PROMPTNESS APPLIED

The unfortunate predicament of the University Register has been only too long apparent. Its tardiness, its thanklessness, and its basic unpracticability have appeared quite plainly to all who were concerned with it. Heretofore no definite remedy has been suggested. It is now high time to find one, while the fate of the Register still hangs in the balance.

As only a few know, most of the bother and delay in editing and publishing this directory is occasioned not by the college data, as one would naturally suppose, but by the statistics pertaining to the remainder of the University. Those who have previously been responsible for the Register feel that as an organ of the entire University it can never be practical. Professional or amateur publishers, whether competent or incompetent, will never be able to make it a prompt or paying proposition, as long as the Graduate Schools are included in its pages. It is their belief that the Register should contain the statistics of the College exclusively.

Such a change would undoubtedly increase the speed of publication tremendously as well as add to both the circulation and the advertising. The editor of the Register declares that not a single copy in two years has been sold to a graduate student. He predicts that a College Register could be on sale two weeks after the opening of college and show a substantial profit.

It is not a matter of such great importance that the book should be handled by a committee of one, two, or three. Nor is it essential that such a committee should be appointed by the Student Council, or named by them upon the advice of the employment office. The Register, on a paying basis, would offer sufficient rewards of its own to account for those who gave their time to compiling it. The general mechanics of the matter would take care of itself.

It is desirable, however, that such arrangements should be made several months in advance. It is too much to expect of any committee to function instantly in the fall, unless it is warned of its responsibilities during the preceding spring. The appointments should certainly be made by the retiring Council in the spring and left until the organization of the next year's body.

A great many will question the limitation of the Register, on the grounds that it will separate the college hopelessly from its graduate schools. The college office directory answers these doubts in large measure. It still admits easy access to the other departments of the University. In the long run slight inconveniences can be suffered, if the gross inconvenience of publishing a Register six months late is removed. It is the purpose of this editorial to advance as far as possible such a needed innovation.