Exchange Students Discuss College, Criticize Educational Policy, 'Cliffe

Three exchange students from Swarthmore revealed a kaleidoscope of impressions during a free swinging discussion at the CRIMSON Building last night.

Here on a Student Council exchange program, David V. Edwards '62, Herb yarvin '63, and Jeremiah M. Gelles '63, have spent the week attending classes and questioning University students.

Although balking at any generalities and rarely agreeing on particulars, they found that a Harvard education has a distinctly different orientation from their own. "We are taught how to think," said Gelles, "you learn the facts." Yarvin observed that many Harvard courses are "cocktail conversation classes--the students learn more of what the great men said than we do."

According to Gelles, a math major, the emphasis at Swartmore is on discussing our own ideas."

The three also found that Harvard students act differently in class from their Swarthmore counterparts. "Here people are afraid to say things if they are not sure of them. At Swarthmore, people say things especially if they are not sure of them," commented Gelles. Edwards added that Swarthmore students challenge their teachers in class much more than Harvard men.

Yarvin described the Swarthmore students as "consciously suburban." He noted that out of 140 freshman boys, 135 received athletics letters. "The red-blood-] well rounded American boy is being thought at Swarthmore," Yarvin said, "the result is a homogeneous student body." Harvard students appeared to defy classification, he added.

Turning a critical eye towards other phases of College life, Edwards remarked "It is inconceivable how insignificant the Harvard Student Council is." Swarthmore the Council holds a centtral position on the campus, controlling the budget for all organizations.

Very evident to the Swarthmore visitors who come from a college that boasts a to one girl-boy ratio, was the social position of Radcliffe.