Large Rooms, Good Views Make Winthrop Liked By Active, Athletic, Apathetic

If Houses were judged by size, Winthrop would place third with its average of 380 men. In the other factors that make it the place it is, Winthrop somehow also manages to stay near the middle road.

It has some features, of course, that make for distinction. You cannot, for example, get a bad room, no matter what your assignment. Because of its unique position, spread out along the river from the Triangle to Plympton Street, all the rooms either look out upon the tree-lined drive, or on the ivied walls of the House across the way.

And the rooms are large; even when there are three people living where the architects intended only two, space is plentiful. Built in the days of generous, pre-depression construction, without the high-ceilinged dimness of the older periods, Winthrop suites are easy to live with.

There are some bad features too, which can hardly be avoided. Visitors, for example, complain that the dining room is unfriendly-looking, that the House is divided into two distinct parts by a wide stretch of lawn, and residents must eat the mass-produced food of the central kitchen, perhaps the most-deserved gripe of all.

High in House Athletics

These do not discourage House members who, perhaps more than any other students, represent the general College makeup. Winthrop's percentage of concentrators in each field, is approximately that of the College at large, though traditionally there is an unusually large group of athletes whose ability is reflected in House league standings, and whose names make news across the river on fall Saturday afternoons.

The Puritans have the annual Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, Christmas play, monthly House dinners with prominent speakers, and the hobby clubs. There are the dances--two a term--and an annual exhibit for the artistic, not to mention a movie cycle and foreign language talks. Members participate in the only House field of concentration discussion groups yet started.

All this belies any possible rumor about the traditional apathy of all Puritans. Housemaster Ronald M. Ferry '12, associate professor of Biochemistry, points to his staff of tutors, one of the most cooperative in the Houses--there are no reserved tutor tables at Winthrop.

It should not be overly hard to get in this year, as usual, there are no special requirements. Most of the available suites are multiples, since the House has more of them than to any other. Those who decide to enter will neither be backslapped nor completely ignored--Winthrop prefers a middle way.