Where Harvard Trails Behind

Harvard University has recently made a striking admission regarding the value of the so-called small college. The avowal lies in the announcement of the "House Plan" which has as its purpose the splitting up of the undergraduate body, with the exception of the Freshmen, into a number of small social groups or "houses." Harvard realizes the fact that large institutions of our country trail far behind the smaller ones in their ability to stimulate social contact and "college spirit" in its full meaning. The project now under way calls for an expenditure of $13,000,000, the gift of Edward S. Harkness of New York City, to take the form of a group of self-contained buildings, each with its own sleeping, living and dining facilities. In this way some two hundred and fifty men will be brought under the same roof. It is the University's hope to bring into contact a body of students with diverse interests who will provoke one another to think on many and varied subjects. Stimulation of undergraduates by rivalry both in athletics and scholarship should be an ultimate result of the system, the University believes. In a word, the offerings of a great university will be combined with the benefits of the small college.

Harvard invests today in a $13,000,000 experiment to gain the advantages of the small college. Middlebury has been successfully investing in the same thing for over 128 years, only on a different scale. Do we at Middlebury fully appreciate the benefits and heritage which are ours as a small college, and for which, in its attempt to approach them, a sister institution willingly expends a tremendous fortune." Middlebury Campus.