Tricycle for Two

Sunday's announcement of a symmetrical three term calendar represents only in part the answer to an increasing dissatisfaction over the inequalities of the present division of the academic year into a College and Summer Session. The shift is actually one of a series of major steps which Harvard must make in order to mould its program to fit the demands of the Army and Navy.

Tears for the passing of the seventy-year-old tradition of the Harvard Summer School can scarcely be justified after a serious consideration of its wartime record. Overcrowding was especially evident in science courses last summer where even the heavy laporatory schedules imposed were far from adequate. Shortened examination periods together with the abolition of reading periods meant a dangerous lack of assimilation of material. In addition the continued capacity of the human mind to absorb daily educational doses for twelve straight weeks is in itself questionable.

There is, furthermore, no justification for believing that the three-term calendar will cease with the termination of the war. A student has every advantage to gain from its continuance, since, if he is allowed to choose his program, he may select a normal four year course or an acceleration, the symmetrical three term year represents a working answer to the problem of a completely flexible post-war educational system.

To all those desiring a well-rounded and equitable College year which still retains the advantages of an accelerated program, the announcement must then come as a relief. But student convenience obviously did not dictate the decision. Just as the spring vacation had to yield to the necessity of completing as much as possible of the present semester before the beginning of the Army program in May, so the demands of the armed forces have made a three term year imperative. Faced with the prospect of teaching College, Summer School, a four-term Army school, and a three-term Navy School with the same faculty, now depleted by 30 percent, the College had to strike at its least useful branch. Closer integration of faculty as signment, of College planning and administration will result from the abolition of the Summer School.

It is fortunate that thus far the demands of the services and the interests of the students have coincided. But students must soon face steps which will run counter to them, since demands made upon the basic science courses by the undergraduates, Army and Navy will require a shift of faculty from smaller courses or allied fields. Eventually some courses must be sacrificed altogether, for at all costs the University must fulfill its obligations towards servicemen sent here for instruction. But students can still be thankful that for once their interests and those of the Armed Services are the same.