"I HAVE A LITTLE LIST"

Two days of classes, sandwiched in between two holidays at an important moment in the year, bring into prominence the advantages of the Dean's List. Those who are on the list, and so are free from the compulsion of attending their last class before a holiday, may perhaps find that they can use the two days to better advantage than by going to classes. Those who are not on the list can only envy the lucky ones--and try to "make" next year's list. For the Dean's List is in its way a thing to be "made" as well as a team or a club.

But the competition is not particularly keen, and the reason is easy to find. The great majority of undergraduates have only the remotest idea of what the Dean's List is; and by most of them it is thought of as an unattainable object. When the requirements are plainly understood, it becomes evident that by a slight effort many more men could profit by its privileges than the number listed at present. The facts are these: all men who attain Groups I and II in the Rank List (that is, all who have had a record of one and one-half A's and two and one-half B's or better, are automatically enrolled in the Dean's List, and remain on it as long as they continue that standard. Furthermore, all those in Group III who become candidates for Distinction are also eligible. Consequently any student with a B average can secure these privileges--which, briefly, are complete freedom in regard to attendance at courses, and a certain amount of liberty in choice of studies and in other scholastic matters.

It is clear that the advantages, aside from the honor, are worth working for, and are not an impossibility for many men who now maintain a C average without difficulty. The list is a deserved reward for the student who has ambition enough to aim above the mere passing mark. But that very fact suggests one fault in the system. At present the University has set C as a "good-enough" mark; and any man, it would seem, who does better than "good-enough" should have some special consideration. The Dean's List is the natural reward: yet it does not reward all such men, but only the upper half of them. Those in between have no compensation, and there is no incentive for the student to do better than a C-average unless he can do a full B-average. If the requirements for the Dean's List were reduced so as to include all who have proved themselves better than "good-enough" namely, all men in Group IV or above, both justice and utility would be served.