FRESHMAN DORMITORIES AND UNIVERSITY INTERESTS

The advantages and benefits which the Freshman Dormitories offer have been widely proclaimed. While so far there has been every reason to consider this newest experiment toward greater college democracy a complete success, it is as yet too early to consider the period of trial entirely over. Prior to their construction such opposition as existed to the present buildings found its chief strength in the fear that the already small amount of intercourse between Freshmen and upper classmen would be still further decreased, that while class democracy might be furthered, it would be at the expense of the individualism which has ever been Harvard's peculiar heritage. These fears have as yet been in no wise justified; the danger, however, may still be real.

In certain special fields of college activity, notably athletics, the advisability and even necessity of distinct Freshman organizations under the direct supervision of upper classmen is evident. In view of this fact it is not surprising that under the influence of the new dormitories proposals should be made for the formation of similar Freshman organizations in other fields. In the great majority of activities such organizations would not only be highly undesirable from the point of view of the existing institutions but from that of the Freshmen themselves. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of the literary publications. It is, therefore, with great satisfaction that the CRIMSON learns of the early abandonment of an enterprise recently considered by the members of one of the dormitories for the publication at frequent intervals of a small paper devoted exclusively to Freshman news and other subjects primarily of Freshman interest. Such an attempt would have been a mistake both from the point of view of those undertaking it and from that of the class as a whole, as being, just to that degree in which it was a success, a step in the wrong direction, a step away from and not towards earlier and closer contact with the University as a whole.