Freshman Year

Now that this year's Union Committee has been picked, the freshman activities program is ready to ramble ahead with the aid of some conditions that haven't been seen around the Yard since before the war. Last year's efforts were all but blocked by over-crowding, and the fact that the Yard was a hodge-podge of freshmen and upperclassmen. The Union couldn't function properly: it was mainly a place where you waited in line to cat, or signed up a month in advance for a ping-pong table.

Matters are fortunately different for '52. Except for a few stray sophomores, the Yard is populated entirely by first-year men. Eating lines are modest, since the Houses have divided up and absorbed the mob of upperclass non-House residents. This allows Union executives enough yardage to make the Union a true freshman center--not just a chow hall--and to plan ahead for activities previously impossible or extremely difficult.

One project is already under way, a promising intramural sports program. This has been absent in a great big way--to the indirect detriment of House athletics. The effects of a vigorous sports program in the Yard should show up next year in the Houses, when an athletically-minded '52 moves south.

In fact, all the activities the new Union Committee drums up to fill the current vacuum will hop up future House programs. Recent House recruits haven't exactly been social drones, but they have gawked at the opulence of House facilities. There just hasn't been anything like that in the Yard. Obviously the Union can't suddenly be transformed into a full-blown freshman House, for although the men in the Yard deserve everything the Committee can get for them, the budget doesn't allow for a complete refurnishing job on the Union. But there is plenty of space in which to work, and there will be more at the end of the year when the Union library moves to Lamont. The Committee, together with the older freshman officials, have only to exploit this opportunity, and this year will be a banner one for the Yard.