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Of the many problems which have a vital bearing on the welfare of Harvard, the most important is the development of the College and its relation to the University as a whole. Enrollment figures and statistics of sectional representation alike indicate that the College has not the national position held by the University. This situation is probably due to the fact that in the moulding of the various parts of the University into a compact whole peculiarly undergraduate interests have been to some extent overlooked. The College is the centre of all the schools; it has problems essentially its own. While graduate students come merely for advanced study, and in professors see little more than guides of thought, undergraduates in general have a broader purpose and in their instructors seek leaders of men. Accordingly, everything should be done that will break down the barrier unfortunately existing in most cases between Faculty and students. The system of advisers should be strengthened all along the line; the true solution may be the selection of younger men, who will feel a more thorough interest in this work.
Another question intimately connected with the relative positions of graduate schools and College is the arrangement of courses. Too many of the "primarily for graduates" brand present the ornamental but scarcely useful spectacle of three devoted students delving into the mysteries of the starfish's eye or earnestly promoting the interests of science by investigating the morphology of the house-fly. Valuable as these researches may be, they can hardly be considered as of sufficient importance to outweigh the lack of a general course in American literature and the relative scarcity of courses in government. Graduate students are mostly holders of degrees from other colleges; studying at Cambridge, they do not regard themselves as Harvard men, but are loyal to Mason City College or the University of Central Nevada. It is through graduates of Harvard College that Harvard influence will be spread throughout the country. It is the position of Harvard College in the University as a whole that will determine how great that influence shall be.
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