FUN FOR FRESHMEN

If the average Freshman who attended the meeting of undergraduate extra-curricular activities last night at Phillips Brooks House came away with anything less than a feeling of bewilderment, it is a matter of wonder. For after listening to the various exhortations to the brethren from personages ranging from the president of the Student Council right down the line to the head of the Lampoon, any Yardling might have thought that his life in college would be doomed to failure if he did not go out for at least half a dozen activities, and that at the earliest opportunity, say next Wednesday at seven thirty, or something. Indeed some of the sales talks were so eloquent that it is hard to see just how all the budding talent can be taken care of, especially in fields like music, where all you have to have is a love of music, good or bad, and perhaps a longing to explore some of the hitherto unexplained areas on the other side of the Cambridge Common.

Nevertheless the speeches of the various undergraduate leaders served a useful purpose, clarifying, as they did, the functions of various activities in the minds of the men who have had no previous contact with the College. For it is only by seeing the leaders in the flesh, and hearing from them about the things in which they are interested and to which they have given time and effort during their undergraduate years, that the individual can decide in what activity he is likely to have the most fun.

But in choosing what extra-curricular activity to go out for, Freshmen would do well to bear in mind the concluding words of the president of the Student Council last night. For the prime activity at college is and must be the pursuit of some definite field of knowledge. It is true that the men who make study their only activity will find themselves limited as they get in the upper classes, not sharing in the activities of many. But by the same token the "popularity" men who do nothing but outside activities are likely to find at the end of their careers that they have missed something too. And so the most important task is to strike a satisfactory working balance between academic and outside occupations. And it is in helping Freshmen to find that balance that the meeting last night was of use.