Something in Common

A further examination of the proposed new House plan which is soon to be put into operation at Harvard reveals a great many interesting phases to those who see in the situation certain conditions which might be said to parallel those at Yale. To sum up the broadest aspect of the plan, it is projected subdivision of the University into smaller residential units, and the chief purpose will be an improvement of the social side of education by the promotion of better understanding between diverse groups of students and the establishment of more thorough contacts between students and instructors or tutors.

In the first place, here as well as at Harvard there is an ever increasing demand for more adequate dormitory space, for the practice of housing a large portion of the Freshman class in boarding houses about town should by now have about run its course. There is the need also of more comfortable dining rooms for everyone which could be supplied by their installation in any dormitories that Yale may build in the future. The establishment of the House system at Yale in the form of small quadrangles will in this respect come into violent conflict with the present social system, for the Fraternities as they now stand are, if nothing else, eating clubs. In this matter, therefore, there would have to be a definite, although difficult compromise.

Another parallel situation which the inception of a similar plan of subdivision might ameliorate is the absolute lack of unity of any description since the class, as a solid group, has become extinct. There would be the hope that in centering men from all three of the upper classes of the College in small quadrangles truly organic groups might result which could be called unified. There should be the sense of comradeship which used to be inherent in the old class system, before they became too large. By throwing together men of widely varying mental equipment and cultural interests there might be a general stimulation of the educational idea, the idea that the University is an institution of learning rather than "A finishing school for young men." Ideally, there should be the discouragement of cliques and small social whirlpools of any sort within the separate "houses", while their whole purpose would be the encouragement of intellectual endeavor as small groups with common cultural interests. As the President of the CRIMSON describes the House plan, the group must "compete with the centrifugal attractions of final clubs, activities, varsity athletics, cars, girls, Boston and New York."

The great question is, however, with all of the small details considered and finally arranged, whether a fracture of the present American educational tradition will successfully result in a more wieldy form. Much doubt has been expressed in regard to the possibility of forming small, homogeneous groups out of the large heterogeneous mass of the College. It is a question of whether or not the experiments are socially practicable. The habit of becoming segregated into small groups such as the present fraternities has become so ingrained in the make-up of the undergraduates of today that the transplantation of the English system, that of separate colleges housing men picked from all three classes at random, seems more or less a vague dream. --Yale News.