Meeting Tonight May Decide Fate Of 'Advocate,' Defunct Since 1943

A few of the difficulties that have left the College without a literary magazine may be cleared this evening when the trustees of the Advocate come together in New York City to decide the immediate future of Mater Advocate, which ceased publication in the summer of 1943.

Probabilities are that re-establishment of the magazine will get the approval of the trustees, but there is a strong possibility that other than purely literary matter may be recommended for its pages, which increasingly up until the last issue had been devoted only to short stories, poems, and other creative material. Some well-defined sentiment exists for the inclusion of political or socio-economic material in the new Advocate, and this feeling has at least unofficial backing from University Hall.

So far, the greatest stumbling block in the path of the Advocate's return has been the considerable debt left as the result of successive financial failures on the publication's last few issues. Indications now are that if certain conditions, to be stipulated by the trustees, are met, the debt will be cleared by the contributions of former editors.

Another difficulty--and one in which University Hall has interested itself--is the state of the Advocate building. After the magazine folded, the grey Bow Street building was rented, in deference to the war-time housing shortage, in apartment lots to both married and unmarried tanants. Stringent OPA restrictions forbid the eviction of otherwise homeless tenants, and the University would probably veto the occupancy by students of a mixed-tenancy building.

However, the old Advocate Board room is now unoccupted, and presumably this would be used at used at least as a focal point for revived Advocate activity.