Dunster's Close Bonds Make Tutorial Work

Present Size of House: about 346 (second smallest).

Vacancies for Freshmen: 120.

Rooms for Freshmen--70 places in doubles (converted singles), 30 places in triples (converted doubles). Some singles, some unconverted doubles.

Price Range for Freshmen: $110 to $190 a term.

No further from the Yard than Eliot, Dunster House has gained a reputation for inapproachable isolation. While it is not deserved, this reputation has served to force Dunster men together and thus produce a model House--one which has a closely-knit group of students and an emphasis on the educational side of the Harkness plan.

If it is not further from the Yard, Dunster is a bit off to the side of the rest of the Houses. Surrounded on three sides by Cambridge tenements and on the fourth by the Charles, Dunster men feel themselves a bit cut off spiritually from the rest of the Harvard community. This, together with the fact that Dunster is the second smallest. House, produces a sense of comradeship which draws Funsters together in the feeling of one big family.

Thus the small-college, "everyone knows everyone else," feeling is stronger at Dunster than at most of the other Houses. Furthermore the tutorial staff is drawn into this same convivial atmosphere to make Dunster one House where informal education is a pleasant reality.

The Dunster tutors, carefully chosen by Master Gordon M. Fair for youth and congenality, are centers of dining hall debate. The conversation ranges all the way from comparative government to the sex habits of the Japanese. This informality of discussion may not be exactly what President Lowell was thinking of when he fought for the idea of the House system, but it does contribute to a diversified education.

Dunster House is not all sweetness and light, however. One of the most serious faults of the House is the top-heavy proportion of its members who are science concentrators, its dearth of club men and white shoe elements. There are comparatively few varsity athletes in the House as well, but the Class of 1954 in Dunster has done quite a bit to make up for this lack. Master Fair would welcome applications from these groups--their absence in the House represents no prejudice on his part.

Dunster's kitchen is off the central system, but it doesn't make much difference so far as food is concerned. The food is certainly no worse than that of the other Houses, but it isn't any better. At times, furthermore, long waits for various courses smell suspiciously of inefficiency. Except for the protracted serving of coffee and toast at breakfast the dining hall loses down tightly tightly on the appointed hour.

House activities are many, varied, and fairly-well attended. The Forum committee brings outhstanding speakers on the faculty to discuss important issues of the world and College. An active Music Society presents a series of chamber music concerts which always draw large Sunday afternoon crowds. The unusually active House committee plans a diverse social program--including the famed masquerade ball--and is completing arrangements for automatic washing machine to be installed in the basement. A House newspaper makes irregular but frequent appearances.

House Arcade

With no frappe and hamburger palaces nearby, Dunster has resourcefully set up a small arcade in the C-entry basement which features, besides ping-pong, pool, and television, a wide selection of lowcost sandwiches, a milk and apple-juice dispensor, and a three-flavored soft drink machine. As the evening progresses the Dunster center of gravity shifts from the well-used common room to the C-entry arcade. The sale of sandwiches indicates that about one-third of the House eventually gathers in there each evening, thus providing another cohesive factor in a naturally cohesive House.

The scholarly type will have no reason to shun Dunster. With its close student faculty relations, Dunsted has a powerful intellectual atmosphere. The library was at last count second only to Lowell's.

Three Funsters--one a varsity football player--were among his fall's group of 16 seniors elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and the House usually gets a fair share of other academic honors.

Rooms in Dunster either overlook the beautiful Charles River--or they don't. If they don't one is apt to get a rather uninspiring view of the drab tenements which surround the House. All Dunster rooms were meant originally to be either doubles or singles--with crowded conditions many were converted into triples, but that is about as big as they go.