Notch in the Key

The world judges a host by the way he treats his guests. If this maxim holds true for visiting athletic teams, the University's reputation has suffered at the hands of a group of apathetic undergraduates. For during the past year, the Crimson Key Society has seldom rendered the help it claims to give visiting teams.

Founded six years ago to provide a number of services the Student Council felt the University lacked, the Key's set functions were to welcome, guide, and entertain visiting athletic teams, aid the University in guiding official guests, and co-ordinate the operations of the Undergraduate Schools Committee. In addition, the Key runs an annual spring dance.

In entertaining official guests and guiding the Schools Committee, the Key has done its job satisfactorily. But in the past several years, the Spring dance has expanded into a weekend, and its management has grown from a minor item on the Key's yearly agenda to what sometimes appears to be the organization's primary function. Though the Key has grown in these directions, it has badly neglected its services for the H.A.A.

At every other Ivy League school, visiting teams are looked after by members of an undergraduate organization similar to the Key. Often this service is extended to arranging for the visitors' room and board. The Key at one time provided guide services here; now greeting visiting teams has become the exception instead of the rule.

Admittedly, the Key cannot be required to escort the visiting teams. Although it has received small grants of financial aid from the Dean's office in past years, these grants have never been given in exchange for specific services. But the Key calls itself a service organization, and the H.A.A. has grown to count on it for the help it has provided. Guiding a visiting team around the University might not be the most pleasant way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but a student should consider this before he joins the Key. Elections for a new slate of Key officers were held two night ago. The new executives should consider both the obligation and the record of service that they have inherited.