THE UNION IN THE FUTURE

The University of Wisconsin, in response to a great demand among the students, has just completed plans for the erection of a Union. This draws our attention to the fact that our own Union is not in as flourishing circumstances as it might be. Even before the war the expenses were becoming harder and harder to meet. The membership had declined. It was proposed to make membership compulsory among the students in order to meet the annually increasing deficit, but the plan was never carried out. The war and the Radio School coming at just this period, it was found convenient to install a new "Mem" Dining Room in the big Reading Room. The Dining Hall will be operated for the remainder of the year, but the question is before us as to what will become of the Union in the future.

Those who have faith in the democratic ideals and tendencies of Harvard are a little puzzled by this situation of the Union. As a matter of fact it is natural enough. The building was put up not long ago to meet a very real need among the student body of a common gathering place, of a headquarters for all phases of student activities. That such a need has ceased to exist we should hardly care to assert. Nevertheless with the development of student life and equipment for student organizations we must admit that the special functions which the Union once fulfilled are now to a large extent better fulfilled elsewhere. The CRIMSON has moved to more adequate quarters in a building of its own. The Reading Rooms in Widener Library naturally present themselves to one's mind before the Reading Room in the Union. As a gathering place for out of town students and for occasional class meetings it scarcely justifies itself. Some new function for it should be discovered.

Would it contradict the spirit in which the building was erected to propose that it should form a social link between the students and their instructors? Complaint has been constantly made that the relations between Faculty and undergraduates have not been sufficiently close. Could not the Union be used to improve these relations? This suggestion, however, we make in passing. The point is that something must be done to reconstruct an institution which has been and could still become an agent of much good in the community.