THE need of a new gymnasium

at Dartmouth has become so acute that it cannot well be endured. The present building, erected for a college of less than four hundred, has long been inadequate and is now little short of impossible. This lack in equipment is a matter of concern to those alike who are interested in the health, the morals, or the contentment of the student body. The freshman classes cannot be given the prescribed work in any sufficient way under the Physical Director, to say nothing of the impossibility of the upper classes getting any opportunity for desired exercise. Incidentally, athletic teams cannot get needed training, and spring athletic work at Dartmouth each year starts under a handicap of from two to three weeks. The large overshadowing need in material things for the College is a great gymnasium where the twelve hundred men may seek exercise and recreation, to their temporary and permanent good.

The proposed site for a new gymnasium would allow individuality in architecture and unlimited groundspace. The advance in the processes of concrete construction would permit a building of enormous capacity for work inside, with pleasing exterior, to be erected at a cost of seventy-five thousand dollars. The building as projected would be a great workshop and plavground combined. In it a thousand men could do gymnastic work, and the athletic teams could train, while hand-ball and squash courts should be in use.

There is no exaggerating the need for the student body, of a gymnasium of this sort, and the desire is based on a genuine lack in equipment. If any friend of the College desires to do her great service, or if any man wishes a generation of whole-souled, enthusiastic college men to rise up and call him blessed, his chance is here. If any man, without ability to do the whole thing, will do a part, knowledge of such willingness will be encouragement to seek diligently for others to help. Are there not friends of Dartmouth to whom this pressing need appeals?

The one hundred and thirty-ninth Commencement of the College is not far distant and the program is of interest to a host of loyal graduates who will be prevented from returning for the Week, as well as to those men of Dartmouth who singly or in anniversary groups are now arranging for the return to the hills of association, in June.

Preceding the definite exercises of Commencement by eight days, the Sing-Out Day has acquired a distinct importance of its own, and is here included with events of the following Week.

FRIDAY, JUNE 12

5:00 P.M. Senior Class Sing-Out in Rollins Chapel

5.45 P.M. Public Initiation of the Palaeopitus at the Old Pine.

7:15 P.M. Classes assemble for the Wet-Down.

9:00 P.M. College Dinner to Senior Class.

SATURDAY, JUNE 20

8:00 P.M. Speaking in Dartmouth Hall for the class of 1866 prizes and the Barge gold medal.

SUNDAY, JUNE.21

10:30 A.M. Baccalaureate Sermon by the Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D., of New York City.

7:15 P.M. Vesper Service in Rollins Chapel.

MONDAY, JUNE 22

2:30 P.M. Class Day Exercises.

5:00 P.M. The College Club will pour tea at College Hall.

8.00 P.M. Operetta; "The Promenaders."

10:00 P.M. Promenade Concert in College Yard.

TUESDAY, JUNE 23

8:30 A.M. Meeting of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

10:30 A.M. Public Address before the Alumni by Professor Eugene Wambaugh, L.L.D., of Harvard University.

2:30 P.M. Annual meeting of the Alumni Association.

4:00 P.M. Baseball game.

5:00 P.M. Reunion of the Greek Letter Fraternities.

7:45 P.M. Presentation by the Dramatic Club.

9:30 to 11:00 P.M. Senior Reception in College Hall.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24

9:00 A.M. Prayers in Rollins Chapel.

9:30 A.M. The procession will form in College Yard for the Commencement Exercises in Webster Hall, including the conferring of degrees in course and honorary degrees.

12:00 M. Lunch in College Hall.

9:00 P.M. The Commencement Ball.

The following arrangements have been made by the College for the entertainment of the alumni during the Commencement season of 1908.

The dormitory section of College Hall, and as many other dormitories as necessary, will be reserved for the alumni. The rooms are conveniently located, and will be under the charge of a housekeeper during the Commencement season. Effort will be made to give satisfaction to all, and especial attention will be given to the applications of older alumni and alumni to be accompanied by their wives. The rates in all rooms furnished by the College will be $1.00 a day for each person, with extra charge if a double room is reserved for one occupant. Meals will be served ala carte in the dining rooms in College Hall. The club rooms of College Hall are ample for all social uses of the alumni, and for the serving of class suppers. All arrangements for the entertainment of the alumni, singly or in classes, are in the hands of the Secretary of the College Club, to whom all letters of inquiry should be addressed.

The Hanover Inn, under charge of Mr. Arthur P. Fairfield, offers the same rates at Commencement as at other times in the year—$2.50 per day, with extra charge for bath-room, or double rooms when occupied by one,—but the rooms at the Inn are engaged months ahead by friends of the students.

Classes wishing to have their reunions in dormitories or recitation halls of the College can make arrangements to this effect. Attention of the Secretaries and Reunion Committees is called to the following vote of the Trustees: "Voted: That during theseason of Commencement the dormitories of the College be open, so faras practicable, to the alumni whomay return, whether singly or inclasses, with the understanding thatit is the express desire of the Trusteesthat no liquors be provided or usedin the College buildings—the rules ofthe Faculty already prohibiting suchuse by the undergraduates."

Every effort will be made to make satisfactory arrangements for the alumni, but applications received by the Secretary of the College Club before June tenth will have the benefit of the earlier assignment of rooms.

An announcement which indicates a considerable, even if not complete, return of health and strength to President Tucker brings personal-relief to every Dartmouth man and friend of the College.

Previous to the meeting of the Trustees in Concord, April 17 and 18, the committee on the succession to the Presidency held a conference with the President in regard to the possibility of his carrying over the work into next year, after which the chairman of the committee made the following statement:

"The committee does not expect to take action upon the question of Doctor Tucker's successor in the presidency of the College until some time during the next college year. Doctor Tucker's health is now such that he can and will remain in general charge of the College for the present, with the understanding that he is to be relieved of- all outside engagements. The Trustees are enabled by this arrangement to carry out certain plans which were interrupted by Doctor Tucker's protracted illness."

Further action of the Trustees was in part as follows : It was voted to enlarge the chapel to the extent of four hundred additional sittings. It is expected that the work will begin at once so that the enlargement may be completed at the beginning of the next academic year, or very soon after the year opens.

The William W. Brown Professorship of Physiology was established, based on the bequest of Mrs. William W. Brown of Manchester as a memorial to her husband, a graduate of the Medical School in the class of 1835. The fund came into possession of the Trustees in 1897, but has been held by them as an accumulating fund until it reached the sum prescribed in the will (#40,000) as available for a professorship.

Two new graduate scholarships of $500 each were also established, one known as the George E. Chamberlain Fellowship, similar in its conditions to the Henry E. Parker Fellowship; the other, provided by the Alumni Scholarship Fund, to be granted on terms similar to those demanded for a Rhodes Scholarship..

The dormitory now being erected was formally named New Hampshire Hall. This dormitory, of fireproof construction, will accommodate something over one hundred men and will be ready for occupancy at the opening of the next academic year.

The Medical Building which is approaching completion was named the Nathan Smith Laboratory, in recognition of the founder of the Medical School.

It was voted that in the case of professors who retire upon the Carnegie Foundation before they reach the maximum salary for a professorship, the Trustees will supplement the Carnegie pension by such sum as may be necessary to make the pension equivalent to a pension granted to a professor upon the grade of a. maximum professorship in Dartmouth College.

The definition of what constitutes a "university" in this country has never been clear and has hitherto been settled by each institution for itself. Any attempt, therefore, at standardization is of interest to the college world. In many cases the title has seemed to be used merely as the expression of a distant, cherished hope. The educational development of the last quarter-century has, however, produced a number of American institutions whose right to be called universities is beyond dispute. The typical institution of this kind consists of an undergraduate department, the offspring of the English college, and a graduate department modelled on the German university, combined with professional schools adapted to various needs.

Several years ago the foremost universities in this country organized a body called the Association of American Universities. The conditions of membership were, until the present year, not definitely fixed beyond the maintenance of a strong graduate department. It was inevitable that other institutions whose views as to their eligibility to membership were not shared by the association, should indulge in more or less criticism. A word of evil import from the sphere of economics was applied to the association, and it was called the "educational trust." The membership of the association has come to include the following eighteen universities: California,, the Catholic University of America, Chicago, Clark Universty, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Illinois, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Princeton, Stanford, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Yale. Of these Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri were admitted this year.

The officials of foreign universities have always found it difficult to determine the value of the credentials presented for admission by American students. The Dutch, and what is of much more importance, the Prussian, governments have announced that they will recognize only such American institutions as are members of the Association of American Universities. Students from other colleges and universities are required to pass an examination for admission. The association recognized the obligations which this state of affairs imposed upon it, and, at its last annual meeting,held at Ann Arbor in January of this year, adopted measures for the standardization of American universities and colleges. The conditions for membership in the association were made definite, and consist in the maintenance of a creditable graduate department and the requirement of not less than five years of arts and technical study in at least one professional school. All institutions which meet these conditions are eligible to membership. The establishment of these criteria is, in effect, defining for the first time what constitutes an American "university." Of especial significance is the recognition of the necessity of a liberal training as a necessary basis for professional work. Five years of combined liberal and technical study in one professional school only seems a very moderate requirement for a university, but the committee of the association felt that it would work substantial hardship to insist upon more at the present time.

In view of the action of foreign governments just mentioned, the association further made provision for compiling a list of institutions whose college degrees may be regarded as equivalent in value to those conferred by members of the association.

While Dartmouth makes no pretence to being a university, it is a satisfaction to note, that of its three professional schools, the Tuck School has from its foundation required five years of combined liberal and professional study for a degree, and that the Medical School now requires seven. The Thayer School of Civil Engineering, while essentially postgraduate and now affiliated with the College in the combined five-year course, does not absolutely require three previous years of liberal study. But the entrance examination and work of the school are such, that even before its affiliation seventy-two per cent of those admitted since its foundation in 1871 had received a college degree, and a further seven per cent had had three years of college work.

The administration of collegiate athletics has for many years been made most difficult by the intrusiveness of the summer baseball question in various guises at all seasons. The present year has been one of widespread discussion of the subject in the college athletic- world. Brown, the Maine colleges, the Catholic colleges, and institutions here or there, such as the University of Vermont, have voted definitely in favor of summer ball. The undergraduates of Williams, Amherst, and Wesleyan have likewise expressed their opinions formally in favor of such action, but it does not yet appear that such undergraduate expression will influence the respective governing bodies to change their policies.

At the request of the Palaeopitus the College Club, on March 14, called a meeting of the students for March 20, for the discussion of this vexed question. Argument for and against prevailed during the intervening days, and the meeting was one of long and interesting debate. The general question of summer ball in the colleges was avoided inasmuch as it was felt that to submit the question in that form would appear to be a passing of judgment on the recent undergraduate votes of colleges our neighbors. The discussion was therefore upon the general proposition whether at Dartmouth it was or was not for the best interests of the College to adhere to the policy laid down by the Athletic Council.

The resolution, passed by an overwhelming majority when put to the vote, read : Voted, that the student body of Dartmouth College expresses its belief that the present eligibility rules in regard to summer baseball are for the best interests of the College, and that it endorses the rigid enforcement of the same by the Athletic Council."

At the beginning of the year ten of Dartmouth's best players were debarred, for having played on teams of such doubtful standing as to render the players' longer membership on the College team detrimental to the amateur ideal. The spirit of the meeting was that though a man has the right to play summer ball, if he wishes to or needs to, that he ought not then to seek to represent his college, if it is distinctly against her interests, as it is under present conditions. It was believed better to set the standard high, though it should not at all times be perfectly attained, and to make a more and more insistent effort to conform strictly to that standard. The discussion was full and free, the speaking on both sides being of high grade. The result makes for a clear and distinct understanding, at home and abroad, of Dartmouth's position on this most important question, and shows the Council ruling to have behind it the force of student sentiment, and not to be simply an ukase imposed from above, by the Athletic Council.

The College has taken a solid satisfaction in the results of the intercollegiate debates of the Triangular Debating League, in which Dartmouth was victor over Williams and Brown. It is pleasant to have the badge of achievement which a victory gives. The debating teams subjected themselves to the rigorous preparations necessary for the contests, and acquitted themselves with high credit. Thereby they have won large appreciation from those whom they represented .

This feeling rests on the carefulness of preparation and skill in presentation rather than on the acquisition of victories. The greatest obstacle to increased interest in intercollegiate debating lies in the impossibility of getting from year to year consistent awards from the boards of judges. In spite of all care in instructions and in the picking of men for the positions, still the personal equations of these men are as vital in the final decisions as are the intellectual accomplishments of the respective debating teams. Undoubtedly it would detract from the interest of intercollegiate debating to do away with the awards of vicTories, but the fact remains that they are not of large significance. The occasion of a decisive victory can be taken to say, what might at another time seem ungracious, that a large proportion of the appreciation lies in the work of the teams and not in the adjudgment of victory.