The Wrong Way

The specter of Yale's IBM wasteland was raised earlier this year by rumors about the Elder Committee's report. After six months of study, the Committee recommended sweeping changes in the method of assigning freshmen to the Houses. Despite the reluctance of Faculty members to discuss the exact proposals, the rumors were, distressingly, not far wrong.

On the whole, the recommendations appear designed primarily to simplify the system, to remove much of the paperwork and time presently required of the Masters. It is possible to sympathize with the motives behind these proposals, but their adoption would lead to the loss of some of the most valuable elements of the present Houses.

Many of the most desirable aspects of the Houses result directly from the degree to which subjectivity, the degree to which an individual's personality is still able to make itself felt within the System. A House gains for allowing the Master to impose some portion of his personality upon its organization and upon the choice of students admitted to that House. A House gains from the greater elan of its residents when they have carefully, even agonizingly selected that House themselves. But, confined by distribution quotas required by the University, the subjective elements can wield only small influence. They can be only small oases in a desert of mechanical necessities. But a desert without any oases at all is terrifyingly barren. What better proof can be offered than Yale?

The Elder Committee has in fact urged a move in precisely the wrong direction, and the Masters have wisely rejected its recommendations. There remains, unfortunately, the possibility that the Masters will still curtail the present system of interviews.

Such a step may appear minor, but actually involves a significant retreat. Without interviews, a Master, if he intends to involve himself in the selection process, must assess all applicants to his House solely from an application form. Surely even a brief interview with a tutor provides the Master with slightly better information on which to base his choice. Interviews further serve in some small way to convey information about the House to the prospective applicants.

It is perhaps difficult to begrudge the Masters a lessening of their workload, but selection of the members of their Houses represents one of their most important and crucial tasks. As Masters, they should not retreat from it.