THE THIRD COLLEGE

Constructive experimentation is undeniably the order of the day in higher circles of education. While Harvard tests the value of the Reading Period, Yale again faces a most vital proposition which, in view of President Angell's treatment of it in a speech delivered recently and printed in the current issue of The Yale Alumni Weekly, is not only of prime significance to every Yale man but to the educational world in general.

The issue of the moment is the proposed internal reorganization of the university, the central idea of which is the establishment of a Third College. For there seems to be among the faculty, the alumni and the undergraduate body a concensus that a fundamental change is imminent in not only the administrative machinery but in the purpose and method of Yale education. This feeling is the result of the sound observation of the above groups regarding some of the evils which not only threaten that university but have attached themselves to all institutions of higher education.

Yale, however, occupies a unique position because of its past two decades of departmentalization and the broadening of its group system. These two movements have tended to scatter the student units and at the present moment there is great fear of a loss of vital "organic unity". And finally comes the over-population of the college which is not only unfavourable to social values but which makes it impossible for the university to attempt freer and more generous educational experimentation. Briefly, this is the problem which has since 1914, when the creation of a Third College to stand parallel with Yale College and the Sheffield Scientific School was first broached, occupied a more and more prominent position in the consideration of all those connected with Yale. Now with the recent thorough treatment of the subject by President. Augell the question is place squarely before everyone. And as he requests, counsel and advice are neces sary before a successful solution may be secured.

The problems which the proposed Third College would meet are those which every large university must remedy in its own way. It remains to be seen whether. Yale can do away with the very definite social disadvantages which President Angell cites in his address and can maintain its traditional educational standards, at the same time adding impetus to personal intellectual progress. Always conservative and with an eye to the college as a unit. Yale is in a position to conduct an experiment all the more significant be cause of the trend of the times in presenting problems which have to be met in an entirely original manner.