The Hastie Decision of PBH

Apparently upset by the fact that the words, "Phillips Brooks House" are more likely to raise images of theatre tickets and juvenile boxing matches than of the great old Massachusetts preacher, the University has taken a second step toward giving PBH back to religion. The first step, taken several months ago, was making the Chairman of the Board of Preachers automatic Director of Brooks House, and now pending is the appointment of a divinity student as Graduate Secretary.

Undoubtedly, the new appointee is quite competent, and his long record of social service bespeaks a devotion to the secular activities of PBH. But it difficult to see how his position as an embryonic cleric can fail to inject a religious element into the organization. And with PBH's hymn-singing days far behind, such an element would be undesirable because Brooks House's function is now to offer opportunities for social service along secular lines. Heading this institution with sectarians might well frighten off undergraduates who prefer to eschew organized religion in their extracurricular activities. Further, a divinity school Secretary will probably have trouble convincing parochial settlements that Brooks House workers will keep their gospel social.

Those who doubt that students shy from religious influence in these matters need only look to Dwight Hall, Yale's counterpart to PBH. Soon after the installation of clerics and divinity students as officials came a marked slump in the number and enthusiasm of participants in the social service program.

It would be futile to ask a divinity-minded Graduate Secretary to shuck his religious views while administering his Brooks House duties. Yet his slightest attempt to propagate religion in the organization would bear out the fears of those who doubted the wisdom of his appointment. Even if the divinity student now under consideration could always muffle his natural inclination to extend religion in PBH's activities, the precident of a sectarian Secretary would be established. And eventually, some future zealot would act to end the fine tradition of service without reference to any religious belief. The Graduate Secretary should continue as a secular post.