THE POWER OF BALANCE

To the average undergraduate the Board of Overseers is known only in name as an august body powerful in the regulation of the affairs of the University and in safeguarding its interests. The student being in direct contact only with the effects of the administration, is likely to have at best a vague knowledge of the actual causes and agencies through which these effects are brought to pass. Being among the trees he is not likely to see the woods until he has passed through. So the student while he is directly in the field of jurisdiction of the Board of Overseers regards the Board with proper deference but with little understanding. As one of the powers behind the throne it moves in a mysterious way and the undergraduate beholds the wonders.

The announcement of the list of sixteen nominees, from which number six will be chosen this spring to fill the vacancies that fall open this year, is an enlightening commentary upon the nature and powers of the body. The names finally selected by the nominating committee from a long list of suggestions include a remarkable diversity of professions and occupations. In the list are six lawyers, two merchants, a banker, a manufacturer, a doctor, an author, an educator, one prominent in social service, one in public affairs, one in the real estate business. It would be difficult to imagine a list representative of a larger circle of contacts and experience than this one.

Thus the Board of Overseers presents itself in reality as an eminently practical, influential and well balanced body. It is not composed solely of portly financial magnates with heavy watch chains or of spare intellectuals with none, and the geographical distribution of its members serves only to make it the more effective. The common interest is the welfare of the University, in the regulation of which the machinery is apt to run so smoothly that the under-graduate scarcely notices.