Hurry Up, Please . . .

Harvard men journeyed to Princeton this fall, and Yale came here, and six other colleges also came here in varying degrees. And aside from the few really disgruntled students who inhabit every college, everyone came away with great relief that he was where he was, and not at the other place.

But if any one thing was obvious from all the intercourse, it was that several other colleges have done better than Harvard in building themselves up as social centers for their students. Some of them accomplish it with fancy common rooms and lavish celebrations; Yale does the job by leaving enforcement of parietal rules to the discretion of the College masters, some of whom are quite discreet.

As is well known, Harvard's social facilities, especially for entertaining women guests, are inadequate. That does not mean we should accept solutions which other colleges have found suitable. Many depend on a fraternity system, which is foreign to Harvard. Yale emphasizes a kind of paternalism, working through the close relationship of the Master to the students in his college. Princeton has its eating clubs; Dartmouth has a plan for organized earnality on several weekends during the year.

Harvard's tradition, and the quality that sets it apart, is the freedom which it gives to its undergraduates, and the degree of responsibility with which it credits them. Parietal rules are not now a part of this tradition. Yet the philosophy has worked well in every field where it has been tried; academic work, extra-curricular activities, personal opinions on all subjects.

If used intelligently, this doctrine of "the greatest possible freedom" can help solve the present entertainment problem. There is a pressing need; the Houses are losing whatever social attraction they might once have possessed, and students with dates are being shunted off to bars and restaurants around the Square, where the price of entertainment is high.

The logical answer, and the one which fits in best with Harvard policy, is to establish more sensible rules, and not to rely on individual favors from Housemasters to relieve the social pressures. With the football season over, dances and the like diminishd noticeably, and the problem of where to go of an an evening is a more serious one. Seven o'clock, or even eight o'clock, is no deadline for Harvard students.