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wrong order. And all this time the doctors are cutting the poor fellow up down at the hospital.

"They get him down there to the hospital soon enough and put him up on the operating table, so I am told. They held a consultation, calling in all the authorities on the schoolmaster's trouble. After a while a decision was reached and the doctors operated. They removed a few things here, and tied a few things together there, and put in a few things in another place. Then they took him off the table, put him to bed, and told him that he would be well in time to start school in the fall.

For as soon as school

"But, you know, sir, the trouble was that outside the hospital all this time there were great arguments going on among individuals, who still had their own ideas and theories, and couldn't for the life of them see why the doctors had done what they had done. And they couldn't seem to get it through their heads at first that the good schoolmaster had been operated on; and that there was nothing more to do except to help him back onto his feet. But everything came out all right. opened people had found the good old fellow pretty shaky on his legs, but awfully eager, and with a lot of progressive ideas. And everyone, Doctors and Lawyers, Ministers and Editors and all the simple every-day folk, got together one day and gave him a house-warming to show how glad they were to have him back with them; and to find him in such good trim after the operation. A few went ahead with wood and made a big fire in the schoolhouse; and all the rest arrived afterward with books and slates and pencils, and jelly and jams, and everything that could make the affair a success. And it was quite pitiful to see how pleased and happy the old fellow was at their sincerity and good-will and their eagerness to help him get started again. Indeed it was an occurrence not to be forgotten."

Here the Oldest Subscriber to the LIT. got up and knocked the tobacco out of his pipe.

“And you'd be surprised, sir, you'd be surprised how quickly the old schoolmaster improved after that, with everyone helping him along that way. You'd be surprised... Well, good-night." And he went out, tapping with his knotted walking-stick. We looked at the clock: midnight. It was too late to write that editorial. So we have decided to print his story as he told

it us. It may have some interest in it for the Undergraduates, Faculty, and Alumni of Yale to-day.

A SUMMARY OF RECONSTRUCTION.

We are offering this article purely for those of our undergraduate readers who are sufficiently interested in Yale to go through these pages and digest the facts that they contain. We believe that such a study will amply repay them by a more complete understanding of the situation that has developed in the reorganization of the college. The information is taken from the Report of the Corporation's Committee on Educational Policy, printed on March 17, 1919. The statement, giving the part of the plan that has already been put into operation, and the part that is still awaiting the action of the various committees, was given us by one in authority in the University. We apologize for printing an article so entirely lacking in literary merit, but we would excuse ourselves on the ground of its usefulness.

Two years ago the feeling among the Faculty and the Alumni that there was a need for Yale to pause and take stock of her educational goods, to determine whether or not they were meeting the demands of modern life, and to replenish where essentials were lacking, crystalized into a demand for action. The Yale corporation, therefore, in February, 1917, voted to authorize the appointment of an Alumni Committee on a plan for University development to prepare a report to be presented to the Corporation. This committee, composed of representative men among the Alumni, from all professions and the business world, and from all parts of the United States, met at frequent intervals during a period covering nearly two years, to hear and weigh evidence. Their final report was presented to the Corporation on February 17, 1919. The Corporation turned the report over to their Committee on Educational Policy, of which the Rev. William Adams Brown was chairman, and Mr. Stokes, the secretary. The committee met and held seven all-day sessions in New Haven. After consultation with the administration officers of the University, the permanent officers were invited to present their views on reconstruction matters in person or in

writing, and Professors Abbott, Bishop, Boltwood, Brown, Corwin, Fisher, Gruener, Harrison, Hendrickson, Morris, Phelps, Tracy, and Jeleny took advantage of the opportunity. In addition to these individual interviews, formal conferences were held with various committees of the faculties, and with a sub-committee of the Alumni Committee on a Plan for University Development. The preliminary report was presented to the Corporation on March 8, 1919, and was adopted, published, and became the definite Reconstruction Program. It was, according to the report of the secretary of the Committee on Educational Policy, practically the same as the report of the Alumni Committee, except in one or two minor particulars.

Since March 7, 1919, a certain number of the recommendations laid down in this plan have been put into operation. To the undergraduate there are four of major importance. The select-course has been abolished from the Sheffield Scientific School, and the course there lengthened to four years. Latin has been taken from the list of entrance requirements. The Graduate School of the Sheffield Scientific School has been merged with the Academic Graduate School, making all into a single department. A course in the Political and Social Sciences has been instituted in the College.

There is also one change of minor importance. Professors of all grades are to be elected to chairs in Yale University, and thereafter assigned by the Corporation to the school and department that it may deem appropriate.

The list of the recommendations yet to be carried out is longer. The Professors of all grades and the Instructors engaged in the same or closely related branches of study throughout the schools. of the University, are to be organized into a single department. The question of Professors' salaries is still undecided, for, as the statement of the Corporation Committee on Educational Policy reads: "the increases of salaries as already announced and those already under consideration, are to bring about, as soon as the additional increase can be received, further increases in the remuneration of those members of the Faculty who have consistently rendered the most efficient, intelligent, and inspiring service." The matters concerning the business centralization of the University, the University Health,

where the Corporation is to consider the advisability of requiring the physical examination of students at stated intervals, as was inaugurated before and during the war, and the installment of the new officers of the University, among whom is the important office of Provost, whose duties the Rev. Dr. Brown is undertaking at the moment-all these must be worked out in detail before they can be put into effect.

But of the utmost importance of all to the undergraduate is the matter of the Common Freshman Year. It touches his life most intimately and in the most places. It affects institutions that have become precious to him because of long association with them. The frame of the plan reads: That the plan of a Common Freshman Year be approved and that arrangements be made to carry it into effect in the fall of 1920; that the president appoint a committee including the Dean and Director, and representatives from the College and Scientific faculties to report to the Corporation regarding organization and studies of the Freshman Year." And in direct connection with this statement: "that a joint entrance committee composed of six members, three representing the College and three representing the Sheffield Scientific School to correlat more closely the requirements for admission with the work of the secondary schools, both public and private."

The committee on the organization and studies of the Common Freshman Year have many difficult questions to solve. There will be the all-important matter of the curriculum, to see that the studies established be the basis of a logical system of education, proceeding through the entire four years of college; the housing of the Freshmen, the effect upon class spirit of such large classes, and the organization of the Freshman Faculty with its own Professorships and Dean. These questions are very urgent. In the fall of 1920 the plan must be completed and in working order. That will mean that the committee will be reaching decisions upon these various questions very soon. It would seem essential that they should have the benefit of a real undergraduate opinion to help them where it can; so it becomes a real duty on the part of the undergraduate to understand the situation in all the parts that affect him closely, so that he may express mature and helpful viewpoints. We call his attention

to this article for study, and beg his earnest consideration of the points presented; because we believe that upon the actual working out of the Common Freshman Year depends to a large extent the success of the reconstruction.

It is with the view toward furthering general discussion, that the LIT. has instituted a column outside the precincts of the sacred inner pages, where opinions may be expressed that do not originate within the undergraduate body, but among the Faculty and Alumni. We take pleasure in announcing for the November issue that the Discussion Column will be opened by an article: "The Alumni Committee-A Clearing House for Educational Ideas" by a prominent member of that committee. We hope to be able to continue to publish in subsequent numbers similar stimulating and enlightening articles.

John W. Andrews.

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