THE CRIMSON PLATFORM FOR 1925-1926

The CRIMSON believes that all criticisms of Harvard, to be constructive, must proceed from careful thought concerning what Harvard ought to be. This in turn will depend upon what the ideal Harvard graduate ought to be.

The CRIMSON is convinced that the aim of a College should be to produce, not scholars merely, but complete men in every sense of the term, men prepared for lives of active leadership in the world. A man of this type has the following characteristics which, lest it be said the CRIMSON is no authority on such matters, are taken directly from Plato:

1. Well developed, healthy, vigorous, and hence, beautiful bodies, making possible the perfection of nobler qualities of mind and soul.

2. Scholarly intelligence, which implies both a thorough grasp of facts and a mind alert to use them as the background for action.

3. Splendid courage, itself a sort of knowledge that the only things to be feared are ignorance and baseness in oneself.

4. Temperance--not to be confused with a craven absence of one particular sort which now parades under the name--which proceeds from a knowledge of human nature and a power to control one's action upon the basis of this knowledge.

The CRIMSON further believes:

That whatever tends to develop the above qualities has a necessary place in Harvard life, and that whatever does not tend to those ends has no legitimate place and should either be changed or abolished.

That college faculties and college students have in the past worked at cross purposes because the former have tended to emphasize the scholarly ideal to the exclusion of all else, and the latter have too often been content to pursue a more or less animal ideal to the detriment of their mental development; while the development of character has been left almost wholly to the student to pick up as best he might.

That, since all four qualities enumerated above are necessary to the most capable leadership, Harvard cannot escape the obligation to foster the pursuit of all four in a manner properly proportioned to each student's individual needs.

The CRIMSON believes that the prominence which discussions of education hold in current magazines and newspapers is largely due to the breakdown of religion. Universities, at first founded as adjuncts to the Church, now stand alone, with the Church exercising only a slight shadow of its former influence over the lives of men. This situation requires that Universities readjust themselves to the needs of the times and accept the full burden of that which formerly fell upon them only in part--of preparing men to live. To accomplish this readjustment at Harvard the best thought of the best minds, must be devoted to a careful study of the problem. If the students, through their official spokesmen, the Student Council, can aid by presenting their point of view, that body should meet the issue by appointing a capable group of undergraduates to study the problem and make definite suggestions.

If such a study be undertaken, the CRIMSON believes that, among other things, the following changes will appear most deserving of attention:

1. To administer the present enrolment limit to allow admission to Harvard to those men possessing in the greatest degree the qualities which make for leadership. This does not mean the lowering of present academic requirements, and the CRIMSON wants to make it particularly clear that it does not mean suspending these academic requirements in favor of the less tangible qualifications of character, personality, and future promise. What it does mean is to impose these tests in addition to academic requirements in order to reduce the Freshman class to its limit of one thousand.

2. To require every Freshman to take psychological tests similar to the personality ratings now used by Sheffield Scientific School and Antioch College for the purpose of discovering defects and recommending remedies. Such a proposal does not go on the assumption that all men are capable of equal perfection, nor that it would be desirable to reduce all men to a common denominator. The best physical specimens then, as now, will become leaders in athletics, just as the best mental specimens will become the greatest scholars. The benefit of the plan will lie in preventing warped development by calling attention to corrective work to meet a student's greatest need, whether in studies, in athletics, or in any other of what are now termed "outside activities."

3. To make athletics as representative of Harvard as studies. The athletic requirement for Freshmen and the plan of interclass football now being inaugurated are steps in the right direction. Additional measures must be taken, however, if every student is to participate in some form of bodily development, and if every member of every Harvard team is to be a representative Harvard man. To make this possible, the effort should be made to get immediate action from the authorities upon such outstanding needs as a new gymnasium, a swimming pool, more squash courts, and a baseball cage. It goes without saying that any tendency to commercialize athletics means overemphasis and must be discouraged.

4. To provide the exceptional student with greater freedom for development by reducing course requirements to fourteen (or fifteen including English A) for candidates for distinction. This would allow such students to take three courses in their Junior year and three in their Senior year, and to do a much greater amount of tutorial work than is now possible. To prevent abuse of these privileges by the unworthy, permission to work for distinction should be made contingent upon the tutor's recommendation at the end of a student's Sophomore year, and in rare cases at the end of his Junior year, upon proof of merit.

5. To increase the number of tutors, to make certain of their high quality by offering sufficient remuneration, and to insure their greater accessibility to students by having more tutors live in the dormitories.

6. To attempt to fill the void occasioned by the decay of religion by adapting the present system of distribution to include a course in either psychology, philosophy, or social ethics, or a new course combining the three and by organizing a new science course in each of the major departments of science, which, in addition to giving the laws of nature, should seek to explain them in terms of philosophy. Such courses would be given jointly by members of the science departments and the department of philosophy, and would satisfy adequately the spirit of the science requirement.

7. To secure complete cooperation and coordination between all activities of the University, the so-called "outside activities," as well as courses of study proper. Students concentrating in Social Ethics, for example, should be encouraged to engage in Social Service under the reorganized department of Phillips Brooks House, just as students interested in English composition would be aided by work on the College publications.

The CRIMSON believes that if such changes as these were effected, such popular caricatures as the goggle-eyed Phi Beta Kappa man on the one extreme and the ox-like tramp-athlete on the other would disappear from the Yard, and there would remain to pursue their fullest development those who hold to the Greek ideal--the normal, healthy, intelligent students.