COOPERATION FOR ASSOCIATION

After a year's struggle to strike down the armored opposition to the House Associate Member Plan, the majority of the student body who favor the plan have at last, if not beaten, at least unmasked their opponents. It is now apparent that there is no official opposition to the associate membership plan other than that springing from certain of the House Masters; high college officials, reversing an earlier stand, are now backing the plan. Thus it is the Masters alone who still must be convinced that the disadvantages of the plan do not outweigh its obvious advantages.

As for the supposed disadvantages of the plan, several reports have emphasized that the Houses, with one or two minor exceptions, are physically capable to accommodate the proposed number of associate members. Furthermore, Student Council investigation has proven that the out-of-house men, contrary to what was once common belief, favor the plan. Now, with their original straw scarecrows toppled, the Masters have been forced to fall back upon a nebulous euphemism--"house solidarity"--to substantiate their opposition to the associate plan. Gradually, though, even the misty outlines of this argument are crumbling as the result of official and unofficial investigation. Before long, then, the Masters may well be holding an untenable position merely to save "face."

Such a damaging state of affairs is quite unnecessary and can easily be avoided if the Masters will try to rationalize this problem so as to more nearly see eye to eye with the student body. They must be willing to make concessions to the well based beliefs not only of the students but also of the college authorities, both of whom today think that the associate membership plan will further the interests of the college as a whole. If the House Masters have the best interests of the college at heart, even though it will mean the sacrifice of some of what they have considered the ideals of the House Plan to be, they will facilitate the inauguration of the Associate House Membership Plan.