OUT OF THE WOODS

Professor Munn's Committee on the Choice of Electives interviewed 662 students during the Spring and Fall of last year and found that many Freshmen showed abysmal ignorance about the all important problem of concentration in departments of the University. Having spent all their Freshman year satisfying elementary requirement such as English A and History 1, the students knew comparatively little about the various fields of concentration, or what the departments, had to offer. The result was that the Committee was forced to assume the duties of the Freshman advisers, who should have counseled their advisees earlier in the year.

Because each Freshman was subjected to a barrage of questions, he naturally felt that obstacles were being put in his path, and that some malevolent hierarchy of officials wished to prevent him from majoring in the field of his first choice. The Committee's bark was worse than its bite, however, since everyone in good standing was admitted to his chosen field.

Professor Munn's Committee can not continue to assume the duties of the Freshman Advisers every year, unless more instructors are assigned to do this work. The Committee should either be enlarged to take over the job of advising on a much larger scale, or preferably it should be allowed to resume the work it was originally intended to do, namely to supervise the flexible Quota System and continue to collect the information for the University, which it has done so far in a most efficient and praise-worthy manner.

If the Freshman Advisers were able to give more assistance to their advisees so that each Freshman would have a definite idea about his field of concentration, the need for the continuation of the Quota System would be abolished. The college recognizes the right of every student in good standing to follow up his real desires, but fluctuations in the number of concentrators from the Spring of one year to the Spring of the next due to indecision on the part of the students, has made the Quota System a necessity.