DINING HOURS

A change in the hours of House dining halls has been faintly agitated ever since their doors were thrown open to the first breakfasters. Of late, the murmurs have become more audible, have spread, in fact, throughout all the quadrangles. No definite action has as yet been taken by either Lehman Hall or the Masters, and only the most uncertain count of opinion is on record; beyond reasonable doubt, however, fully three-quarters of the upperclassmen in the Houses are in favor of a dinner hour starting at six, and lasting till seven-thirty. In only two of the Houses, as far as can be found, are there an appreciable number who take dinner between five-thirty and six; in all there are scores who regularly scurry in as near to seven as possible, and then are forced to bolt down salad, dessert and coffee, in abject submission to the impatience of the waitresses.

Readjustment of the dining hours is clearly a matter for inter-House action, except in the case of Adams and Dunster which have separate kitchens. The others must have a group arrangement for cooking and service, unless the Comptroller's office loses its ancient inflexibility far enough to smile upon an uneconomic project. If group action were set afoot to put the evening mealtime forward, and a minority blocked the way, it would be right and necessary to overrule the wishes of the minority in favor of the far greater number. Even to the few, no great inconvenience would result from such a change: dinner at six allows enough time for any engagement later in the evening. Dinner at seven-thirty would be a civilized pleasure which the Houses have lacked too long.