Brooks House Plans Return Of Pre-War Freshman Unit

Not mentioned among the extracurricular activities for the short summer term in last week's SERVICE NEWS, Phillips Brooks House, center of Harvard's social service activities, is starting back to its pre-war set-up and plans a re-activated summer schedule, according to John W. Ellison '44, who has returned to Harvard to reconvert PBH.

Most striking in the new program, says Ellison, is the restoration of the Freshman Committee to its former status. During the war it has been only a nominal group and has not run regular Freshman activities. When Freshmen lived in the Yard (up to the Spring of 1943), PBH ran Freshman athletics, and Ellison hopes to work out a similar program this week as the result of conversations with Adolph W. Samborski '25, Director of Intramural Athletics.

Ellison's goal is to have the Freshman Committee handling Freshman affairs. He hopes to get out a Brooks House handbook for the entering Class of 1950, and the Class of 1949, he says, will be the ones to write it. No handbook has been published since 1942.

Brooks House will continue its social service work, Ellison said. May Freshmen indicated at Registration that they were interested in these activities, which include running athletics and handiwork classes for underprivileged children.

The date for the opening of the competition for the Brooks House Committee is not yet known, Ellison continued. During the war the competition has been continuous, with men becoming members of the Committee whenever they have completed the necessary amount of work.

The Freshman Committee used to sponsor a tea dance on the afternoon after the Freshman Jubilee, a Christmas party for needy Cambridge children, Tranksgiving baskets, and other activities which Ellison hopes to revive. The regular Freshman teas with Radcliffe girls will be held in the fall, but were omitted from this term's program because of Radcliffe's closing for the summer.