BRIGHT COLLEGE YEARS

The existence of a basis of fact for the assertion of Professor Rogers of M. I. T. in the University Club News that extra-curricular activities no longer play so important a part in undergraduate life as they formerly did scarcely invites rebuttal. The activity mania, rampant not so many years ago, seems to have subsided with all the suddenness common to excesses, along with hazing and other manifestations of misdirected energy in the youthful. The increasing maturity of outlook of the student has taken from activities much of their previous exaggerated appeal, and placed them in their true perspective. When Professor Rogers attempts to deduce from this, however, that non-academic interests will dwindle until they disappear, one must take issue with him.

It is true that the spirit of exhibitionism which affected the activities, as well as every other phase of college life, is disappearing. The rattling Ford, the ukelole, the spirit of extravagant devotion to the college, all these are passing or have departed, and with them has passed the idea of extracurricular activities as the main aim in college life, a welcome sign of the appearance of a more balanced sense of proportion among the students. The extra-curricular activities themselves, however, now that they have resumed their proper place, serve too useful a purpose to disappear. They offer some testing ground where the student can apply the thinking power that his acholastic work has developed.