Out to Lunch

For some decades, one of the most provocative inconveniences for Radcliffe women has been the daily noon-time trek from the dark labyrinths of Widener (where they live) back to the quad (where they lunch). Attempts have been made to improve the situation. A very useful traffic island was recently installed at the junction of Massachusetts Avenue and Garden Street; the Radcliffe Graduate Refectory has been opened to undergraduates who cannot reach the Quad by 1:15, when lunch service ceases; women have been given the opportunity to take box lunches with them in the morning and eat near their classes.

Yet, many Cliffies remain dissatisfied--and with some justification. Picnics are nice, but only once every few years. And the Graduate Refectory is still rather far away. Thus, a large number of women continue the traditional twelve o'clock scurry from Widener to the Bick and back again.

One other solution, which has not yet been investigated, would be to have women eat at the Harvard Houses. On a restricted basis, the plan seems feasible. Women could buy coupons at the beginning of the semester entitling them to a maximum of two meals per week, Monday through Saturday, at the House with which they are affiliated. With an expenditure of about ninety-five cents per meal for coupons (this is the current guest rate at Harvard) and a deduction of some seventy-five cents per meal from Radcliffe board bills, the additional cost would be slight.

Aside from the financial and administrative intricacies, and the additional load of up to thirty-five people in the dining rooms, opposition will arise from unimaginative House members unwilling to see a change in the atmosphere.

Those few traditionalists, however, could always go to the Bick which (no longer frquented by 'Cliffies) would no doubt very quickly acquire the character of a House dining hall. And the less stodgy would receive the benefits due to them--luncheon near their Widener haunts and a much needed opportunity for informal meeting between men and women.