THE OTHER DEAN'S LIST

The competency of University 4 is a matter concerning which the undergraduate is pretty much at ease; but some alumni have, in recent issues of the Alumni Bulletin, questioned the procedure of the Dean's office in handling probation. To these gentlemen Assistant Dean Nichols replies in a soothing fashion in the current number of the Bulletin. He parries the assault neatly with a general account of the system in effect, and then thrusts vigorously home with examples and statistics to show the validity of his statements; that "there is nothing arbitrary or automatic about the present method, but that, rather, it is as broad and as flexible as any system can be made to be."

From a perusal of Dean Nichols' article it is evident that his position is justified. It is difficult for the large and unwieldy university to escape the charge of impersonalism, and to meet the volleys of those who harry the administration from distant loopholes. No longer can the Harvard student know personally a tenth part of the faculty; and for the man whose standing is secure, the intimate relation of earlier times would hardly be advantageous. In the case of the student balanced on a knife-edge between probation and "passing on", however, personal acquaintance and personal information become of prime importance to the powers in University Hall. The really thorough investigation of each student's circumstances, and the manner in which each case is handled on its own merits, are refreshing proofs that the much-lauded human factor is not absent from the Dean's office.