WHAT, AGAIN?

When rumors circulated last year that the Student Council had appointed a committee to examine into the raisons 'd'etre of the traditional "Harvard Indifference", the College shook with the rhythms of a ribald and not too subdued chuckle. Also appeared a slight atmosphere of resentment. The idea of doing away with one of the most sacredly cherished of all Harvard institutions seemed almost a sacrilege. At which the Council, perceiving that the time was not yet come, gave over its crude investigations and devoted itself to more subtle amusements.

This fall, however, the ghost has risen with a vengeance. In the appointment of a committee to stimulate and supervise Freshman affairs may be detected a dangerous effort not only to analyze indifference but actually to dispel it. The choice of class organization as a target for experimentation was wisely made, as the problem of getting out enough votes to make class elections valid has been a constant thorn in the sides of successive election committees, who have attacked the difficulty without stopping to find out why it exists.

Harvard is probably further removed than any other American college, from the trappings and conventional attributes of the secondary school. It is a University as nearly in the ideal sense of the word as is possible at this time and in this country. It is distinctly an institution of higher learning, and is becoming less and less a "college" in the present American acceptance of the term.

Since this is so, any attempt to interest its reasonably mature students in the games of the schoolboy,--class activities and group demonstrations as such--must of necessity be received with apathy--or the famous "Indifference." Just so long as the less acute persist in their endeavors, just so long will "Harvard Indifference" be spoken of by outsiders with curiosity and wonder. It is not remarkable. It is not even anything genuinely interesting, like a defense complex. It is merely the reaction of a group of men to something they consider tiresome and a little childish.

Harvard has few of the customary "college traditions". Its students go and come about the yard very much as they do in their own homes. Its entering class wears no distinguishing red cap, and smokes where and when it chooses. The tradition of individuality, however, both of thought and of action is preserved. That at least is sacred, that and Indifference.