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A SALUTARY INFLUENCE Accompanying the special concern for freshmen especially evident in the early Hanson administration was a determination to raise the level of academic performance required of all students. Certainly this was not a new resolve; ever since 1832 the faculty had spent much of its meeting time in warning some students, at any time during a term, that their unsatisfactory classroom performance could lead to dire consequences and in advising, or requiring, the fathers of others to come and take their sons away. During the Granville administration there was what the minutes call a dropping committee, whose function was obvious. In 1921 the faculty authorized an instructor to place on probation any student who, "because of indifference or disorderly conduct, is endangering his scholastic standing." Being in this category could lead to ineligibility to represent the College "in any way" and a warning to parents. Two years later the faculty established what soon became the scholastic standing committee and charged it with the responsibility of handling "the cases of all students whose scholarship is deficient," including counseling them frequently during a term and dropping them at the end, if necessary. No student required to withdraw could return until the opening of the next school year and then only by vote of the full faculty. Although the Gettysburgian for September 24,1924 described the purpose of the new committee as "firing up" rather than "firing out," about 125 students were required to withdraw during 1925-1926 and there was considerable concern about the enrollment for the following year. The casualty lists were substantially smaller in subsequent years, but even during the worst of the depression about twenty students were dropped annually. It is evident that the major assignment of the first dean of men, hired in 1926, was to assume much of the work with individual students previously performed by members of the scholastic standing committee, and this continued to be the case with his successor, even after his title was changed to dean.282 Through the latter, the faculty began honoring students who were doing the best academic work by establishing the Dean's Scholastic Honor List (later the Dean's Honor List), the first of which, for the fall 1929 term, was announced in March 1930. 262That President Hanson did not retreat from his initial ideas about student counseling is clear from his June 1938 report to the board. "The College has sought in every possible way to promote what might be called an Educational Clinic for its students," he wrote. "In supplying all of our students with supervision, counsel, and incentive, we are rendering real service." He believed that some students "who will reflect honor on this Alma Mater, and will make a real contribution to their day and generation," do not have "any outstanding classroom ability, but should be nurtured along with the others." 59