Close Student - Faculty Relationship, Flexible Tradition at Kirkland

The hour grows late in the Dining Hall, and the steam table has been cleared for a long time, but in a corner of the room, three tables have been pulled together and a group of students and tutors are discussing a novel being written by an English concentrator sitting at the table.

Although not every student in the house writes a novel, this easy interplay between tutor and student, carried on over a Central Kitchen cup of coffee, is found at every meal, and everywhere tutors and students meet. At the supper table, at the billiards table, as well as at the office table, tutor-student relationships are close.

This relationship extends to all areas of House activity. Members of the House staff participated as eagerly as the students in the House drive to raise money for a Hungarian student to live at Kirkland next year, and the House raised about $800 more than the goal which had been set. Tutors and students in Fine Arts helped alike in the preparation of the House's newly completed art studio, and English tutors throughout the year have been aiding the various dramatic efforts undertaken by members of the House.

The main spark of this intra-House rapport is Housemaster Charles H. Taylor, Henry Charles Lea Professor of Medieval History. Since his appointment as Master two years ago, he has improved tutor-student relationships, worked to enliven interest in House activities, and wrecked Hurricane Carol's plan of 1954 to destroy the House courtyard forever. The Kirkland Senior Tutor is Robert M. O'Clair, who has also aided faculty-student integration by his nursing of nascent House dramatic groups.

This dramatic activity is part of an overall increase in the influence and popularity of Kirkland House activities. In recent years there has been a rebirth of art interest, reflected in the new art studio and the House's twice-yearly exhibitions. House music groups play in the Common Room at least once a week, and a combination House newspaper and literary supplement is being formed.

After dinner, however, when the artists and musicians return to studying for their hour exam the next day, all are grateful that John Hicks built a house in 1726 which can now be used for a library. In one of its nine rooms on three floors, Kirkland House members can retreat from their roommates and tutors, and find a soft chair in which to study or fall asleep. Another location where much occurs is the Junior Common Room, where forums, concerts, and meetings punctuate the eternal magazine reading and piano playing.

Forums in the Common Room, studying in the library, meal chats with tutors: these go on always, varied now and then by a new organization, a new activity when some student or tutor has a bright idea. The thought of having a Hungarian refugee enter the House was a joint effort of tutor-student minds, and with enthusiasm and speed the House topped its goal and made the plan possible. This reaction raised high hopes that the next three years will be unusually stimulating with George Heimler, 19-year-old former resident of Budapest, living in the House. No special welcomes or parties are planned for him, but House members plan to welcome him into the Kirkland community in the Fall as a regular, somewhat bewildered, sophomore and give him the same warm welcome they will extend to the rest.

The House has traditions--the boar's head march and the Master's solo at the Christmas dinner, for example--but the House is not tradition-bound. As Master Taylor says, "We have no particular specialty; we are interested in whatever students want to do, and we try to find the means by which they can do it."

These are some of the aspects of Kirkland House, but they are not all and they do not sum up the House. There are, for that matter, very few statements which would sum it up, for Kirkland is a diversified House with many interests and many temperaments.