INFORMATION THANK YOU

To cartoonists panting for a subject on which to exercise their talents, a Harvard man's map of the United States has always provided a ready field of endeavor -- that wonderful specimen of cartographic art which labels all land west of Boston as uninhabitable desert. Even within the sacred confines of the Yard, the unfortunate myth of Harvard indifference has gained appalling credence. But innocent Harvard has too long blushed under the oft repeated charges of intellectual isolation and smug localism. The University, long ready to absorb such blows flush on its scholarly chin, has at last reared up and made some vigorous attempts to fight back, to polish up the tarnished reputation of the new world Cantabrigians. In order to encourage students from the wild and woolly West to spend their undergraduate days in the quiet and completely civilized valley of the Charles, President Conant sponsored the highly successful system of National Scholarships. The latest brain child sprung from the sturdy loins of University Hall, the University Committee on Educational Relations, seems to be another step in spreading the gospel of Harvard among the heathen.

The new committee stems from the lately deceased Committee on Educational Placement, and the change in name does much to explain the change in function. The old committee was interested only in obtaining jobs for Harvard men in other educational institutions throughout the country. The members of the new committee, adopting a much more realistic attitude, have recognized the obvious fact that Harvard's relations with other schools must embrace a host of additional problems formerly ignored. In part conceived by the amazingly fecund report of the Committee of Eight, the Committee on Educational Relations will for the first time offer, through the reports of its much travelled members, a bird's eye view of what is going on in other educational centers. The inquisitive faculty man, formerly struggling single-handed against impossible odds, will now have complete and well-organized information at his disposal.

The knowledge of educational trends in other parts of the country will do much to disentangle a Harvard now snared in the meshes of educational reform. The tendency, perhaps not entirely fictional, to regard the country's oldest college as its only college, will be replaced by a much more cosmopolitan realization of Harvard's place in the American scene. No one-sided concern, the Committee can also put some weight on the other side of the scales. Harvard should be a diligent pupil, but it can also be a very efficient schoolmarm. And the cordial relations established by the Committee will be a potent factor in selling Harvard's ideas on the American educational market.