The Young Democrats have had similar problems. Last year a group of Lowell House activists tried to combine with Dunster members in an effort to wrest control of the club from the Quincy element. The attempt, which was only partially successful, was made for purely House, rather than ideological commitments.
IT is argued, in defense of such specialization of interest, that if the number of Harvard students seriously interested in a given activity were spread evenly throughout each House, no organization could thrive. It is better, therefore, to allow students with common interests some degree of congregation than to force an artificial and messianic "mingling" across interest lines.
But this policy is only inconsistently followed: if a positive value is to be placed on such concentration, why not allow students who have been placed in Houses where they feel their real concerns are ignored or neglected to switch? Why, if contact with resident faculty members is valued, shouldn't a student be allowed to transfer when he develops a fruitful relationship with a tutor in a different House?
In seeking a limited diversity and a considerable concentration of interests, the House system has set up a rigid set of administrative rules that often makes the compromise unworkable. More significantly, those who feel stultified have no place to go (except on leave); they often feel sacrificed to a mere theory of residential education.
LIVING off-campus as an alternative to House residence seemed attractive or worth serious thought to 23 per cent of those answering the poll. Their reasons were largely material, though it is hard in discussing residence to distinguish completely between material and educational advantages. Most singled out parietal hours, prohibitive costs and erratic food quality as the main disadvantages of Harvard lodging. But two per cent stated flatly that they didn't like the intellectual atmosphere of House life. And while a vast majority found the House serving as the center of their social lives at Harvard, a loud minority yearned for something like a student union where "you can meet girls on an informal basis."
Even if off-campus living generally permitted in the senior year, inertia would probably keep a great many of the 23 per cent rooted where they are. When faced with the obligations of finding and maintaining campus residence, the attractiveness of the life diminishes.
THE University's arguments against off-campus living and the switching of Houses are roughly the same: both would endanger the House system as presently constituted. Switching of Houses would probably lead to a "first choice" House and a "reject" House. The pockets of various types of activists would deepen, while the valued, if minimal, diversity that currently prevails would be undermined. It would also create Administrative problems of serious proportions.
A more permissive off-campus residence policy at the College, it is claimed, would complicate the already touchy