Resurrected Tutoring School, Long Banned, Again Seeks Students' Cash

After taking an eight-year knockout count, Harvard's biggest bugaboo of recent years, the professional tutoring school, has begun its climb from the canvas.

A three-month CRIMSON investigation of the commercial cram bureau revival was initiated after discovery of a copy of a letter from Lester S. Cramer '30, sent to some of the College's social clubs and announcing readless "to provide tutoring for hour, mid-year and general examination in the major liberal arts studies."

Tutoring schools were dealt the knockout punch in the spring of 1940 when the University made liable to disciplinary action any student using their services. The official ban ended a year-long campaign which was started after a Student Council poll showed that more than two-thirds of the student body frequented cram bureaus.

In their hoy-day, seven tutoring schools in and around Harvard Square gleaned an average of $18 from each student in the College, employing mimeographed reviews and high-pressure salesmanship.

Among the biggest of these schools was Parker-Cramer, the latter being the same who now holds forth at 85 Devonshire Street, Boston, under the title of Cramer Research, Incorporated.

While Cramer's methods are a far cry from these of the fabulous thirties, the seed is definitely there. Cramer's office falls within the faculty's definition of a "commercial tutoring school" by (1) giving "assistance in interpreting course reading . . . to students who have not first houestly attempted to do their own work," and by (2) being a place where "notes purporting to condense course lectures and (or) reading may be secured."

Schedule Filled

Cramer, who is currently filled up and working as much as "15 hours a day" on a seven day per week schedule, prices his services at $5 an hour, or $3.50 a person when he can double-up.

Among the articles in possession of the CRIMSON is a list of Cramer's appointments for one day-all Harvard undergraduates from 9 o'clock in the morning until 6:30 o'clock the same evening.