College Jeers

"The Yale Record," whose province it is to satirize things academic, has just issued a "House Planner's Number." Yale, it will be recalled, has lately decided to follow Harvard's lead in dividing its large undergraduate body into residential groups and has accepted a munificent gift from Mr. Hark ness for the purpose. Presumably the jibes of "The Record" represent the opposition to the innovation of a large section of undergraduate, opinion.

Since the success of the house plan either at Yale or Harvard depends eventually on its attraction for the students, it is impossible to dismiss this irreverent criticism as of little importance. It deserves analysis and the serious consideration of the authorities. One finds that it is based on the belief that the fraternities will suffer, that men of uncongenial temperament and tastes will be forced to eat and live together under the admonitory eyes of resident members of the faculty; in short, that the new dispensation will destroy the freedom as well as the landmarks of the old social system and substitute therefore something stereotyped and stale on an English model unfitted for the American scene.

These are not frivolous objections. Very possibly they are unjustified, but the fact that they exist presents a formidable psychological obstacle at the outset of the experiment, one that requires tactful handling. N. Y. Herald-Tribune.