Word: inertia
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Ziegler explanis that Nassan Hall has its eye on its sisters in the Big Three when it complains of the "intellectual inertia of the Street," a social organization which has no share in its academic program. But, the author explains, there is no one there to stimulate "an intellectual atmosphere" since it lacks the cross section of life and the "friction of minds" at Harvard and Yale...
...student who is a raring, fire-breathing Pegasus when the organization is his own, is discouragingly hesitant when it comes to joining other people's parties. The A. I. L. has inertia and even distrust and misunderstanding to combat. Moreover, this attitude is partly due to the League's own negative statements of policy...
...Inertia is as powerful a force in sociology as it is in physics. Whenever some considerable evil exists, the community must be jolted lustily before it awakens to the fact. There must be even more prodding until the proper agencies begin to roll into action. Inevitably there is name-calling, vituperation, and bitterness. But after the initial splurge of fireworks, a steady process of renovation sets in, and the evil is creatively attacked...
Such discussion groups should be arranged in a systematic way and on a larger scale. Natural student inertia must be overcome, and consequently it might be well, while preserving the substance of the "symposia," to mold them into a somewhat different form. Instead of waiting for occasional student inspirations, each House master in turn should be empowered to name a chairman, preferably a faculty man, at regular intervals. Participating students would then be chosen, not solely from one House, but from all seven--and from the dormitories as well. Without losing the informality which now so largely contributes...
...logical and most efficient body for the administration of Freshman activities; and that the elections should therefore be discarded. In ignoring this problem, the Council made a particularly serious mistake, for the leaders which emerge in the Freshman year regularly remain leaders throughout their four years because of democratic inertia, and in so far as they are illogically chosen the problem remains unsolved at its root. On the whole, however, the report is constructive, and its proposals should certainly go far toward improving Harvard politics...