Clubs Now Open To All Sopbomores Form Hub Of Society

Parking and parietals are two problems recurring constantly at Cambridge that just don't exist in Tigertown. Their first solution is simple: the Undergraduate Regulations of Princeton's Official Register, General Regulations, section 12, states, "No undergraduate shall, while college is in session, maintain or operate a motor vehicle in Princeton or in the neighborhood thereof . . . without the consent of the Dean of his College."

The penalty for violation of this rule is one year's suspension, so the rule is pretty generally kept. The reason for it is to maintain the cohesive community tradition of Princeton.

The nearest college is New Jersey College for Women, which is practically monopolized by Rutgers, and there is nothing else save the big cities of New York and Philadelphia to satisfy the Tiger men. In Princeton the Nassau Tavern, a couple of movies, and a bowling alley don't fill the bill. In short, during the week, Princeton is sex-starved.

"Such a shift in the national feeling about dates has come about since I was in college," Dean of the College Francis R. B. Godolphin says, "that the Princeton of the old days is inadequate. Now boys must have dates every night, and this swing to co-education is not satisfied." That the average Princetonian has two dates a month, according to the college daily paper's poll, proves Godolphin's theory.

Those two dates are humdingers, though, both of them on big weekends, atoning for all the barrenness of the preceding weeks. They make Princeton's reputation but they never would be as good if it were not for the eating clubs.

The clubs on weekends are the upperclass answer to the women-lack during the week. Although during the week the 17 Princeton eating clubs, which for the past two years have taken in 100 percent of the sophomores, are three-meal-daily eating clubs only, the week-end transforms them into a combination of the Stork Club and a private hotel room. Some clubs, each of about 100 members, can put up as many as 40 girls a night, and the curfew isn't until 2 a.m. The famous House party week-end leads all the others in gaiety and abandon, but the football week-ends are not far behind. In the spring and early fall Lake Carnegie and the football field offer fine rendezvous.

Dances at the clubs turn into wild affairs where liquor is used freely and everybody has a good time. Needless to say on Sundays the parties effects somewhat dampen the elation, but, though handicapped, the Tiger certainly makes out better than during the week.

The question now in the balance is whether or not the Clubs will continue to take in 100 percent of the sophomore class in the spring "bicker" season. The class of '52, which began the 100 percent movement in their sophomore year when 605 of them pledged they would not join any eating club unless all members of the class got bids, carried it through last year without any written guarantee, but whether it can continue through this year remains to be seen. The Undergraduate Interclub Committee, made up of club presidents, has the final say. As the alumni members support the clubs to a great extent, their opinions will also be carefully weighed.

Some members of the class of '52 would like to see the 100 percent rule crystallized by resolution, but as yet that has not materialized. Another question is that of student waiters in place of the present hired help in the eating clubs. Both problems to Princetonians are of the utmost importance as, in addition to their importance on week-ends, the clubs are the focus of everyday life at the college.