Forced by the shortage of dining room help to make salads and wash dishes himself, Charles W. Duhig, acting director of student employment, said yesterday that the dining hall situation was approaching a crisis that would have to be solved "if the student body was to continue to eat."

"Culture may be fine, but eating is fundamental," he said, reporting that the departure of professional waitresses and a scarcity of students willing to wait had raised a problem "to which we have as yet no answer."

The commuters, Duhig said, have worked out one possible solution to the problem in Dudley Hall, where the shortage was so severe the first day that he had to turn to and help cook himself. "They have pitched in and are cooperating in the work themselves," he said, but did not suggest that the same remedy would be necessary in the Houses.

Students Less Enthusiastic

The attractiveness of outside employment and the increased burden of the waiting work due to crowded conditions are the principal reasons for the departure of the waitresses, Duhig announced. Furthermore, he said that "students who applied for the jobs in August are finding that they now have less need and less enthusiasm than they thought."

"We have obtained a few additional men," he said. "But we will need more. This is a problem of the Administration, and of the House Committees and of every student."

Concerning the employment situation in general, Duhig reported that there was no problem of finding a job for a man who had some abilities and was not unduly particular about the kind of work he did. Always heterogeneous, the range of jobs now open to Harvard men has swung in the direction of war industries, he said.