FORGOTTEN MEN

The House Plan once an abstraction is now a reality in brick and mortar and circumstances are at work moulding the "corporate personality" of every House from within while wind and weather and the long suffering ivy are giving the sanction of age to the naked glory without. It is inevitable and desirable that each House should develop its own individual tradition but it should not do so at the expense of any of its legitimate and important functions.

One of the most valuable opportunities the houses offer is the intimate contact of tutor and men which is largely the result of their taking their meals together. When tables are reserved solely for the use of tutors as is the custom in Eliot, Leverett, and to some extent in Adams House although here the system is breaking down, it is inevitable that the tutors and non-resident faculty members should fail to enter into the common life of the House.

In the University where there is no check-up on the emotional and social adjustment of the individual, although such a check exists in theory, the presence of experienced men can be an immediate help to men in the houses, and in addition to all the other benefits of such a relationship it may possibly prove a stimulant to the moribund art of conversation which has increased in importance now that men find themselves at leisure from the hurly-burly of business life.

No matter in what other ways the houses which maintain the policy of splendid isolation may develop their individuality they can not afford to ignore this important part of their effective functions as members of the House Plan.