To the editors:

We were exceedingly disappointed, but hardly surprised, to read The Crimson Staff's opinion of Adams House Interhouse dining policies (Editorial, Dec. 2).

Your ad hominem characterization of the "Gong Show" and Adams' "jingoistic residents" is quite ignorant of the conditions which excessive interhouse dining make for Adams residents. We have taken pride in the past in knowing, eating with, conversing with and socializing with Adamsians in classes above and below us. We have had scant opportunity to begin this social process in the dining hall. At lunch and dinner, half of the students eating in Adams are not House residents, and it is impossible to differentiate a House community in a place where one should indefatigably exist. Harvard is a community, and Adams is our local community, and a dining hall inundated with non-House students is not conducive to our own distinct House notion.

Far from being a jingoistic and humiliating display, the "Gong Show" was a last-ditch but nonetheless humorous attempt to draw attention to the situation. There was certainly no punitive intent, and we doubt highly that any of those "gonged" felt even slighted. Certainly a little levity drew attention to a situation that the House has been unable to effect. NATHANIEL W. BULLARD '00   DAVID W. FOSTER '00   COLIN H. WOOD '00   DAVID A. WHELAN '99   Dec. 4, 1998