Farnsworth Discusses Difficulties Caused by Adjustment to College

The problems of adjustment to college were outlined last night by Dr. Dana L. Farnsworth, Director of the University Health Service. Farnsworth delivered the second in a series of eight lectures at the Lowell Institute in Boston.

Independence is probably the first issue that concerns the student, Dr. Farnsworth said. Since, in general, the evidences of maturity outweigh those of immaturity, the freshman should be treated as an adult, he continued.

"Not all students," however, "can handle complete responsibility when it comes upon them more or less suddenly," he explained. Thus "many well-informed and thoughtful college psychiatrists believe it is desirable for the first-year college student to have somewhat stricter limits than those of his older colleagues," Dr. Farnsworth continued.

The ability to give love and affection is one of the primary qualities in a healthy person, and the lack of it is common in disturbed students, he said.

He went on to say that the most urgent problem facing college students is the question of how to contain his sexual drives in a manner socially and personally satisfactory. He found that in college communities it was the girls who set the standards of sexual behavior.