The Term of the Season

Undergraduates used to wonder as they trudged through a slushy Yard and queued up in freezing regimentation around Memorial Hall, just what it was that made this the Spring Term. At times heretics even suggested that early February was actually the middle of winter. Such skepticism is no longer necessary. Thanks to the Department of Buildings and Grounds it is always spring in the Yard now, even though the green paint may sometimes wear a little thin.

Arbitrary as it is, the University's spring does seem uncannily able to attract people back to Cambridge. Students, of course, can defy the academic season and remain on the ski slopes only at the cost of a cold $10. President Pusey, however, is flying back from the West Coast presumably of his own volition, and the Overseers' Committee to Visit Harvard College will come visiting Friday to see if the expansion problem looks any different now that study cards are blooming. Perhaps this time the Overseers, with the sharpened insight of spring, will come upon some "average students" who think that maybe this place really is too crowded.

The spring promises to be quite political in this election year, but it will undoubtedly have its social and financial aspects too. In a couple of months the river bank should once again become a Coney Island of towels, softballs, books, and conscientiously suntanned bodies. Perhaps too, some undergraduates will renew their attempt to persuade all the college to attend something called an all-college weekend. Meanwhile, up in the Yard, Harvard will admit its biggest and brilliantest freshman class yet, and will then set about lending them enough money to pay their way through. Dean Bundy will still be busy counting his anticipated $200-bills, but if the season really affects him he may decide to postpone the next tuition rise--"indeed, a strong case could be made for a larger increase even now"--for another term or two. In that event we hope the Department of Buildings and Grounds will get out its brushes and cover the walls and roof of University Hall with a well-earned coat of the brightest spring green.