A Responsibility of Weir House. . .

The election as Secretary to the Stud. Ass. Executive of the popular and capable McGhie is a sign that Weir House is coming to a consciousness of the influence which it can and should exercise in student affairs. Weir House is the essential Victoria, the only part of the College which embodies to any extent the true ideal of a corporate student life, the part to which the College will increasingly have to look for its student standards. This is not to depreciate the nonresidential students, upon whom for more than a quarter of a century has fallen the task of creating and sustaining the College traditions; the student of Weir House, however, has a stake in the College which the others could never obtain, for his private life is part and parcel of the College life. Since this private life is passed in community, he has unusual facilities for measuring the character and worth of his fellows in the House; it would be difficult in such an institution page 94 for the crank, the fanatic, the axe-grinder, or the self-seeker to pass for long undetected. The continuous discussion possible in the House is favourable, moreover, to the formation of just estimates of non-residential students. All this makes the judgment of the House a very important factor in College elections, particularly at the present time, when ideas of dictatorship are floating about. Highly individualized people such as University students elect committees to serve them, not to lead them, still less to dictate either to them or in their voice. The Executive of the Students' Association, to mention only one representative body, has a splendid record of disinterested service; and the present Executive is worthily maintaining the tradition. Upon Weir House devolves a good deal of the responsibility in the future of ensuring that the Executive never becomes a stamping ground for the personally ambitious.

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