YALE OF "OLD BRICK ROW" DAYS NOW BURIED UNDER INFLUX OF MODERN EVILS

The following article, entitled "Back to the Fence," was written especially for the Crimson by D. T. Bartholomew, retiring chairman of the Yale News.

Th size of Yale College has become an increasingly important question since its enrollment was doubled by the addition of the Ph.B. course in 1919. Alumni who knew the intimate and democratic life of the Old Brick Row and now witness the rise of cliquishness and the disintegration of class unity, decry the changes that have come with expansion.

As the College has grown, the common meeting grounds have tended to disappear. Classes have been broken up and their members scattered in distant dormitories. That ancient institution, the Fence, has lost its charm. John Doe and the social celebrity, no longer sit side by side on its top rail and aimlessly while away the time between classes. The old beer shops, where all gathered Saturday night for an evening of good fellowship, are but a sacred memory. In their place have come movies, cars, and wholesale migrations known as the "week-end exodus". The last common meeting place to withstand the pressure of progress was compulsory chapel, and at last, mirabile dictu, even this has been abolished. With no time or place for informal contacts and general discussions, there is at present little opportunity for the formation of public opinion on any question affecting the common interest.

Outside Activities Overemphasized

Considered from the viewpoint of the individual, another problem has arisen. As the numbers have increased, it has become proportionately more difficult for the underclassman to achieve that distinction which the Yale social system seems to demand. In order to make friends and become a worthy member of society, the feeling is that one must have "made" some team or competition. As a result, the ambitious tend to dissipate their energies in activities of little lasting value in order to acquire temporary recognition. Outside the circle of "big men" are those of quiet worth who have time for the pursuit of cultural interests, and leisure for the friendships and purposeless occupations that characterized college life before it become a business. Another indirect result of the size, then, is the placing of false emphasis on extra-curricular activities in order to obtain social honors. By the present system, the successful become enslaved by their jobs and the rest have no chance to contribute to the life of the College, a condition which did not exist when Yale was smaller.

Cliques Kill Democracy

Along with the disappearance of that intangible force, public opinion and the undue emphasis placed on outside activities, another unfortunate tendency has developed. When a student feels that he is just one of 1600 members of an undergraduate school at New Haven and is not conscious that he is an integral part of his class, the natural reaction is to seek out men of his own stamp rather than resort to the company of the fellow next door. Instead of having a small and solid class unit, the tendency is for similar men of like interests to get together in their own tight little worlds and carry on to the exclusion of others. The transition of fraternities into eating clubs has fostered the development of these cliques, contrary to all the traditions and democratic principles of Yale.

Although these changes may be attributed largely to more fundamental causes than that of numerical growth. It will probably be admitted that the further restriction of numbers or the break-up of the college into smaller units would help reestablish the democratic spirit of the old Yale. Since it is advisable to cut the quota for admissions, the solution seems to lie in the reorganization of Yale College on the plan of the English universities on the basis of the old system of class distinctions, or by a scheme which combine both principles.