Radcliffe Houses

President Bunting's plan for converting the Radcliffe dorms into units very like the Harvard Houses is long overdue. Even at this tentative stage, it is easy to see that conversion to a House system will remedy many of the glaring defects in Radcliffe's existing living 'arrangements.

Combining dorms into three or four Houses--each containing about 275 students and 25 Faculty affiliates--will end what in the past has been a serious objection to the dormitories: that they are too small to allow people to avoid each other. Group pressures that seem smotheringly oppressive in a dorm are less noticeable in larger units, and students in the Houses will have room to be more selective about their acquaintances.

At the same time, the experience of the Harvard Houses shows that 275 is still a small enough number of people to retain a clear sense of community. Mrs. Bunting would like the 'Cliffe to develop House-oriented activities such as drama groups, seminars, music organizations, and athletic teams; most of these require the support of a larger population than any of the dormitories possess.

'Cliffies frequently and justly complain that the dorm system provides few opportunities for sustained informal contact with faculty members. What little association there is between the faculty and Radcliffe girls under the present system--teas, special dinners, sherries--is inevitably stilted and artificial. And while the funereal atmosphere of these semi-official gatherings lend itself to mockery, the lack of contact with older minds remains one of the most serious defects in a Radcliffe education. The new Houses are to have a ratio of resident and affiliate associates roughly equivalent to that of the Harvard House.

One feature of the Harvard model that Mrs. Bunting's revisions must not compromise on is the dining hall. There is, of course, near-universal dissatisfaction with the present hurried and uncivilized eating arrangements at Radcliffe. Leisurely meals attended by both faculty members and students are the heart of the Harvard House system, and unless Radcliffe adopts a substantially similar pattern, its Houses may well fail as communities. The dining hall will become especially important at Radcliffe, because all of its Houses are to consist of several separate buildings. The only thing binding each community will be its common eating facilities.

As it carries out Mrs. Bunting's plans, Radcliffe should avoid the temptation to duplicate the Harvard system merely because it is an easy model to follow. There may be, for example, no reason why the 'Cliffe should re-shape its tutorial system to fit its new House structure--a la Harvard. The 'Cliffe administration may decide that its own Houses and tutorials ought to remain separate, or they may not. Radcliffe can afford to examine Harvard's House system very critically indeed; selecting only what it wants, and experimenting freely where the Harvard model seems irrelevant.