THE DEAN'S LIST EXPANDS

The extension of virtual Dean's List privileges to all Seniors in good standing is another definite step along the liberal lines which have come to characterize the administration of discipline in the University. Harvard has always shunned the childlike disciplinary method of prescribing a fixed number of unexcused absences which a student may take with impunity, a course comparable to the doling out of a poison harmless to a certain point and fatal thereafter. In colleges where this system is followed, the records show the prevalence of the very human tendency to take the full number allowed. The Dean's office in the College has, however, avoided an arbitrary standard and has treated each case on its individual merits, allowing great discretion to undergraduates in good standing. Only in flagrant instances has disciplinary action been taken. The new rule for Seniors is therefore not a radical innovation, but only a slight extension of a policy which is already being practised.

It is obvious, however, that much depends upon the manner in which Seniors receive this extension of privilege. The results of the experiment will be watched closely by the Faculty, and if an orgy of promiscuous cutting follows the inauguration of the rule, the experiment will be adjudged a failure. A reaction would then inevitably follow which would retard for years the progress of this liberal movement in which Harvard may take a just pride in being the leader.

It is not too much to hope that the operation of the new rule for Seniors will be successful enough to warrant its further extension to the Junior and Sophomore classes. Its application to Freshmen will probably never be either practicable or desirable, as it would add materially to the danger of the already critical period of transition between secondary school and college. The present change in itself is trivial, but it brings nearer the day when Harvard undergraduates will rightfully be regarded as conscientious students, interested in their own scholastic welfare and hence competent to regulate their own attendance at college classes.