Union, Home of Freshmen Recreational Activities, Eating, Taken Over by Navy

The Class of '46 will be the first in many a College generation not to think of the Union as its base of operations. Formerly a Freshman dining hall and center of Freshman social life, this building is to be turned over to the Navy for men in the new communications school.

Symbolic of the decline of Freshman Class unity brought about by the admission of first-year men to the Houses and by the wartime accelerated program, the Freshman Dining Hall has ceased to exist. The Class of '45 and preceding classes knew the ivy-covered building across Quincy Street from the President's house as the place where they met their classmates three times daily for meals and also as a spacious recreation hall containing common rooms, libraries, and billiard rooms reserved exclusively for "Yardlings." The great and long-to-be remembered social event of the Freshman year, the Jubilee, has also been traditionally held in the Union, and the Smoker was moved there this year from Memorial Hall.

Union Aimed at Unity

The Union was built about the turn of the century from a gift of Major Henry Lee Higginson '55, who also gave Soldiers Field, the University's athletic grounds. The Union was founded originally for the purpose of bringing together students and Faculty members, by using the building as a common recreation hall. Before long, however, it was given over to the Freshmen. The original purpose of the donor, however, has been largely realized by means of the House Plan, which has enabled undergraduates and young instructors to eat together and meet on common ground.

Activity Location Uncertain

How the Navy's invasion of the Freshman stronghold will affect the numerous activities of the Union is not yet known with certainty. Formerly the newly admitted Freshmen gathered there for a free feed and welcome speeches by relevant Deans and usually a prominent alumnus. A little later in the year (generally after November hours) they were addressed in the Union by President James B. Conant, who informally set forth his ideas on education to his newest wards. These events will not be held in the summer of course, and whether or not the armed forces will occupy the Union into next fall will be decided by higher powers than University Hall.

The Naval Communications Corps, a unit distinct from all other branches of the Navy now maintaining courses of instruction at Harvard University, will move 800 students into the Yard and the Union at about the same time that the first segment of the Class of '46 enters in June.

The Navy will be only one more of many institutions and things housed in the Union, ranging from a gun from the U.S.S. "Harvard" of World War I to the H. A. A., which new has quarters in the rooms occupied by the CRIMSON in the first years of the Union.

The problem of moving the Freshman Union Library to another location has not yet been settled. This collection, totalling some 10,000 volumes, was established specifically for the use of the entering class. It will presumably be transferred to some other location near the center of the group of seven Houses, and will continue to be reserved for the use of '46.