"COLLEGIATE INSANITY"

The universities and colleges of this country have for so long been the target of more or less competent magazine and newspaper articles that they have grown fairly well inured to such investigational surveys. Yet when a man appears who shows by his knowledge that he is really justified in talking about them, they can still find the time and the interest to listen to him. The latest arrival in this field is Mr. John Palmer Gavit of the New York Evening Post; and if the first of his series of articles now being published in that paper is any criterion he should command attention for some period to come.

Mr. Gavit, among other things, gives in this first article-published last Saturday-a resume of the various popular conceptions as to what a college stands for. He says, in effect, that the college or university is considered as a place; for scholarly and scientific research and the training of specialists; for the equipment of a caste of "learned professions"; for the polishing off of an intellectual or social aristocracy or cult of "leaders" in the body social; for fitting oneself to cut a larger figure in terms of money-making, social standing, or what not; for the shelter and treatment of physical, mental and moral "lame ducks"-a kind of sanatorium for boys who are too much for busy or incompetent parents; for fun, and the enjoyment of an exceedingly pleasant status under carefree conditions-participation in activities, making desirable friendships and gaining general prestige; and, finally, for the normal rounding-out of the formal education of the average American citizen in preparation for his more effective activity in all ways as a member of the community.

The list thus presented is doubly interesting not only because it shows the varying degrees of regard in which the college is held, but because it also embodies to a very large extent the characteristics of the men who make up the so-called "college student" class. The outsider may have his conceptions; with-in the college itself those conceptions become living actualities. There are few-undergraduates in Harvard, for example, that could not be fitted with nicety into some one of the divisions of the category. The list is one of beliefs; but it is one of human beings as well. Every man is still "in his humour".

It has been recently stated, and in large measure proved, that insanity is due to the abnormal development of some one characteristic of the human mind. Where fear, where anger, where greed, or any one of a "number of things" is unduly predominant, there is insanity. The normal mind is that in which none of its attributes is overwhelmed by any of the rest.

This being so, a significant comparison may be drawn, and a new phrase coined-"collegiate insanity". Which phrase may apply to any specific case on Mr. Gavit's list-and through that to a large number of college undergraduates. Indeed, it is a fine question how many of us are, in this regard, entirely sane. For there may be athletic as well as scholastic, and utilitarian as well as social, insanity. He who has set his heart entirely upon major letters and final clubs is in no better case than he who would win high grades and a Key; and the man who indulges in an overdose of extra-curriculum activities is no better off than either of the others. A sense of balance is a rare thing, and difficult to maintain.

It may well be that Mr. Gavit has done us a service. Those occupied in going the daily round are not usually the first to see their own peculiarities, although the problem of taking advantage of any revelation rests entirely with them. The doctrine of "in mediasres" is still a sound one, even though we may lose sight of it at times.