Ninth Union Committee Meets Today to Map Plans for Year

When the 1943 Union Committee assembles for its first meeting in the Union at 1 o'clock today, it will be the ninth such group that has guided the affairs of Freshman classes since the first-year men moved into the Yard in 1931.

Prior to 1931 Freshmen lived all over Cambridge, while the Seniors occupied the Yard. When the House system was inaugurated, the Freshmen became Yardlings, living in the ancient quadrangle and eating and studying in the Union.

Manages Class Activities

Like its predecessors, the 1943 group has before it the task of managing all social activities in the Union until a new Freshman class takes over next fall. These activities include dances, amateur nights, photographic contests, talks by men outside the University, talks on fields of concentration by Faculty members, and free reviews before examinations given by Faculty members who teach Freshman courses.

The Committee also has charge of inter-dormitory athletics.

In the past, Union Committees have become partially defunct each spring, when class officers were elected. These officers were charged with appointing the committees which run the two big Freshman affairs, the Smoker and Jubilee. They also took over a large share of the management of class activities.

'42 Voted Against Elections

Last year, however, the class of 1942 voted against class elections, and in favor of the Union Committee's staying in office during the entire year, by a margin of 432 to 179. This action is not necessarily binding on the class of 1943 if it wishes to elect class officers.

Unlike other Freshman organizations, the Union Committee is financially independent. The Redbook, Smoker, and Jubilee budgets must be approved by the Student Council, and this year their expenditures will not only be informally supervised by Langdon P. Marvin '41 and Harvey Taylor '42. Student Council representatives for Freshman affairs, but their books will be regularly audited by the treasurer of the Council. Kendric N. Marshall '21, secretary of the Union and an instructor in Government, is the Union Committee's guardian angel and Faculty advisor.