COLLEGE OFFERS COURSE IN RUSSIAN

A striking innovation in the curriculum of the College this year that is only indirectly the result of war conditions is the offering of a course in Russian. The growing realization in this country of the advantages resultant from the knowledge of the language of Russia in these days of unsettled conditions in that great land and more especially in those days to come when much of the reconstruction of the country will be brought about by the efforts and labors of American financiers and engineers has made it seem desirable to many a collegiate institution that her students should have the opportunity to study Russian. But Dartmouth seems to be leading all the rest in this matter, for there are now ninety undergraduates enrolled in "Russian 1," a larger number than are studying this language in any other one place in the United States today.

What at first thought may appear to the alumni as an even greater innovation than the mere offering of the course, however, is the fact that the instructor in this course is a woman, the first woman ever to have been engaged by the College as a regular instructor for any other term than the Summer Session. She is Mrs. Norman Hapgood, the brilliant wife of the distinguished journalist, and she is reputed to be the best Russian scholar in America. Good teachers of Russian are almost unobtainable in this country at present, and the College is certainly to be congratulated on gaining the services of so excellent a scholar as is Mrs. Hapgood.