Page 7 - 1913 November - To Dragma

10 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA 0 MIC RON PI

cover these important fields of activity. We also need, to achieve
the ends I have enumerated, a large number of smaller organizations,
some of them representing special intellectual interests, some merely
mutual improvement and social intercourse.

Many of our existing organizations serve very successfully one or
more of the purposes we should have in mind. They will no doubt
be retained under the new charter system and improved. Our fra-
ternity chapters have occasionally been highly successful in some re-
spects, such as promoting helpful and stimulating friendships and
developing lasting loyalty to the college; but they have failed be-
cause of their frequent narrowness and selfishness, the unpleasant
excitements incident to election to membership, the rather narrow
range of students who enjoyed their social advantages, and espe-
cially the fact that their secrets, though very trivial in themselves,
prevented their being dealt with frankly and openly, like any other
organizations, inspired morbid excitement and animosity in some of
the students, and in some instructors feelings of suspicion and an-
tagonism which made helpful co-operation between these organiza-
tions and the Faculty extremely difficult.

Our problem now is to preserve, so far as we can, the good fea-
tures of our social organizations and make them available for all
who desire them, while eliminating harmful characteristics. We
must so adjust the situation as to give to our undergraduates oppor-
tunities for healthy, beneficial social intercourse, and to conserve
the continuity of interest and loyalty of our alumna.', so important
to the future welfare of the college. With this problem we must
grapple next autumn.

FROM T H E PRESS

(unidentified)

BARNARD SECRET SOCIETIES TO STOP—NO NEW MEMBERS TO BE ELECTED FOR T H R E E

YEARS, BY FACULTY'S RESOLUTIONS.

Dean Gildersleeve in her statement yesterday said that the element of se-
crecy was the point to which most objection was found, and the Investigation
Committee was in favor of encouraging the students to try new forms of social
organizations. Of the work of the Investigation Committee, she said:

"At its last meeting, on May 14, this Investigation Committee adopted a re-
port embodying its conclusions and recommendations. It decided that the evils
of fraternities as they are organized and conducted at present in Barnard Col-
lege, on the whole, outweigh the advantages, and that the element of secrecy
is especially harmful. It recommended that a 'character system' should be es-
tablished under which all student organizations must be chartered for limited
terms by student Council and the Faculty Committee. I t recommended also that,
provided the fraternity chapters now in Barnard should make public their pur-
poses, their organizations, the obligations assumed on joining, and their mem-
bership lists, they should be chartered by Student Council and the Faculty