How the Board at Memorial May be Improved.

Although complaints have been frequent, no one has heretofore proposed any practicable plan to reform the present state of affairs at Memorial. Recently a gentlemen, unconnected with the college, made a thorough examination of the subject, and presents a number of excellent suggestions. The principal fault to be found with Memorial fare is the poor cooking of the food, due to the insufficient number of cooks, the overtaxing of their patience by the order system and to the absence of sufficient supervision over the kitchen. That the bad quality of the food is due to poor cooking is seen from the fact that there are times when certain articles are really palatable and good, while they are usually unfit to eat. The actual cooking for 850 people, including the servants, is done by five men and one woman. This number is entirely too small, and is much less proportionately, than that at West Point. To bring things up to a proper standard three men cooks should be added at a cost of $140 per month. This expense seems great but it can easily be met in any of three ways, either by adding four cents to the weekly board, by dropping one of the four vegetables served daily, or by having one course of meat instead of two on one day of the week. By making these slight changes the quality of the food would be much improved and the order list would be less used, since the principal difference between the regular fare and the order list especially in the matter of chops and steaks, is the care taken in cooking. The vegetables which are left should be kept hot on chafing dishes in the same way that the meats are now, instead of being put on the tables to grow cold as is the custom at present. This last affair should be attended to immediately as there is no excuse for allowing good food to be wasted since nobody eats the cold vegetables.

To make sure that the quality of the food is kept up to the standard there ought to be a salaried "inspector" responsible directly to the association which now has no real control over the fare furnished by the steward. This man should taste and examine all the food served at every meal and should have full power to discharge waiters and cooks in case they prove unsatisfactory. The inspector should be perfectly independent of the steward, and should be on hand after every meal to receive complaints about the quality or quantity of the food or service. This arrangement would supersede the present system of written complaints to the directors which is acknowledged by all to be entirely ineffectual. Such a person could be engaged for a salary of $1.500, equal to an addition of four cents to the weekly board bill of each man. But part of this could be justly paid by reducing the steward's "contingent compensation," as the latter's duties would be much lessened. The steward and directors now nominally perform the duties of "inspector," but the former has not the necessary time and the latter cannot be expected to perform such a disagreeable daily task. Thus by the addition of eight cents to the board bill, the quality of the food could be greatly improved, and as the experiment could be easily tried without making any great changes, it is hoped that some action may be taken.