FAULTS WITHIN

"The college as exclusively a world of intellectual pursuits is rapidly be coming an extinct species", writes Professor Jerome Davis of Yale in the December "Century". Then he proceeds to suggest two methods of preservation. Both of these, the procuring of inspirational teachers, the linking of college more directly living, have been delineated many times before.

Yet, influenced no doubt by his own life work, Professor Davis qualifies the second of his suggestions by insisting that it comprise a liaison between the colleges and such social endeavors as the Collegiate Industrial Research Movement. By such a means does he believe that academic interests can be vitalized sufficiently to share with extra-curricular activities in the attention of the average student.

However, such a means, unbiased by any tradition in social ethics, seems a trifle artificial. Of course there are those who judge a college career only by its effect upon their knowledge of the social order. But not all are possessed of such an understanding. Many must remain unmoved by academic problems unless those problems convince them by their own vitality.

So the first suggestion of Professor Davis: that inspirational teachers are a prime requisite in the conservation of the college more nearly approximates the truth. For no matter how much an undergraduate may thirst for knowledge in September, after some months he requires additional stimuli than his books can supply to bolster up his human frailty. These must be supplied by those who teach. Indeed, the college like the individual must seek its strength within itself.