JANTJAET 8, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



63 



French (outright), $100,000; (residue), $100,- 

 000; Lucius Tuttle, $50,000; Nathaniel 

 Thayer, $50,000; William Endicott (residue), 

 $25,000; Matilda H. Crocker (outright), $20,- 

 000; (residue), $20,000; Mrs. W. A. Abhe, 

 $10,000; gift for George Henry May scholar- 

 ship, $10,000; gifts for research in a number 

 of amounts, $10,000. 



Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, has just put 

 into service its $15,000 electric light and power 

 plant. The boiler plant vras previously in- 

 stalled in connection veith the central heating 

 system, and the above sum covered the cost of 

 other station equipment, underground cables 

 connecting the station with the various build- 

 ings, and the necessary transformers. The 

 total capacity of the plant is nearly 400 horse- 

 power. 



The complete report of the proceedings of 

 the First National Conference on Universities 

 and Public Service has been printed, extend- 

 ing to 350 pages. Copies will be sent free to 

 trustees and other university officers, public 

 officials, editors and librarians. To others it 

 will be sent at cost of publication on appli- 

 cation to Edward A. Eitzpatrick, Box 380, 

 Madison, Wisconsin. 



H. J. Patterson has resigned as president 

 of the Maryland College and Station, to take 

 effect July 1, 1915, recommending in his let- 

 ter of resignation th-^ abolishing of the office 

 of president and the substitution of an ad- 

 ministrative commission consisting of a di- 

 rector of college work, the director of the sta- 

 tion, and the director of extension work. This 

 plan is under consideration by the board of 

 trustees. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESFONDJENCE 



FRATERNITIES AND SCHOLARSHIP 



The communication on " Fraternities and 

 Scholarship " published in a recent number of 

 Science^ touches a problem of decided inter- 

 est — the relation of fraternities to the welfare 

 of our higher institutions of learning — and 

 one vfhich has received much attention during 

 the past few years, particularly in the univer- 



1 Science, October 16, p. 542. 



sities and colleges of the south and west. The 

 treatment of the question by the writer who 

 happens to be the assistant dean for men in 

 the University of Illinois, although presented 

 in a very " readable " form, leaves much to be 

 desired however from even an elementary sta- 

 tistical standpoint, and the reader may well 

 hesitate as to the conclusions to be drawn from 

 the data presented, beyond the idea that fra- 

 ternities may be taught to appreciate the high 

 grades which are assumed to represent 

 scholarship. Perhaps the demonstration of a 

 proposition of this nature is sufficient, for the 

 opportunity to thus influence men separated 

 into groups competing with one another, goes 

 far toward justifying the existence of such 

 groups even though they may have certain 

 shortcomings. 



While among all men students (2,600) there 

 is an increase in the average grade from 81.1 

 per cent.2 for the first semester of 1909-10 to 

 82.3 per cent, for the second semester of 1913- 

 14 and among fraternity men (700) from 

 78.7 per cent, to 81.9 per cent, for the same 

 period, the actual increase during the five 

 years is less, inasmuch as average second 

 semester grades are in every case higher than 

 first semester grades of the same college year, 

 a result undoubtedly due to the elimination 

 of the poorer students at the end of the first 

 semester. Therefore similar semesters should 

 be compared and the gain is from 81.4 per 

 cent, to 82.3 per cent, for all men students — 

 relatively 1.11 per cent. — and from 79.7 per 

 cent, to 81.7 per cent, for fraternities — rela- 

 tively 2.51 per cent. 



This is really a small increase to result 

 from a five-year propaganda and when taken 

 into consideration with other factors which 

 may have been instrumental in bringing about 

 the result, one might wonder as to whether 

 the smoke denoted a fire. The plotting of 

 graphs with relatively long ordinates often 

 conveys a misleading impression. 



For the second semester of 1910-11 to the 

 second semester of 1913—14 there is practically 

 no gain for the average grade of all students 

 while fraternity students exhibit a gain ap- 



2 Approximations from tbe published chart. 



