THE DISTANCE ANGLE

One of the more pleasing aspects in University tradition is the legend of Great Men at Harvard. Closely interwoven with this has been the chronic undergraduate complaint of the inability of close personal contact with the well-known Figures because of the unwieldy size of the College. One suggestion to remedy that shortcoming was the installation of the Friday afternoon Faculty teas at the Union, affording the average student a two-hour closeup of the leading professors and tutors connected with his own department. The scarcity of student-material at these gatherings hints more of exaggeration of the important of the wish than of an earnest desire on the part of any large undergraduate group for such an opportunity.

The advent of the House Plan includes as an integral feature a more personal contact between faculty and men rooming in the new dormitories. In some quarters the failure of the Faculty teas may be construed as an excellent barometer for the reception of faculty color by the men down on the river. However, there may be justification in the theory that it is infinitely less agreeable to tramp through the slushy environs of Cambridge to the Union than to play the role of willing auditor before the blazing long-fire of the House common-room.