STUDENT EMPLOYMENT

Simultaneous announcement of a one-year extension of the present temporary plan for student employment and of a further reduction in the cost of board is most pleasing to those who have labored so long to combat the current belief that Harvard is a rich man's college.

While the University maintains silence as to the origin of the necessary $40,000, it is more than likely that the money will again come from the dining halls, for the cut in next year's board would indicate that the dining hall officials expect to make another considerable profit this year, if food prices do not jump up.

Under the present economic conditions the University has good reasons for continuing the temporary student employment for men living in the Houses, even if it has to use its own unrestricted funds. It is probable that without such a continuation there might occur a considerable decrease in tuition fees due to men dropping out for financial reasons. It must be remembered that while the University may be paying out $300 to an employed student, it is at the same time taking in at least $600 from the majority of these men for tuition, board, or lodging. Moreover, any appreciable dropping out of students, which the employment plan effectively prevents, might have most unfortunate results on the general morale of the College.

It is fitting now to consider whether this employment plan is not sufficiently valuable to both the University and the students involved in order to warrant its continuation in more prosperous years and perhaps its installation as a permanent feature.

A survey of the temporary plan shows that it has been an unquestioned success; it has been excellently handled by the Student Employment office. The greatest care has been taken to see that the jobs are not sinecures, and the result has been that the University has received good and honest work for its pay. Letters from all the sources of employment, libraries, laboratories, museums, and other offices, have testified to a universal and astounding satisfaction with the men employed. Only two of the 133 students have been discharged for inadequate performance of their duties. Some of the employers, or rather recipients, have expressed a desire to incorporate their new men permanently on their staffs, and, in many cases, the availability of these men has enabled the carrying on or completion of cataloguing, research, and experimental work which had been dropped.

In short, the men themselves are in real demand, they give a material contribution to the University, and in most cases they derive considerable benefit or valuable business experience from their work, which is of a kind certainly more compatible with an educational career than waiting on tables. Next year's trial should be watched most carefully with a view toward the value of making this student employment by the University into a permanent system.