WHERE TRADITION FALTERS

News of the resignation of Dean Nichols adds another indication of the temporary character of the office he has held for the past two years. That the tenure of this position should be for a short period not only is backed up by a growing precedent, but it would appear to have several decided points in its favor. Occupancy of the Assistant Dean's office by a successive series of men fresh from their own undergraduate life insures youthful tone to a section of University Hall all too likely under ordinary circumstances to become a formidable monster in the eyes of some students. The transitory aspect of the appointment also enables graduates in doubt between academic or nonacademic careers to pause on the threshold a moment before plunging one way or the other.

If the advantages of the come and go tradition in the Dean's Office are numerous, they are not, however, great enough to offset the undesirability of it becoming definitely established. Such a situation is all too likely to cause the loss of those who are by nature and training best fitted to remain for a longer stay in University Hall. Nothing could be more unfortunate than that some man eager and able to continue in the Dean's Office should be prevented therefrom by the bogie of custom. The fact that the custom bids fair to arise more from inadvertence than design can only increase the regret that its effects may at some time become injurious.

But Dean Nichols impending departure does more than throw into relief one side of the Assistant Dean question. His contact with the student body wherever it has been of an official or less formal nature has made him a host of undergraduate friends who will feel the College's loss as a personal one.