Shy Annex Students Wilt System Of Faculty Affiliates at Dinners

Too much bashfulness on the part of Radcliffe girls has impeded the establishment of an ideal system of faculty affiliates to provide dinner-table education at Cliffe dorms. Apparently Annex girls choke up when facing a full professor--or even an assistant--across the table. This is the conclusion of a report on the program by Barbara Pitts '52, Radcliffe Social Chairman.

The present system started in the fall of 1949 as an attempt to provide Cliffe students with the advantage of the House tutorial system. Each hall composed a list of the faculty members they wanted as their guests and Dean Mary Small sent letters to the faculty requesting that they participate in the program.

A dinner preceding the 'Cliffe Christmas Formal launched the system. The first report on the program, sent to faculty affiliates in November, 1950, discussed its development in a year's time. The report concluded. "Pleasant and important as its social aspects are, the plan is essentially an attempt to make possible the discussion of areas of common interest with the faculty which many students find lacking, particularly in the larger fields of concentration."

...a system in balance...

One faculty couple and one student representative from each hall were appointed to a committee in May 1951 "in response to a need for greater integration of the Radcliffe faculty program." They suggested that freshmen in each dormitory be assigned, according to their areas of interest, to individual faculty members.

This plan was initiated with the class of '55 and each affiliate received a letter with the list of table companions. Next fall, letters will also be sent to the incoming students telling them to whom they have been assigned.

New affiliates can be added at any time, with only the restriction that any particular department not be over-represented, and that the desired faculty member not be attached to another dormitory.

Hall residents pay for two faculty teas a year, at which girls may invite any professor or instructor, Students are also encouraged to have faculty guests at Wednesday dinner.

The social chairman in each dormitory coordinates the system. "The program is just about as good as the individual social chairman," stated Dean Small.

Briggs Hall girls enjoy the opportunity of getting acquainted with Kenneth J. Conant, professor of architecture, at lunch each Tuesday. Helen Maud Cam, Zemurray-Stone Professor of History, visits Cabot for dinner each Wednesday night.

More of the younger faculty members, such as section men, will be asked to participate in the program. This year three section men are acting as junior associates to two halls. Thomas Moser is affiliated to Eliot, and Robert O'Clair and David Ferry to Moors.

...on the flying trapeze...

The nucleus of affiliates must be persons on permanent tenure in order to assure continuance of the program, but the younger men seem to have more time to participate in the system and are often less restrained with the students.

'Cliffe interest in improving the affiliation system has been increasing. With the present program many mere undergraduates are exposed informally to faculty members than before the system started. Its effectiveness varies. As Dean Small remarked, "in given years the faculty affiliation system will be good in certain dorms."

When housing pressure lessens, an attempt may be made to imitate a feature of the Harvard House system. Female graduate students and tutors may be housed in the undergraduate halls.