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An agitated Yale man has written an article in the February "Forum" entitled "Big Men--or Cultured?" It seems that every undergraduate in--New Haven is possessed with the notion that he must "do something." The author of the article is afraid that Yale is consequently going to the bulldogs.
Mr. Goldsborough has re-discovered the axiom that college is intended as a house of culture. He attacks the spirit of competition and self-seeking which gains for a "Big Man" the privilege of membership in one of Yale's awesome fraternities and Senior societies.
Underlying this Dunciad of the "Big Man on the Campus" is the Yale spirit at its best. Mr. Goldsborough is concerned first for true culture and second for Yale tradition. He does not seem to realize that the malady at Yale is not the "Big Man" attitude not the spirit of competition, but the solemn sacredness of tradition. Harvard has competitions, club-elections, and all the other inevitable paraphernalia of undergraduate activities, but they fall to hamper true culture, simply because the system is not worshipped by the majority of students.
As long as there are football teams, crews, student Councils, publications, and clubs there will be "Big Men" in colleges. Harvard regards them as natural phenomena; Yale, as living idols.
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