Council Opposes Quincy Interhouse Restrictions

The Undergraduate Council last night addressed an expansive agenda in which they recommended a letter calling for the divisibility of Social Analysis 10, the hiring of buses to carry students to New Haven for Yale Weekend, and a campuswide, 20-keg party in December.

But the council spent most of the meeting debating the Residential Committee's letter calling on Quincy House to ease interhouse restrictions at lunch and dinner.

The letter, which will be sent to the Committee on Housing (COH) this week, was prompted by Quincy's newly-instituted policy allowing unrestricted interhouse only between 12:30 and 1:00 p.m., and one nonresident guest per Quincy resident between 5 and 6 p.m. Aside from these two provisions, interhouse dining is prohibited.

The new policy "threatens to set a dangerous precedent for the college dining system," reads the letter.

While the letter does not call for the abolition of all interhouse regulations, it recommends that Quincy restrict interhouse only between 12 and 12:15 p.m. and 1 and 1:15 p.m. It also recommends no restrictions on interhouse during dinner hours except on special occasions.

This measure would still allow house residents to eat lunch directly aftertheir classes end without having to wait inexcessively long lines, said Nancy Slotnick '89,who assisted in drafting the proposal.

Former vice-chairman of the council Amy B.Zegart '89 opposed even the minor restrictionsallowed by the letter. "We could make a muchstronger statement if we just came out against anyinterhouse restrictions," she said.

Finance Committee chairman Deena M. Bernstein'89 agreed. "We should present the [COH] with aphilosophical proposal rather than with specificreccomendations."

After about 25 minutes of heated debate, thecouncil approved sending the letter recommendingminimum restrictions on lunch hours.

The council added to its mailing list by votingunanimously to send a letter to the Department ofEconomics calling for either the division ofSocial Analysis 10, or the creation of aone-semester course covering both macroeconomicsand microeconomics.

The recommendations resulted from a poll takenlast April of 240 undergraduates in which 71.1percent responded they would not take SocialAnalysis 10 because "two semesters is too long acommitment," said Todd Flynn, a member of the theAcademics Committee.

When council members questioned how the newcourse would be credited, Flynn said "the letterdeals only with divisibility. Course credits willhave to be decided by the Core Committee." ButFlynn added that it will be difficult to dividethe course and still have it count for corecredit