FOOD FOR FRESHMEN

Beginning this morning the first of the series of articles on the various field of concentration which will go to make up the Crimson Confidential Guide appears. In every sense the Anthropology Department lends itself to the lead-off position in the series, not only because of its alphabetical priority, but because it is in general one of those closely knit and efficient units that form the academic body of which Harvard is justly proud. There are short-comings, to be sure,--and these are frankly dealt with in the article,--but, by and large, Anthropology is a pleasure to those who go into it, even if its specialized appeal make it hardly more than caviar to the general.

But although the critical function of these articles is felt to be important, inasmuch as it is the only method at the present time by which the University receives any popular indication of how effectively its teaching staff is operating, the prime purpose of the Guide is to give the bewildered Freshman an idea of what undergraduates think of the work to which they are devoting their "four long years". The Guide is an expression of undergraduate opinion which is gathered at oral hearings and by questionnaires among the Freshmen, and its mistakes result not from editorial bias, but from the human fallibility of its writers. There is no attempt to soften criticism or to grind an editorial axe: that would hardly be fair either to the college or to the incoming Freshmen for whom the Guide is offered.