In a Class by Itself

Out of the continuum of probes and counter-probes which wiseacres call the Student Council's claim to infamy, there emerge at intervals contributions of genuine value representing exceptional thought and thoroughgoing work. Such is the Report of the Special Committee on Class Affairs. Although it will not come up for the Council's official adoption until Monday's scheduled meeting or a possible special session later in the week, the 1948 Nominating Committee has chosen to follow the Report's recommendations in every phase of its proceedings to date. The 30-page content comprises the informed opinion of battle-scarred veterans of class activities in the Forties as well as an impressive assortment of older counsel from deans to leaders in the Association of Class Secretaries.

Sizable groups of men from ten different classes were in College at the same time this fall to demonstrate graphically the breakdown of class organization which inevitably accompanied the war. It is the lack of integration born of the war together with the deeper factors of cross-cutting inherent in the House system and steady increase in class size which the Report explicitly set out to remedy. Pointing out that the "cornerstone of the Harvard alumni organization is the class," the Report offers a blueprint intended "to bring order out of chaos" on a matter of long-range import.

In every feature the Report is sound. Reorganization of the undergraduate political structure would provide for sophomore, junior, and permanent class committees elected separately from slates composed by nominating committees, the latter to be chosen from the Houses and Union officers. "We have tried to prevent appointment to the Union Committee," the Report noted sharply, "from becoming a free ride into the marshalship." Streamlining of the Class Day program would suggest the assumption of Class Day financial burdens by the College in recognition of that institution's opportunity to "kindle a warm College loyalty in the minds of the Alumni of the future." A strong request for the granting of loans from the University to Album boards simply strengthens the general recommendation that the Album become more formalized and stable.

The Committee states one decision relevant to the coming elections for 1948 Class posts in crystal-clear language: "Preferential and weighted balloting were both discarded for the straight numerical system. Either system is too complicated to be practical in a College election. Both allow a minority group to get a man into office on a small number of votes by capitalizing on the failure of the large group of voters who in any case will not indicate their preference." In light of the interlocking nature of the Report's recommendations the threatened rejection of this point of view would in effect violate the total spirit. It is to be hoped that the Council will forsake complex balloting experiments for the authoritative proposals its special committee has evolved only after the most careful consideration.