Dunster Shuns 'Party House' Reputation, Stressing Close Student-Tutor Relations

Despite its well-known monicker of "Party House" and the equally celebrated conception of its member as a back-slapping beer guzzler, sprawling Dunster House offers a broader appeal than dining hall cheers and uproarious smokers.

Like all of the Houses, Dunster has its share of football binges and Monday morning hangovers. But also like all of the Houses, Dunster has its share of representatives from all college strata.

Nevertheless, the body of the House does seem to break up into two fairly distinct groups, which have little interrelation, and which associate mainly among themselves.

This is at once both an advantage and a handicap. Dunster won the Straus Trophy last year, and may repeat this year. As a result, the athletic group forms a tightly-knit unit which plays, eats, and talks together.

At the other extreme are the more intellectually inclined House members who attend the forums and concerts which the athlets avoid, and who, in turn, take little interest in Straus Trophy competition, and often spurn the spirited cheering of football weekends.

Few men are able to travel in both circles; thus, few men derive full benefit of both athletic and intellectual opportunities and facilities which the House offers. To be sure, there is a more or less nondescript middle group between these extremes, but it seems in general, that it composed of students on the fringe of either the athletic or intellectual circle.

In this sense, then, Dunster is not the home of the all-around man it is trying to produce. Neither is the house the ideal microcosm within the College macrocosm.

Dunster has for some time been the home of the Government concentrator and Science major. This distinction is less striking now than in the past, but there are still too few English concentrators and the like.

Such criticism, and such a distinction between athletic and intellectual groups is perhaps sophistical, for the individual can find at Dunster whatever he wants to find. Master Gordon M. Fair has always attempted to make his House a center of learning--a breeding place for scholars in the broadest sense--rather than merely a place to live, or exchange dinner table small-talk.

As a result, his tutors are carefully chosen. They are mostly young men without particular distinction in the University for rank or accomplishment, but they are able to mix with the students and are willing to form close and informal friendships with undergraduates.

House policy has been not only to acquire good resident tutors, but also to present opportunities for the continuing intermingling of staff and students. It is a House rule that only two tutors may eat at the same table.

Recreational Facilities

To help compensate for the distance to the Square, one entry basement is used as a community recreation center, where ping-pong, pool, and sandwiches substitute for the pinball emporiums near the Yard. In May, the House holds its traditional and always-successful Masquerade Hall, and the Dunster Dunces, an intra-House singing group has appeared widely around the metropolitan area.

There are numerous other activities during the year, including two smokers, and frequent, successful record dances.

Dunster House, then, makes available to its members, most of the intellectual and physical facilities a House can offer. Despite possible cleavage in the interests of its members, most Dunster men are friendly and gregarious. But nothing is forced on the Funster. Not even parties.

Present size of House: 344

Vacancies for Freshmen: 125

Type of rooms available: 31 doubles; 26 triples

Price range of available rooms (per man per term): doubles, $130-240: triples, $100-205.