Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1908-01-15
POOR STUDENTS BEST
YALE SCHOLARSHIPS GO TO
THOSE WHO LIVE PLAINLY.
Report Of Dean Wright Shows That
scIcns Of Wealthy Families Are
DulIest Scholars--Protests
Against Luxury.

New Haven, Conn.-Dean Henry
Wright, Of Yale. has filed a report
which shows that poor scholarship
goes hand in hand with luxurious dor
mitories; that nearly all Of the best
pupils in the university live in the
cheap, plain quarters, but that almost
all Of the students picked for the
secret societies come from the rich
mems dormitories.
Dean Wright has kept a record of
the residence Of the rich and poor
students, and the good and the poor
scholars in Yale classes for Ave years,
and the report shows that the resi-
dents of the elegant dormitories are
becoming worse scholars than ever,
although it is growing to be more rare
to find an occupant Of the cheap dor
mitories in a secret society.
Dean Wright does not attack the So
ciety system as the only recommends
tion of reform; he recommends that
Yale erect more dormitories so that
members of the freshmen and sopho-
mores can be housed by the college in
stead of being lodged in the palatial
private dormitories where, at present,
they grow to neglect their studies and
form cliques which run the secret So
cieties throughout their Yale course.
Dean Wright fouaG, In 1904 that 81
per cent. Of the freshmen living in the
rich mems private dormitories had
been reproved by the faculty for poor
scholarship, against II per cent. of
the freshmen who roomed in the plain
.dormitories on the campus.
Warnings sent out for low scholar
ship to the present freshmen class
show that 80 per cent. of those in lux
urious dormitories were found deficient
in their studies to IL per cent. of those
residing in Pierson hall, a moderate
priced dormitory open to freshmen.
This shows where the start is made
toward poor scholarship in the Yale
course nowadays.
Dean Wright's investigation into the
list of honors won covering general
scholarship averages for the first two
years of the course shows that only
three per cent of the students who
reached the honor list roomed in
private dormitories, while 11.5 lived in
the moderate-priced dormitories.
How sweeping has become the prac-
tice of picking secret society members
from high-priced dormitories is at
tested by the fact that of 80 members
of the class of 1910 who were chosen
to junior fraternities recently, 70 were
from the expensive dormitories and
only eight of the moderate price.
The Yale Alumni Weekly says, in
discussing Dean Wright's report:
There were those who inclined to the
belief that in the last few decades
there has developed at Yale a disincli-
nation for the simple college life and
tendency to surround the under
graduate days with luxury. In other
words, there are those who see in the
rise of private dormitories tendency
toward the establishment of conditions
characteristic OF Harvard at the pres
ent time, where the richer undergradu-
ates have forsaken the campus dor
mitories for what euphoniously is
called the Gold Coast block of lux
urious private houses, suggestive of
prosperous metropolitan clubs, with
liveried attendants and operated with
more than oriental splendor. But any
close student Of the situation can see
that the rise at Yale of the private
dormitories is not primarily, II at all,
due to personal preference for luxury
on the part of freshmen and soph-
omores."