Remodeled Dudley Hall to Open as New Commuter Social Center

As a result of the satisfactory solution last March of the University's age old problem of providing commuting students with a suitable lunch room and an adequate center for social activities, the first floor of Dudley Hall, at 16 Dunster Street, remodeled during the summer at an expense of $40,000 to the University, will be opened on Monday, September 23, for the benefit of 600 upperclassmen of greater Boston who plan to commute to their classes during this year.

Operated under the general management of Peregrine White 2L, of Beverly, who was last year appointed secretary of the commuter organization, the new non-resident social center will provide day students with a lunch room capable of seating over 100 students at a time and a large common room furnished as a lounge for recreation and study, in addition to locker and wash rooms. The dining room, on the east side of the building, is a large room with cream-colored walls, white woodwork, and two fireplaces. The new center will be open only to upperclassmen, Freshmen being permitted to use the dining and library facilities of the Harvard Union.

During the first two weeks of the college year, use of Dudley Hall will be free to all commuting upperclassmen. After October 7, however, use of the building will be granted only to those students who are willing to pay a fee of $10 for the maintenance of the quarters. The latter fee is payable in two installments, the first due on October 7 and the second at the commencement of the second half of the academic year.

Luncheon will be served to the commuters at Dudley Hall from 12 to 1.30 o'clock on week days. A group of six tutors from the Faculty will be appointed regular members of the non-resident center and will eat luncheon in the building. Service will be conducted in cafeteria style, the dishes being priced at not more than five or ten cents an item and including sandwiches, fruit, dessert, and one hot plate.

The Common, locker, and wash rooms of Dudley Hall will be open from Monday through Friday during the college terms from 8.30 to 6.30 o'clock. On Saturday the building will be open from 8.30 to 2 o'clock.

Following the procedure used in the Houses, commuters using the new social center will be grouped together for social activities and will form their own athletic teams. An undergraduate committee to manage the social and athletic activities of the commuters will be appointed shortly after the opening of the college year.

The University's decision to undergo the expense of establishing suitable quarters for the commuters on condition that the latter would finance the upkeep of the building was arrived at late last March as the result of a storm of protest and criticism which lasted during the greater part of the college year and which was brought to bear on University officials through the efforts of the commuters themselves and of Phillips Brooks House.

The latter organization took up the standard in behalf of the commuters as the result of a widespread feeling that luncheon and recreation facilities, provided for the day students by Brooks House since 1932, were grossly inadequate for a group composing so large a percentage of the student body.

A movement was started last November to give the commuters a more articulate position in the Harvard community, with full-fledged representation in athletics and a spokesman on the Student Council.

Sought To Emulate M. I. T.

Dissatisfied with the facilities offered at Brooks House, where 225 students, ate luncheon daily in crowded quarters, the commuters planned to establish a club similar to the Five-Fifteen Club at M. I. T. and to obtain central headquarters for dancing and other social functions. A complaint was furthermore lodged against the conduct of Brooks House athletics, which the commuters charged was kept in the hands of a few upperclassmen and confined largely to students living in Claverly Hall. The Club proposed to limit its membership to actual commuters and to organize its own teams for competition in intramural athletics.

Brooks House immediately responded by pledging its wholehearted cooperation with the ambitions of the protesting students and by appointing a committee to receive and correlate all suggestions concerning the permanent place in the University of men living a home.

Questionnaires Distributed

Abandoning a proposal to make the non-resident students members of the Houses, the Investigation Committee distributed 800 questionnaires to ascertain the attitude of the commuters and the amount of financial support they would be willing to give. Preliminary returns indicated that the commuters were in full sympathy with the movement.

At the same time the Committee was scrutinizing such buildings as Hemenway Gymnasium, Memorial Hall, the old KEX Club, and 68 Mt. Auburn Street in an effort to discover a building equipped with adequate facilities. Definite indications were received, however, from University officials to the effect that no funds to be used for this purpose would be forthcoming from the University.

Somewhat later the Investigating Committee considered such locations as the old Conant home on Oxford Street, Dudley Hall, and the Fifty-Four Club. The latter of these buildings is owned by the Cambridge Savings Bank and was estmated to cost about $30,000. Had funds been available, the Committee would have considered this the best location for the new commuter social center.

Toward the end of January the University announced that Hemenway Gymnasium was out of the question since the demands of the commuters were not sufficient to warrant their occupying the whole space. Brooks House maintained, however, that the University ought to establish a center if the commuters who use it are willing to pay the maintenance charges.

Upon final publication of the Committee's report in March, Brooks House announced its decision that since the strain of the commuters was curtailing its social service work it would cease to be a headquarters for the commuters, thus leaving the issue squarely between the University and the day students. The report listed Hemenway Gymnasium and the Fifty-Four Club as suggestions and stated that 220 day students were willing to pay a maintenance fee of $10.

As the result of the pressure of criticism against it, the University on March 20 announced that the first floor of Dudley Hall would be remodeled for the commuters. The building was erected in 1897 and bought by the University in 1918 at the death of the original owner.

At the same time a group of graduates volunteered to take charge of the general administration of the social center. Headed by Allston Burr '89, former president of the Harvard Alumni Association, it includes Joseph R. Hamlin '04, R. Ammi Cutter '22, and Walter A. Smith, representative of the University's architects.