But all professors and their ilk are exceptionally busy men, especially in these days of classes a hundred strong, and many students are reluctant to approach them with problems in this personal, barge-in-barge-out way. So for every personal problem which is brought to the teacher's notice, there are probably a hundred more unsolved simmering and stewing in the minds of his back-benchers, upsetting their application and reducing the efficiency of their work.

The Solution!

Realising that there is nothing more annoying to the student than these niggling problems which can only be settled by discussion between pupil and teacher, some members of the present student executive long ago came to the conclusion that there should be provision in the College's academic constitution for regular formal discussion of problems between students and staff, and the idea of Faculty Committees composed of representatives of both bodies was envisaged. In this respect, Victoria, which has acquired the reputation of being perhaps the most intellectually progressive of the New Zealand Colleges, was well behind Auckland and the Australian Universities.

So the subject was proposed to the Executive, a sub-committee was set up to outline the scheme and collate information from institutions where these student-staff committees are unctioning successfully, and a report was submitted recommending that the system be introduced in our own college if students are sufficiently of [gap — reason: illegible]e opinion that it will be of assistance to them. This opinion can be ascertained at a general meeting to be held soon after the first term begins, but the purpose of this article is generally to introduce the subject and to give students an idea of what faculty committees are, and how they work.

In brief, their purpose is, of course, to foster co-operation between staff and students, In a university, where the teacher's function tends to be of a more advisory nature than in earlier educational institutions, there are clearly obvious grounds for such cooperation. It is possible that students may have ideas about the teaching of their subjects which could with profit be considered by the staff, but which are not communicated to it for lack of just such the opportunity which the proposed committees would afford. The immediate function of the committees, therefore, would be co-operative discussion not only on curricula as set down in the Calendar, but also on the method of dealing with the curricula—i.e., discussion of the subjects and of their method of presentation.

Concrete Proposals

It is proposed that students in each department in the College should elect three representatives to a Departmental Committee, of which all members of the department's staff should also be members ipso facto, and that a quorum should consist of at least four members. The student members should be elected on the basis of one each from Stage II, Stage III, and Honours classes, the Executive having agreed with the opinion of the subcommittee that the ideas of Stage I students on subjects and methods of teaching are not likely to crystallize until the completion of their Stage I year. In cases this raises heat under freshman collars, however, it is proposed that as soon as any Departmental Committee is elected, it should go o a Stage I lecture, explain its function and state that it will, take recommendations, for which purpose it should call a meeting of Stage I students once a term. The Committees in the normal course of events should be elected at one of the first lectures of the session, in the presence of a member of the Staff and a member of the Executive.