Following each punch, the members meet at the club to rate each "punchee." A punchee's rating determines whether he will be invited to the next outing.

At the Porcellian's Final Dinner (the last function of the punching season for all the clubs), each prospective member is required to tell one dirty joke, and his success in amusing the members often determines his fate at election time. New members are elected in December and initiated in February, when they are filled full of alchohol, led blindfolded through the Porcellian cubhouse, and finally unveiled before a large assemblage of exultant graduate members.

Opinions differ on the value of the Final Clubs. Robert B. Watson '37, Dean of Students and a graduate member of the A.D. Club, feels that the clubs are "in phase with the College."

"Until the House system went into effect (in the early 1930's) the social centers of the College were in the clubs," he said. "Since that time, the role of the clubs has greatly diminished, but as the college changes, the clubs change.

More Intellectual

"The clubs are a little more intellectually and culturally oriented than they were in my day," Watson added. "And some of them are branching out. They're taking high school boys and boys from other parts of the country."

Watson feels that the clubs' ability to contribute something worthwhile to an undergraduate's experience at Harvard is proven by the facility with which the clubs attract new members. "The clubs can't just bury their heads in the sand and let the college go by. If they do this, who wants to belong?"

Kinnaird Howland agrees with Watson. "A social club in the University today has its limits of usefulness unless there is some sort of contact with the outside. I hope that there will be a lot more of this, particularly with the Faculty, in the Delphic Club next year."

Right now Howland considers the punching season the most valuable experience the clubs have to offer. "The punching season is an amazing experience as far as your conversational ability is concerned. It offers an opportunity to communicate with all sorts of people."

But Howland feels that a member can be too enthusiastic about his club. "As soon as a club becomes primary, I think it's bad. If you look at it with any sort of perspective it immediately assumes a secondary role."

A curiosity of the Final Club system is that the more prestigious the club, the more it isolates the individual member from the rest of Harvard. A student elected to the Porcellian Club--and therefore presumably among the most popular of his class--will devote more of his time and energy exclusively to his club than will a member of a club that will a member of a club that is not so highly regarded.

Peter Birge '67, who was initiated into the Porcellian Club last year and became disaffected shortly thereafter, said that "for most people in the Porcellian, membership is their number one achievement at Harvard."

The importance that Porcellian members place on their club experience makes them more reluctant to share it with anyone on the outside. According to Birge, some members of the Porcellian class of '66 introduced a proposal earlier this year to invite Faculty members to the club once a month, but the rest of the club voted it down. Howland is likely to have less trouble pushing his resolution through next fall, because Delphic members do not consider the confines of their clubhouse so sacrosanct.

Birge feels that the same qualities that have embellished the reputation of the Porcellian Club have greatly diminished its ability to be of service to its members. The restrictions placed on discussions within the club make conversation meaningless, he said. "If you start to talk about issues, somebody says, 'Go home and do that; the Club is for friendship.' For Porcellian members, Comradeship and intellectual relationships must be two different things."

The distinction has been institutionalized to protect the club ideal of egaliarianism, Birge feels. "Intellection is banned because anything that tends to mark out one member from another creates hierarchies. Using your head can pull you one step above the next person. The guy they like is the one who can talk on any subject the other person brings up."