STUDENT HOUSE ASSOCIATES

Four hundred and eighteen undergraduates last year were refused entrance to the Houses. These figures alone bear evidence to the present inadequacy of the House System. Out of one thousand applications House Masters were forced to turn away three hundred and thirty-six who were in good standing. No House official, no Dean, no student endorses this arrangement. A waiting list may be desirable, but such a large one only breeds disillusionment and discontent. But the University officials are at a loss to know what to do.

Contrary to certain rumors, President Conant does not intend to cut down the enrollment of the undergraduate body. The present difficulties must therefore continue unless the University adopts some measure to eliminate them. Ideas of constructing a new house have been frustrated by the lack of funds and the necessity of a substantial waiting list to bid up the prices.

There is a temporary solution, however, which might be put into effect; and that is a system of Student House Associates. Without too much discomfort each House could extend its privileges to twenty or thirty extra students, though it is doubtful if libraries which are already crowded during reading periods, could stand any extra packing. The Plan would alleviate the unwarranted discrimination against men who happen to have bad luck in their applications. For, every year the House Master must turn away certain students, because they have only ordinary marks, because an over demand happens to exist in the type of rooms for which they are applying, or any such unjust, though at present necessary, basis for elimination. Dining hall privileges as well as the use of game rooms, music rooms, and common rooms could be made available to the associate body.

Objections have been raised that this "fringe" of associate members would constitute a threat to House unity. But the common feeling which does exist is nurtured mainly in the dining hall, the meeting place of all entries. And it is precisely here that the associate members, as individuals, would make up an integral part of the house unit. To advertise the House plan about the country, and at the same time bar a fifth of the Sophomore Class from the Houses is a misrepresentation and unfair to those not accepted. To adopt some sort of associate plan seems almost a duty.