Meal Appeal

Radcliffe dorm meals suffer from problems even worse than those caused by the food. South House's experiment with a single House dining room can alleviate some of these. The attempt should be welcomed; unfortunately, many students have already opposed it.

Students now feel rushed in many of the dorm dining rooms. At the breakfast and lunch buffets, food is served for only half an hour. At the "sitdown" dinners, served by student waitresses, all students must begin the meal at the same time--and finish it about half an hour later.

The present lack of intelligent dinner-table conversation poses a second problem. Some obviously intelligent students claim they are too rushed for relaxed talk. House Faculty affiliates and members of the Radcliffe Institute might pep up the meal hours, but many find dorm meals unpleasantly hurried or sparsely attended and do not come.

To be sure, the more intimate atmosphere and more flexible hours of smaller dorms alleviate these shortcomings. The situation can at times be uncomfortable even in these halls; in the larger dorms, it demands a solution.

House dining rooms might offer such a solution. Meals could be less rushed. In the South House experiment, for example, food is served for two full hours. Better attended and less hurried House meals might also encourage Faculty affiliates and Institute members to come. In addition, the House dining rooms could indirectly encourage fledgling House activities by bringing House residents together.

In its present experimental stage, the South House plan has some drawbacks of its own. For example, members of the same dorm tend to eat together in the House dining room. Members of small halls like Bertram must give up the intimacy of their own cozy dining rooms during South House lunches. Because of these immediate difficulties, a number of students have opposed the plan without giving it a fair trial. In fact, today, just one week after the beginning of the experiment, the residents of Bertram Hall will boycott it by taking box lunches or eating in the Graduate Center. Radcliffe meals are far from perfect, and Bertram's opposition to this attempt to improve them--like other complants at this early stage--is short-sighted and selfish.