ADVISING THE DEANS

Undergraduate opinion is sometimes worth much, often worth very little. Especially is the critical opinion of the worth of a fellow undergraduate a hazardous basis for just judgment. Just how much of the character-sketching done in last fall's reports on individual Freshmen written by that species of underclassmen known as Student Advisors possessed any real insight must remain a matter of conjecture.

Next fall, the reports of the Student Advisors, instead of going to the CRIMSON and being blazoned forth--anonymously--to a gossiping and inquisitive world, will be at the beck and call of the Deans of the Class of 1931. A Freshman will fail to pass two of his November hour examinations, and from the recesses of University Hall will fly a message: "Bring us the advisor's report on Mr. Blank!" The Student Advisory Committee will go through its files, discover the desired report, and dispatch it posthaste to University 4. And presumably the Deans will peruse carefully the words written by a Junior or Sophomore--about the character, personality, and habits of a mere Freshman.

Undoubtedly in many of these cases the Deans will hand back the reports with a smile, and proceed to settle the questions in hand just as if there were no such thing as Student Advisors. By the same token, many of the Advisors themselves will have had to report on Freshmen whom they have seen only once, whom they have found uncommunicative, whom they know exceedingly little about. These reports will of course be of little practical value.

But there will be cases, also, and probably a considerable number of them, when a report tells of the Freshman's difficulties in the first weeks of college, of his ambitions, disappointments, and mistakes caused by ignorance of his surroundings. When those who set in judgment decide the fate of one of these members of 1931, the Advisor's report may settle the problem one way or the other. It is because of these cases--comparatively few, actually fairly numerous--that the Student Advisors' exist in that capacity. The inception of Freshman week, one of the achievements of Dean Greenough's administration, has given the Advisor's added reason for being. The undergraduates have an important part in the proceedings during those first few days. Their importance is enhanced, and their responsibility greatly increased, by the promise of careful consideration by the authorities of their opinions of their advisees.