On Three Cylinders

Entirely apart from future rationing, the number of tutors at present is very scarce. Intended, among other things, to widen the student's acquaintance with older, more experienced men interested in the same academic field, the tutorial system putters along on the energy of about one-ninth of the Faculty. And most of the tutors are young instructors who in normal times must worry about their Ph.D.'s, and to whom the draft boards now beckon. The only way to keep the tutorial system off the war-time casualty list is to expand it to include more teachers, especially those in the upper brackets.

Out of a total teaching staff of approximately 1800, there are only 234 tutors. Even omitting the Fall Curator of Coleoptera and the other exotically titled members, this number is still a distinct minority of the Faculty. University propaganda, however, uses the total 1800 for the basis of its boast "one teacher for every two students." Not even all of the 234 are full tutors, however. Every teaching fellow glorified by this additional title does only a part-time job, for he is allowed to spend only three-fifths of his efforts in teaching. Yet most of the 164 lower bracket Faculty men who tutor are teaching fellows. Associate professors and professors comprise the rest of the vast minority.

Before the tutorial system is contracted to fit its staff, the reasons most of the Faculty cannot help the system through the war emergency should be made clear. Aside from vital war work or lack of funds there is no reason. A Student Council committee last year suggested a number of shots in the system's financial arm. One of them, deemphasis on spending for graduate schools in favor of the college, is taking place without any planning. As graduate students go off to war, professors and Lehman Hall both need worry less about these schools. Undergraduate tutorial in groups of several men would save enough additional professors' time and University's money to enable the system to continue. And when students plan to spend only two regular academic years in college, the tutorial system becomes the main hope of liberal education.