BUDGETS AND EDUCATION

Reports received from most of the universities in the United States, as compared with those of last year, indicate a drop in enrollment of 4.5 per cent for full-time students, and of 7 per cent in total enrollment. The figures for this year, however, are slightly higher than the corresponding ones for 1927, so that the level has been substantially maintained, fluctuations disregarded. Furthermore, there is reason to believe that the attendance at Junior colleges has increased as that at the universities has decreased. Regarding the situation broadly, the institutions of higher learning are little affected by the depression.

When the immediate details are considered, however, universities such as Harvard are seen to be somewhat troubled financially. This drop in enrollment, representing a loss of about $1000 per man, would naturally be felt by any institution, and as is to be expected, college budgets are now limited in an unfortunate manner. The chief disadvantage, however, is not the loss of money per se, for the colleges did well with the present amount four years ago, but rather that, like individuals, the colleges find difficulty in living cheaply after having been attuned to an inflated scale.

Everything considered, the present decline in the student body of the universities is by no means a serious blow. In the first place, colleges have been, undoubtedly, overcrowded in the past due to the modern craze for a college education. This overcrowding has led in large measure to a lowering of standards or to the formation of unpleasantly routine arrangements. It is a truism to say that the best work is done by the more able, and not by the more numerous. In addition to weeding out, the depression has caused students in general to adopt a more serious attitude in their college career. On the whole, the financial crisis has toughened and refined the student of today. The colleges indisputably have suffered, but they have come nearer to profiting from their trouble than the rest of the country.