Improved Interhouse

Harvard and Radcliffe students should be grateful that they have at last won a trial period of free interhouse dining between the colleges. The Administration--Masters, Deans, and financial officers--has shown a sincere desire to experiment with a program long sought by an overwhelming majority of students.

After only slightly more than a week of operation, however, the interhouse experiment appears doomed to failure. It seems unlikely that the requirement of an equal number of interhouse meals at Harvard and Radcliffe will be met; already Radcliffe authorities complain that their dining halls are overburdened with Harvard undergraduates.

It is foolish to insist upon an equal number of interhouse meals in the two dining hall systems, because of the relative sizes of Harvard and Radcliffe and their dining halls. Ideally, the two dining hall systems should merge their financial operations to insure a practical interhouse system, or at least work out a system of reimbursements to solve any "imbalance of payments" that might arise. In such a case it would not be necessary to have cruising bands of interhouse zealots setting out to make the system work.

If for the time being, however, the number of meals taken on interhouse at Harvard and Radcliffe must be kept approximately equal, Radcliffe should provide more nights for Harvard men to eat in their rather small facilities; this is the only way to meet complaints about "Harvard-only" nights which crowd out graduate students or people from other colleges. The present selection of Tuesday or Thursday nights, and Wednesday with advance notice, is not satisfactory under any circumstances.

Once having progressed this far, it would be encouraging if the administrations of Harvard and Radcliffe at least attempted to make interhouse dining a success. Undergraduates, too, bear a responsibility in this area. If Harvard-Radcliffe interhouse is ever to become the casual experience it should be, more students will have to take advantage of it, frequently and informally.