Dean Briggs's Annual Report.

Dean Briggs's report on "The College" contains a thorough statement, illustrated by tabulated figures, of the enrolment of the past year, the admission examination records and the number of men transferred to higher classes, or dropped to lower classes or from College. Concerning the sixty Freshmen dropped from the class at the end of last year, the Dean says: "Inquiry into the origin and record" of these men "yields no clear explanation of their failure; it shows, however, that, if public schools contributed to the Freshman class their usual proportion of between thirty and forty per cent., they succeeded somewhat better than private schools in sending pupils who weathered the Freshman year. Inquiry shows further that, students from private schools in and about Boston have in College peculiar social distractions."

As to the reason for the increase in the number of dropped Freshmen, the Dean says: "My own belief connects the increase of dropped Freshmen with the increase of conferences and short tests in our large lecture though what may be called 'the greater Boston' contributed but two hundred and nineteen to a class of five hundred and thirty-seven, the same region is responsible for thirty-three dropped Freshmen out of sixty. If these facts 'throw a dark light' on Boston as an educational centre, it must be remembered that courses and with the corresponding decrease of weight given to examinations--for which students may be transiently prepared by skilful coaches. Most dropped Freshmen are dropped for want of C's; and it seems harder for a lazy Freshman to get C than it was two years ago."

Of the Union the Dean says: "To persons interested in the social life of students, the most important gift of the academic year, and one of the most important ever received by the University, is the building for the new Harvard Union. . . The mere size of the University has made it impossible for all students to belong to any one society or club; and the older societies and clubs, though their influence has steadily improved, are sometimes believed to promote the formation of cliques. At best, they cannot be thoroughly democratic. The Harvard Union is a club to which every member of the University is welcome on the payment of a small admission fee. . . . . Even now, after an existence of a few weeks, it has aroused such united enthusiasm as the University has never known; and it cannot fail now and always to promote the best kind of democracy."