House Fellows

The establishment of House Fellows is a program whose merit is undeniable, but whose future is necessarily uncertain. The plan raises 21 present Associates of the Houses to the office of Fellow in order, in President Pusey's words, to "strengthen the Houses by bringing to the management of its affairs the direct interest and insights of a number of men from many departments." The exact duties of the Fellows are to be determined by the individual masters and Fellows, and this necessary indefiniteness is the danger of the program.

The general aim is a good one, for more and more of the College's intellectual activities have gravitated toward the Houses in the past few years. The expansion of Honors tutorial, the attempts to give "pass candidates" greater academic opportunities and this year's new House tutorials have made the House the center of a student's intellectual life. Too often sections provide little stimulation, or else a student having interests in many fields lacks intellectual contact outside his own. Too many students see the Associates in the Dining Halls only at an unapproachable "tutor's table." Increased contact between the faculty and this important unit of the College is vitally necessary.

The long gamut of uses the Fellows could serve attests to the plan's merit, but also indicates that personal interest alone can make the plan succeed. The Fellows will be invaluable advisors to the Masters on appointments and House tutorials. By their continued presence in the Houses, they could stimulate student intellectual interest that now finds no outlet, and some may even teach House tutorials. By their stature and influence, they could help procure Faculty members for informal discusisons or dinners with interested students, and they could be a strong force to increase Faculty attendance in the Dining Halls.

As intermediaries between the Houses and the Departments, they could be effective in arranging non-Honors tutorials and could produce a general plan to fill this gap in the College's education. Finally, they could be advisors to the Masters in general administration; Pusey stated that "as work of the House grows...the Masters have a great need for help from a smaller group of close colleagues."

The danger that the office will degenerate into a sinecure is real. These possibilities cannot be codified as a statement of exact duties, and the varying needs of the different Houses make the Fellow's role even vaguer. The success of the program will therefore depend entirely on the vigor and interest of the Master and Fellows in each House, their willingness to seek out ideas and to experiment. To help the Fellows establish a definition of the Office, they should be formed as a distinct body that would coordinate their activities and pass on ideas.

Such a group would also reduce the evils that arise from the decentralization of the Houses, for it would be able to increase communication and the sharing of resources. Codification may be impossible, but at least there can be machinery to overcome the indefiniteness of the office and to establish its role in the Houses' intellectual life.