MISGUIDED EFFORT

In declining to answer on behalf of the college the ridiculous Queries of a current questionnaire on "collegiatism" Dean Hanford has correctly foreseen the general attitude of the student body toward a national survey of such an unprofitable and tabloid nature. The majority of Harvard men can safely be exempted from any interest in the classification and further glorification of a phase of American college life which has flourished in direct proportion to the undesirable amount of publicity it has received from press and film.

Self-conscious collegiatism has reached the stage where it must be ignored rather than studied. At its best, it implies a uniform lack of originality. At its worst, it means the subservience of the individual to mass taste. The situation is analogous to the stampede of a herd of rattle-brained cattle. The difficulty arises in that the taste is questionable if not distinctly bad. This in turn results from a self-conscious disregard of any authoritative standard. The collegiate person cares little for the opinion or feelings of others. In the last analysis collegiatism is the result of a lack of maturity and intelligence, and it is because of this that it is a reflection upon any student body.

The present questionnaire can do little more than magnify the collegiate characteristics and further imprint upon the public mind a conception which has unfortunately become synonymous with higher education. In this respect it is as pernicious an influence as the subject it drags into the limelight. There is nothing to be gained from a bottling and labeling of undergraduate mannerisms and affectations which vary in expression and intensity with the individual institution.