"I don't know, but I hear that all the members are fraternity men this year. Yeh, I think thy're preparing for it in the Chancellor's Dining Room down there. They present keys, and so forth--they don't do much, but it's a big prestige thing."
"Yeh--Fish really got sophomores to gor for interviews for the thing; I don't know how many got elected though."
The Brown Key is an organization of 20 men who provide for visiting teams, and care for the Brown mascot, Butch Bruno MCLL. From those who apply for membership, the Key selects forty on the basis of interviews--and other criteria--, and from this number the Sophomore class elects 20. Last year five independents were elected, this year there were none. There were none among the 40 finalists, either.
"Move aside please, let's form an aisle here. Please move aside."
"Do you know anyone who's being tapped?"
"No, I don't think any independents were chosen this year. I don't know anyone who went for an interview. It's a fraternity thing, anyway, and it means a lot to them; who cares who gets elected? They don't do anything, anyway. . . ."
"I'd better be getting back to the dorm, I think."
"We going back to the house for some more cocktails, Pete--er--Jim?"
The West Quadrangle is dark now, and it looks warmer, and more inviting. Inside, people are drinking quietly.
"I poured some vodka into the goldfish bowl this afternoon--doesn't seem to be doing them any harm."
"No--they're used to it."
"Ya know--any more vodka in the lounge, Joe?--this isn't a bad place. Seems to me like the IDC doesn't have any power over independents any more; it's all centered in the West Quad council. Great dance we had here last week--eh?"
"Yah,--but I'm not so sure. I don't like all the damn politicking that goes on around here, and I think it makes the fraternities look down on us even more. You're right, though--yeh, thanks, I will have some more--we are taking over the campus--Cam Club, IDC, the Herald. . ."
The Cammarian Club is the student council; the IDC the Interdormitory Council. Both are run by independents, most by men in the West Quadrangle. This is the first year that Brown independents have had any dormitory facilities equal to those of the fraternity men.
A freshman down the hall, pledged to a reputable fraternity, grumbles into the room.
"These damn pledge periods go on so long it's impossible to get much studying done, dammit. And now Hell Week is coming up, and all studying will be impossible. Besides--all the fraternity parties around here are all the same--the rooms are the same, everything is the same. . . . But this place--with one bathroom for a whole damn corridor--is worse. I'm sick of it."
"I threw a firecracker in the shower while Tom was in there tonight--yeh, but he tried to burn my door