THE STUDENT'S SPHINX

Every week or two some critic cries out in print that something is wrong with American universities. One fault finder blames commercial tendencies; another says too many are going to college; still another points to "Christo et Ecclesiae" upon the Harvard seal and says that Harvard and other universities turned their backs on "Veritas" when they ceased to emphasize the fundamentals of religion. Whatever the specific charge, there seems to be a general agreement that something is wrong.

In answer to such attacks Dean H. E. Stone of the University of West Virginia has written in the Educational Review that knowledge has increased to the point where too much is expected of the present generation of college men and women. He says: "The flunker, the athlete, the pampered only son, the tea hound, the college politician . . . existed when we were young and those who went to college were so few as to be 'select'." He argues that the colleges were objects of criticism in his day, but they nevertheless turned out some pretty good results.

The one fallacy of this argument is that it misses the point. Suppose Dean Stone does prove that the evil is not new, is it any less real for having become chronic? Perhaps the student is too close to the issue to venture a great analysis, but this, at least, is certain: many an undergraduate who takes his college work in all seriousness cannot shake off the haunting question "After all, is it worth while?"

Faced with the perpetual problem of employing him time to best advantage, many a man feels that it is not worth the extra margin of time necessary to bring a C up to a B, or a B to an A. And the same student feels constant dissatisfaction with himself if he gets a C or a B when he knows he is capable of doing better.

Burdened with this mental conflict, such a student would hesitate no longer if he could only know once for all what course to pursue. But, when he seeks to know, the Sphinx returns the old, old answer which clouds the most important problems of life in doubt and mystery: "Who knows?"