Lux et Veritas

Last Monday, a series of large well-wrapt bundles appeared in the downstairs corridor of Sever. The bundles marked the culminating phase of a Great Improvement. They were the first of 1400 new desk chairs, tailor-made for Harvard and Radcliffe bottoms, to be installed in Sever classrooms during the next few months. For that venerable Victorian edifice is being entirely remodelled inside: fluorescent bulbs and light pastel color schemes are turning the place into something of a model classroom building. And in the spring, when Sever is finished, the ambitious gentlemen of the Building and Grounds Department hope to do the same for Harvard Hall. At last, it seems, the University is taking its seamier side in hand.

It is hoped that Harvard Hall will not be the final effort. People are still going blind in the New Lecture Hall. Students are still being won over to pessimistic philosophics in the gloom of Emerson. And sweating examinees still have to brace their bluebooks against the interminable wobble of the tables in Memorial Hall.

Comfortable, well-lighted surroundings are not the most important elements in education. Mark Hopkins, it must be remembered, taught from the other end of a log.

But the value of the proper environment for learning must never be underestimated. Even with a dull lecturer, one can sleep much more effectively if the chair is comfortable.