Word: underclassman
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Considered from the viewpoint of the individual, another problem has arisen. As the numbers have increased, it has become proportionately more difficult for the underclassman to achieve that distinction which the Yale social system seems to demand. In order to make friends and become a worthy member of society, the feeling is that one must have "made" some team or competition. As a result, the ambitious tend to dissipate their energies in activities of little lasting value in order to acquire temporary recognition. Outside the circle of "big men" are those of quiet worth who have time for the pursuit...
...disclose the knowledge of a college course too, but the stimulus of frequent examinations is felt by all perhaps erroneously to be necessary in order not to place too much responsibility for doing his work on the under classman. It is probably, in the main, sound sense because the underclassman usually over estimates his own ability to absorb information in a lump at the eleventh hour...
...underclassman there appears possible some poetic justice in the announcement that from May 1 until Commencement all Seniors in good standing will wear their caps and gowns while in attendance at classes. But steady observation has led this writer at least to the deduction that (1) either there are less than forty men graduating from Harvard College this year or (2) a Senior in good standing is an anachronism. Have caps and gowns come to the position of straw hats--that they are left in the sanctity of Yard bedrooms...
...second major point on which the present organization may be sharply criticized is its failure to convey an adequate impression of the broad general significance of all social service to prospective workers. The undergraduate--usually an underclassman--goes to the committee's open meeting in the fall, and hears nothing but luke-warm banalities from amateurs. Instead of vital information from recognized authorities, he is given unintelligent generalities by local celebrities in other fields. The meeting degenerates into a series of amiable but perfunctory talks, and the enormous reservoir of idealistic enthusiasm that moved the audience to attend is left...
...resorts along Washington Street in Boston. When in addition it is something which has been done by one's forbears time out of mind, or at least since the invention of the cinema, the practice acquires the sacred significance of a religious festival. It is the solace of the underclassman and the graduate student after a fatiguing day in the library or the laboratory; and "without doubt," as the New York Times suggests, "there are those professors and dignitaries of the university who find great enjoyment in puffing away the hours in the dark corners of the theatre...