More Business Formalities

Again, Robert Maynard Hutchins, youthful and revolutionary president of the University of Chicago, breaks the ice for an innovation among privately endowed institutions. This time is the announcement that hereafter freshmen entrants at the Midway will not be subjected to entrance examinations. He said, in addressing a group of Kansas City high school students:

"We propose to accept from high schools students who have the recommendations of their instructors as being eager to learn, able to learn, and not merely passers of examinations."

For institutions which have been endowed by private funds the waiving of entrance examinations is a new thing. And it is a step in the right direction. It is a continuation of the policy of Hutchins toward a new liberalism in college supervision. This latest move will make it possible for a student to enter the University of Chicago, remain in school for a entire year, and yet never be subjected to an examination. He may be enrolled and yet never attend a class. But--regardless of the apparent laxity in the method of handling students--it is very unlikely that great numbers will flock to the Midway anticipating an easy year. That final comprehensive examination will give the students reason to study.

Dr. Hutchins is, as we see it, attempting to make a college education conform more nearly to the conditions which will be encountered after graduation. The student is being permitted to enter the school on recommendation, and he will be likely to obtain his position after graduation on recommendation. He is on his own while in college, but if he fails to do his work the consequences must be suffered. Likewise the business world demands the accomplishment of the task, not mere formalities which are met along the way. --Daily Illini.