WISCONSIN INTERLUDE

There have been many educational ventures in recent years attempting to adapt the modern university to the needs of the present day. Such a venture is the Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin which Dr. Alexander Meiklejohn has recommended be closed in 1932 in order to conduct a survey of the results attained during its five years of experimental existence.

The Experimental College was founded with the purpose of developing "an understanding of the human mind as it creates and fashions the civilization in the midst of which men live." Students studied two civilizations treating them from every point of view in an attempt to realize this difficult ideal. This attempt at universality, although noble in aim, is open to all the dangers of superficiality. Trying to solve the "eternal problems which confront us all" class and administrative restrictions have been broken down and the emphasis placed on the close relations of tutor and tutee.

With this extremely mature thesis and the decided trend toward individual liberty the question as to whether freshmen and sophomores are sufficiently competent really to benefit by this method of education is a very dubious one. Dr. Meiklejohn however considers the time ripe for an evaluation of his experiment and the results whether favorable or unfavorable can not fall to be of help in the task of creating a balanced university adapted to the needs of modern life.