Perth Amboy evening news., 1920-11-18
THE HASKIN LETTER
CAN COLLEGE BE CIVILIZED
BY ]. S

learning and the students thereof Is
in full swing. At Annapolis a change
of superintendents has taken place,
partly as IN result of hazing scan
dals, it is said. In a southern uni
versity some students have with
drawn in a body because the faculty
backed by state law has i~nterfered
with their secret societies. And in
many other institutions the efforts
of the faculty to interfere with stu
dent activities. such as hazing
freshmen, forming secret organiza-
tons, and making merry in general
have resulted in a state of more or
less strain.
On the whole, the professors seem
to be losing out. They used to in
weigh against dances and against
athletics, but now the social and
athletic life of most colleges goes
on without any reproach from the
faculties. The authorities have
capitulated partly because they had
to do so, and partly because they
found that athletics, especially, were
an excellent advertisement and
thereby a help in getting more stu
dents and in building up the COL
leges. Fraternities nov flourish in
most colleges without restraint, and
the ancient and honorable practice
of hazing, although it is always the
subject of criticism and punishment,
is by no means extinct.
The professors are really bound
to lose out in the long run, because
the students will not attend a col
lege where the most exciting and
interesting Of activities are curtail-
ed. Tho average college president
wants to make his institution an
austere and dignified stronghold of
scholarship, but he also wants to
get as many students as possible.
The competition for students is
keen, and the students insist on go
ing where they can have a good
time. Hence the president and his
fellow faculty members find them
selves between the devil of student
barbarism and the deep blue sea of
oblivion, and the betting is general
ly on the devil.
Professors and Students Differ
To a man who spent four years in
two colleges, visited various others,
and belonged to both a national and
local fraternity, it looks as though
this lamentable conflict between the
professors and the students is due
to a fundamental difference of view
point.
A college or university is theoret-
ically a place to study. The student
Is supposed to come there because
he wants to study. He is released
from the close restrictions of gram
mar school education because he is
supposed t o be mature enough not
to use his freedom in a way that
will interfere with the pursuit of
knowledge.
That is the theory upon which The
professors act. and upon which
some of the students act-especially
those who are getting through COL
lege with difficulty and studying
some special or technical line by
which they expect to make their
livings. 1t is decidedly not the way
the majority Of undergraduates look
at the matter. They go to college
an escape from parental supervision.
and a chance to spend a little of
Dads money without his direct ad-
vice or assistance. In a word, the
average undergraduate regards coll
lege as an opportunity to assert his
individuality, which is essentially a
barbaric individuality.
The Barbaric Student
1t has been stated many times
hat each individual in the course
of his development repeats all the
stages through which the race has
passed. Probably the idea has been
overworked, but it is certainly sug-
gestive. Thus boys under sixteen
are undoubtedly savages in many
ways. They band loosely together
like savages; they go adventuring
like savages: and they often show
savage cruelty both to each other
and to animals.
This has often been pointed out.
What has not been so generally
recognized is the fact that the boy
of eighteen or nineteen has merely
advanced from savagery to the next
stage of development, which is bar
barism. A typical American uni
versity. which is dominated by the
students and not by the faculty, is a
typical barbarism.
Thus all barbarisms go in for
elaborate organization. The loose
tribal organization of savages is
superseded by a complex hierarchy
of powers, ranging from the head
shamans and medicine men down to
the common warriors. Each of these
grades is highly organized in a Sec
ret and mysterious fashion, each is
highly jealous of its own rights and
Of its superiors.
This is exactly what you see in
COleEeS. Inc lIeSulldll, IL ne 10 d
likely fellow, with money in his
year. In one typical college he may
make a certain ribbon society his
second year, another his third year,
and a still higher and more esoteric
organization his fourth year.. Each
of these organizations is a step on
the social ladder. Each of them
puts him. through a more or less
narrowing initiation, and each gives
him the right to wear certain decor
ations, and to deal in certain mysti-
cal signs, passwords. and hand
grips. And the chiefs of these vari-
Gus organizations are the high
priests Of the college. They are look
| ed up to and venerated by all. They
hold the power of social life and
death.
College Boys Like Indians
All of this is almost exactly, like
the Organization of a Pueblo Indian
village. The analogy cannot be here
described in detail, but it is striking,
| The same secret organizations, the
same high priests, the same cruel
and extravagant limitations, and the
same mystic grunts and grips are
found in each.
Among all barbaric people there
are innumerable taboos. The same
is true of all u best colleges. The
barbarian may not eat this, nor
touch that, nor do the other. So
the young midshipman may not be
seen on the street carrying a suit
case or a package, in a certain
southern college the students may
not be seen with certain village
maidens supposed not to be of the
highest social status, and in many
colleges a freshman dare not appear
hotL af collepa hoYS and of ha rha-