THE SONS OF 1901

Oxford and Cambridge, with their students divided into small colleges and living in close union for four years, are famed for the solidarity by which these undergraduate groups are bound together. American colleges, on the other hand, with their dormitories and lecture halls spread out anywhere, have gained exactly the opposite reputation. The American student who lives in one dormitory one year and another the next makes acquaintances only with the men he sits next to in lectures and at football games. Consequently, when the Yard was reserved for seniors and the Freshman dormitories built, decriers of the old American plan greatly rejoiced, for by this separation into classes, they saw an inauguration of the English method.

But the class of 1901 apparently proves that the American way is good enough. Without dormitories in the Yard and without Freshman dormitories, this class nevertheless acquired in college a spirit of unity so great that it has overflowed into the next generation. It has formed an organization called the "Sons of 1901", made up of the sons who are now in college. As soon as a son enters in the fall, he is welcomed by another son, and then introduced to all the sons here. He is sometimes found summer positions and throughout his course is advised by sons on college matters. The organization is to each man almost a combination of faculty and senior advisor, Phillips Brooks House, and preparatory school club.

The classes of 1902 and 1899 have already followed the example of the class of 1901. If adopted by all classes, this idea should result in knitting more firmly together not only the fathers and sons but the whole Harvard world.