Students' IQ Beats Fathers'---Bender

"The post-war generation of Harvard men is more mature, more purposeful, and more intelligent than their fathers."

Dean Bender gave this appraisal of the present student last night on the first WHRV "Armchair Audit," a series of broadcasts devoted to talks by University professors and deans on their special subjects.

Dean Bender backed his statements by quoting statistics that show "phenomenal records." Last year, he said, the proportion of dean's-list students was the highest in Harvard history, while the percentage of the student body who were fired from the University was the lowest.

An explanation of the workings of the University took up the first part of Dean Bender's talk. Harvard's organization, though complex, "has the merit of working," he said, and has kept it going for 300 years, while nations have fallen by the wayside.

Faculty Supreme

The supremacy of the Faculty, he continued, makes Harvard great. "It does what its collective wisdom dictates, and can overrule any dean."

Dean Bender used student dismissal cases to illustrate how college organization works. Each student who comes up for dismissal, he said, is treated as an individual case. There is no blanket ruling, except violation of the parietal rules concerning women in dormitories, which almost automatically leads to dismissal. But the Faculty has the final say in every case.

Despite all the rulings governing discipline, he continued, very few students are dropped for misconduct. Last year only nine of the 22 men who were fired had disciplinary charges against them.

"Contrary to common opinion," Dean Bender said, "it is not true that unfavorable mention of a student in a newspaper leads to severance of connection."

Overcrowding

He turned next to the problem of overcrowdedness in the College. The prewar size of the College was around 3500, Dean Bender said. "We wanted to bring the enrollment down from last year's 5600 to 5400 this fall, but many of our guesses went wrong."

The draft is one cause for overcrowding, he added. The College expected to lose several hundred men this year and took more Freshmen, but no one will be drafted until June, and only four have volunteered so far.

In addition, there was a smaller than average shrinkage of the incoming class between May and September, and more men expressed a desire to live in College dormitories than ever before.

Despite this, Dean Bender said, conditions here are better, in general, than those elsewhere, and relief is in store next spring, when there will be a net loss of 300 students.