Spring is a critical situation at co-educational colleges and universities. The Daily Nebraskan bewails the increasing tide of college engagements; they are not permanent, says this journal, and they are not conductive to good scholastic work.

As a matter of fact engagements arising from the presence of one fraternity house in the same block as one sorority house are usually such light-o-love affairs that they have little or no effect on the student life of an institution. The trouble lies, as the Nebraskan will admit, in the fact that one engagement leads to another that once bitten does not always mean twice shy. "Many engagements are consummated merely because the girl wants the experience of being engaged"--so says the writer, thereby leaving the male volition entirely out of the question.

There are no available statistics to show how many marriages result from college engagements but if there were they would mean nothing. Higher education, properly speaking, has little to do with higher social education, although one may be obtained in the process of digging for the other. Popular fiction has over idealized scholastic matings. And now universities such as that for which the Nebraskan is the spokesman are faced with the problem of removing the gloss of idealism.