Freshman Council Denounces Revised Weekend Dining Plan

Members of the Freshman Council last night criticized the new weekend dining system that assigns freshmen to one house a semester for all weekend meals.

The new system is an experiment designed to get more freshmen involved in house activities, Alberta Arthurs, dean of freshmen, said at last night's council meeting. She encouraged freshmen to "live with it awhile."

Council members said that freshmen wanted to be exposed to more than two houses during the year so they would be better able to choose a house to live in as upperclassmen.

Know House System

Arthurs said the purpose of the weekend meal system is "not to have freshmen get to know each individual house, but to have them get to know the house system."

The Committee on Housing and Undergraduate Life recommended the new system last year because it felt that freshmen in Yard and Union dorms were isolated from upperclassmen, house tutors and house facilities. Arthurs, a member of CHUL, said.

Until this year, freshmen had a rotating schedule that took them to almost every house at some time during the year.

"None of us felt that under the old system freshmen got to know any more than the architecture of the different houses," Arthurs said.

Unwelcome Intruders

Several freshmen at the meeting said that most of the houses are not doing anything for the freshmen and are treating them as "unwelcome intruders."

"We are hoping that in time all the houses will make overtures to their freshmen and include them in activities," Arthurs said, adding that "some houses have already done this."

She stressed that the new system is just an experiment, and that other proposals, including returning to the old rotation system and opening the Union on weekends, are being considered for the future.

Most freshmen questioned in the Union last night said they do not like the new system, even if it does bring them closer to house activities.

Tom Storey '80, who is assigned to eat at North House this semester, said that the trip to Radcliffe tacks an extra hour onto meals.

A freshman proctor, who wished to remain unidentified, said that she has trouble arranging weekend meetings with her proctees because they are all eating in different places on the weekend.

One freshman contacted yesterday did not care about the rotation system. "I slipped by without getting my card stamped for the rotation assignments so I can get in anywhere," he said.