Von Stade May Impose Quota On Upperclass Union Lunches

F. Skiddy von Stade Jr. '38, dean of freshmen, said yesterday that because the Freshman Union is "so overcrowded" at lunchtime, he is considering placing a limit on the number of Harvard upperclassmen and Radcliffe freshmen and upperclassmen who eat there.

Von Stade said, however, that he would take no action without the consent of the Freshman Council.

Renee Landers '77, president of the Freshman Council, said yesterday that although the council has discussed the matter, it has come to no agreement.

Long Walk

"The Freshman Council is reluctant to do anything because it realizes the people who live up at Radcliffe and who would have to walk up there for lunch everyday would be very upset," she said.

Burriss W. C. Young, assistant dean of freshmen, yesterday requested Lewis J. Tolleson Jr., manager of the freshman dining hall, to keep a "strict count of upperclassmen" eating in the Union after Young could not find a seat there at 12:45 p.m.

Eating and Clutching

"People were standing around and clutching their trays," Young said. "It makes it tough on the freshmen when they have to stand up and eat lunch," he added.

Tolleson said that the Union serves an average of 1500 people a day and of those, 460 to 500 are not freshmen living in the Yard. Yesterday, he said, 479 of the 1512 people who ate at the Union were from other Houses.

Yesterday's count showed that of the 479 people, 207 were from Radcliffe and the rest from Harvard Houses. Tolleson said that these figures were "unusually high for a normal day."

There are a total of 720 seats at the Freshman Union.

Come In Droves

"The problem is that upperclassmen come in droves at peak periods--right after classes at noon and right after classes at 1 p.m.," Tolleson said.

Von Stade said that although there was a limit on the number of upperclassmen eating in the Union last year, it was not enforced.

If a limit is imposed this year, von Stade said, he will either set a quota on the number of interhouse people who could eat in the Union or establish certain "offbeat periods" set aside for them to eat there.

Landers said that a third possible alternative might be to prohibit upperclassmen from Lowell House, Quincy House and Adams House, the three Harvard Houses closest to the Union, from eating at the Union.