King Discusses Freshman Year

The student who comes to college with his ideas "tied up in a small neat package" often experiences an intellectual revolution during Feshman year, Stanley H. King, associate director of research to the University Health Services, told delegates to the Student Council-sponsored Conference on Education Saturday.

King discussed what he termed "the conflict between autonomy and dependence." When the Freshman encounters new religious, moral, and social ideas, King said, he often faces a conflict between these new ideas those which he had at home.

Seminar delegates generally agreed with King's statements but suggested that the first year of college is primarily a "destructive year," in which the student discards old ideas. Only in the second year, they felt, did the student begin to "construct a new philosophy."

Discusses "Valedictorian Complex"

The "valedictorian complex," King suggested, is an example of another student problem--"ego identify." King claimed that the Freshman has to re-orient himself among students at least as capable as he, and in doing so is forced to re-evaluate his ideals and ambitions. Contact with members of differing social starta and intellectual ability, King said, also forces the Freshman to reconsider his "social acceptability."

Originated by the Student Council last October, the Harvard-Columbia Conference on Education will meet at least once a year in the future, bringing together undergraduates of leading Eastern colleges to discuss common problems.