organization and the election of officers.

It is not possible to say that "they do things better at Maine" than at the University because the difference in size prohibits comparison. A class of over nine hundred would certainly raise a dangerous rebellion if it were called to work a week early. And even were it to come meekly to Cambridge, it would at the end of the week, still be an incoherent mass in spite of the labor spent in organizing it. Furthermore, whether for good or ill, the rigmarole of skull caps and class rushes no longer exists here, The two most pressing problems to the novice at the University are courses and extra-curriculum activities and for help in understanding these the freshman's best friend is usually his student adviser.

Leaving out all comparisons, it is hard to see the necessity of a whole week of preparation, especially in view of what an extra week of vacation means when set against the many months of hard work. Few miss anything important by not knowing at first how to take notes; duties and prohibitions may be gleaned from Parietal Rules pamphlets; and a description of demeanor and dress proper for the freshman could be sent out in advance. Probably most sub-freshmen would rather run the chance of pitfalls and confusion than lose a week of the "good old summertime".