On With the Dance

It goes without saying that social life plays an important part in any college today. Many of the critics of our colleges even contend that academic pursuits have been subordinated to social aspirations and in so far as this has been done the social life is detrimental to best results from studies. No doubt with some colleges and with some individuals in any college such a criticism is justified. On the other hand there are individuals in any college who place all emphasis on studies, failing to see the value of social education. This type of student is perhaps equally deserving of criticism for his narrow viewpoint.

All men and women entering college must make their decisions on this problem. Will they emphasize the social life to the extent of making grades, or rather what grades should indicate, only a means for this other end, will they isolate themselves in their academic pursuits from everyone except at class time, or will they take the middle course and make college life include both the varsity ticket and the textbook.

Perhaps no student will sit down and reason this out to his best interests, but the decision is to be made one way or another. It seems that the value of social life is many times underestimated by the traditional student and should not be strictly ignored. No small part of the success of the student in later life depends upon his ease in meeting people acquired by frequent contacts and associations during college.

The dance is the nucleus around which the social life is built. Not to know how to dance means exclusion from one essential and valuable phase of a college course--the social life. New students may well afford to know how to dance, if they do not already, for while studies should be the primary concern they are not everything. --Grinnell Scarlet and Black.