President Predicts "More Rapid Teaching To Graduates Line of Greatest Usefulness For the Engineering School"

That the School of Engineering is heading rapidly toward graduate status is given official recognition in President Lowell's annual report to the Board of Overseers. "Graduate students in the School have been increasing more rapidly than the undergraduates,"' the President states, "and considering the large number of schools for the latter in this country it would seem that giving a higher and more rapid teaching to graduates will be our line of greatest usefulness."

Considering the health of the student body, the President concludes that "careful medical service is given to all." Viewing with satisfaction the decline of "eating around" by undergraduates, he again suggests Memorial Hall as a dining hall for graduate and law students.

Praising the work of the Dental School, the President appeals for a five million dollar endowment. The Medical School he sees as another example of "the change that has taken place in many parts of the University from a local to a national appeal."

Of the Engineering School the president reports:

Engineering School

"In the School of Engineering the graduate students have been increasing more rapidly than the undergraduates, and considering the large number of schools for the latter in this country it would seem that giving a higher and more rapid teaching to graduates will be our line of greatest usefulness. More than twenty years ago, when the bequest of Gordon McKay was received, the Governing Boards voted to turn the Lawrence Scientific School into a graduate School no one at the time, apparently, observing that this might be inconsistent with a provision in the will that instruction under the fund must be "kept accessible to pupils who have had no other opportunities of previous education than those which the free public schools afford." Later this point was raised, and as the will states that all grades of applied science from the lowest to the highest may be taught, courses were offered for both gradu- ates and undergraduates. In practice this has not worked well; and by a plan just approved by your Board it will be possible to offer courses better suited to graduate students while complying fairly with the provisions of the will.

Eating in Memorial Hall

"Dr. Worcester speaks of the improvement brought by the new dining halls in the Houses and elsewhere over the previous practice of undergraduates in getting their meals. This matter has had a long history. Forty years ago Memorial Hall was very popular. More men were assigned to tables than could sit at them at one time; there was a waiting list, and Randall Hall was built for men who wanted less expensive board. But gradually these halls became less frequented, until it was impossible, to maintain them without a loss. The final blow was given by the war, which brought in the habit of eating at cafeterias--not a desirable one, for the object of students' meals is not only nutrition, poorly supplied by the cafeteria system, but also companionship, which it does not supply at all.

"Moreover, the undergraduate thought Memorial Hall remote, and at last it had to be abandoned. After a time the students showed signs of becoming tired of what they called "eating around", and the University offered to build a dining hall on Mt. Auburn Street if enough of them would agree to take their meals there to insure its success; but the signatures needed could not be obtained. Meanwhile some of the undergraduates formed eating clubs, and meals were more generally served in the existing social clubs, while other men were supplied by increasing the service at the Harvard Union.

For undergraduates the question of good and regular food has been set at rest by the Houses, and for the Business School by the dining rooms in its dormitories; but there are one thousand graduate and fifteen hundred law students, beside others, mostly without provision. In their case Memorial Hall is by no means remote, and it has been proposed to fit it up for them, so far unfortunately without response on their part.

Five Million Dollars

"Mention has already been made of the service rendered by the Dental School to the student body, especially the freshmen--thirty-eight hundred and two cavities were discovered, showing a condition needing serious attention--and beside those referred to their own practitioners six hundred and twenty-two men were treated at the Stillman Infirmary. This is only one of the ways in which the School is seeking to extend its usefulness. Inside its walls its teaching and research have followed, and in a large degree led, the change of the last quarter of a century from a purely mechanical to a biological point of view; but its plant and resources are too limited for the purpose. One must not forget that the money for the present building was raised by the instructing staff, who long went without salaries to improve the School. Until the last few years it had no endowment whatever, and what it now has is far too small for the work it is doing and can do. As soon as conditions are more propitious an attempt will be made to raise five millions of dollars, partly to enlarge the plant, but mainly for endowment; and this has become one of the major needs of the University.

"National Appeal"

"In the Medical School, where the numbers are also limited--too much, I believe, for the size of the plant, but the Faculty does not think so--the change in composition has been marked. Dean Edsall points out that in 1910 between sixty-five and seventy per cent of the students came from New England, while in 1930 the figures were reversed. This is the change that has taken place in many parts of the University from a local to a national appeal. He attributes the result in the Medical School to the presence of an increasing number of men in the Faculty of marked distinction as teachers and as investigators. During the past year, he adds, there were in the School one hundred and seventy nine persons engaged in research for a large part of their time, more than double the number so engaged a decade before.

Principles Before Practice

"The report of Dean Pound for the Law School is especially interesting this year because of a full discussion of the curriculum, its adherence to the policy of laying stress upon the fundamental principles of law, as contrasted with giving the students material for immediate use in their practice, and at the same time its adjustment to the changing condition of the times in the selection of the topics through which those principles are taught. The weight laid on principles rather than practice was the essence of Langdell's system. It has made the reputation of the School and is the source of its strength. The Dean speaks also of the limitation of numbers, which has been forced upon us by their enormous growth. There are now over fifteen hundred students, quite as many as can be properly cared for. This year, he says, six hundred and fifty have been selected from eight hundred and seventy well qualified applicants, resulting in a distinct improvement in the student body.

Business School Capacity

"Like most of the other growing portions of the University, the School of Business Administration has reached a point where it is obliged to limit its numbers. In fact the students now exceed the one thousand which Mr. Baker's buildings were designed to hold. Nor, if possible, would it be wise to increase the size of the classes. The instruction as given here is new, without previous experience as a guide, and time enough has not yet passed to guage the methods employed by the work of the graduates more than a few years after leaving the School. The Faculty is, therefore, constantly experimenting with examinations, tutors and methods of marking, with the object of directing the energy of the students toward those forms of effort that will be for them of the most permanent value; for, as in every other part of the University, the objective should be less acquiring familiarity with technical processes than a firm command of principles. The selection of the best candidates for admission is no simple matter; and in doing it college records alone do not suffice. So far as possible the men are personally seen. In fact members of the staff interviewed seventy-one per cent of the applicants, visiting eighty colleges; and this last figure is not large if we reflect that in the year just past every State was represented in the School, and graduates of two hundred and eleven colleges.

"Owing largely to political conditions that make tenure of office by health officers uncertain, the number of American students in the School of Public Health continues small; but its contributions in other ways are large. The respirator, whereby a patient is confined in a box with carefully regulated conditions of temperature and atmospheric pressure, has proved of such medical value that one hundred and fifty are now in use in the United States and Canada, and they are being taken up abroad. It is, in fact, an example of how unexpected benefits may come from scientific studies. The instrument was devised in studying conditions in the gas and electric industries, and the experiments from which it resulted were paid for by them; but it was found to have a more general application, and has saved lives.

More Buildings

"This report began by describing the completition of the new Houses and of Wigglesworth Hall in the Yard; but they are far from the only buildings finished in the past year. Most of these were mentioned as under construction in the last report. The Faculty Club was opened near the end of the first term, and has proved a valuable adjunct to the amenities of academic life. The indoor athletic building and swimming pool were also opened and fully used, but the identity of the Alumnus Aquaticus who gave the latter is still a mystery. We know he has been there, and hence, while we cannot tell him of our gratitude he has the only true reward of benevolence, that of knowing how much pleasure his generosity has given to those for whom it was intended. The field house given by Mr. Clarence Dillon has also been in use throughout this autumn, and is a vast improvement over the old locker building destroyed by fire.

University Employees

"The employees of the University are now so numerous that a more uniform and comprehensive system has become a necessity. In former times, of smaller things, each dean or director engaged, controlled and paid his employees, and attended to the cleaning and care of the buildings he used, subject to little oversight save in his total expenditure. Gradually the janitor's service, the cleaning and the like have been centralized under the office of the Comptroller, but uniform treatment of employees was not wholly insured. During the past year the Corporation called upon the Industrial Relations Counselors of New York to inspect and report upon the subject. Their most important suggestion was that we should appoint a Director of Personnel Relations, and they recommended for the position Mr. Augustus L. Putnam, the Consultant on Careers, who has accepted the new office without abandoning the old one. In spite of the title the position is mainly advisory, except that all officers are required to send