Summer School's Pound of Flesh

During the coming session, the Harvard Summer School will treat the large flock of undergraduates like the usual group of transients and scholastic delinquents. Students will have to pay five dollars a half course to audit the classes that, during the winter, are open to them free of charge. Intending the summer session as a continuation of the regular college, the University should allow undergraduates their usual auditing privileges. Many will have neither the interest nor the time to attend other courses, but it is a poor plan to restrict students who are interested in a more varied education or who wish to correlate for September divisionals.

In past years, this auditing fee has been necessary. The independent Summer School was given no financial support by the University, and needed all the money it could get to meet expenses. Dilettantes, enrolled in one course and auditing several others, had to be restricted. Now the situation is changed. The Summer School is to be a part of the regular University and it will be run financially as such. Composed largely of undergraduates desiring a continuation of the education received during the winter session, this year's Summer School will have an entirely new group.

To keep outsides from overcrowding the classes, the University could issue cards to undergraduates who wish to audit. But since students are allowed to enroll in only two courses, they should be allowed, as usual, to broaden their education beyond the sixteen courses required for a degree. The system used under the old plan for former Summer School groups needs an overhaul and tune-up to keep pace with the new accelerated program.