"We've had to get used to people calling up here all night long" Speigel says, "to ask: 'Who was that red-head I met up at your place last night, name of Marry?" The Spiegels, and the other six permanent residents at the building (all women) have become accustomed to their function as a date-bureau of sorts, so they claim.

The International Student Center, sponsored by the International Student Association, has been operating under its present name since 1946, although Mr, and Mrs. Lawrence Mead, the first directors, had been welcoming students to their house on Phillips place for some years before that.

A Bit of History

After the war, with floods of foreign students arriving here, the Center began to look for a home of its own, and several hundred contributors finally helped finance the purchase of this new building at 33 Garden St. The family of a Datuch Student killed in a laboratory accident at Harvard furnished a music room, and mention of the Center on the radio brought offers of eight planos. The Meads retired last spring and the association screened 92 applicants to hit upon Speigel as its present chief of staff.

The past years have given the Center grateful alumni the world over, and some members have even founded similar organizations. At the Hindu University of Benares, for example, a former Harvard man heads a society for foreign students. Newspapers in foreign countries often run stories of the Center's activities, also. The extension of international hospitality is rather gratifying to an organization which works to give real meaning to the vague concept of international "understanding"--convinced that shyness, prejudice and ignorance, not fundamental differences, keep people, apart.

Harvard Ties

Even thought the Center's membership is increasing all the time, and now boasts more Harvard students than ever before, Spiegel is convinced that its best years are yet to come.

"We have members from 64 countries," he says," and 115 people from the United States. I want to see more and more."

"There's one thing I especially want to do while I'm here in Cambridge." Speigel continues." I want to arrange ties between this organization and the University which will bring Harvard back into prominence in the leadership of national and international student organizations."