Masters Approve Trial Interhouse

Harvard and Radcliffe will participate in a two-month trial period of "intercollege dining" without charge, the Committee on Houses decided yesterday afternoon.

After months of consideration of a request by the Harvard Council for Undergraduate Affairs, the nine Masters and four Deans on the committee decided to permit intercollege dining during February and March. After that it will be thoroughly reviewed from time to time.

Each Master retains the option to discontinue the program in his House if he is unhappy with its operation.

The measure approved by the Committee permits Harvard students to eat in Radcliffe dormitories on Tuesday and Thursday nights without charge. Cliffies may dine free at the House on two nights a week to be selected by each Master.

Approximately the same number of free interhouse meals must be taken at Radcliffe as at Harvard for the experiment to be continued beyond the end of March, Arthur D. Trottenberg '43, assistant dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for resources and planning, said last night.

The financial aspect of the interhouse proposal was the main reason it was tabled at the November meeting of the Committee on Houses. Trottenberg has since conducted a study of the financial implications of free interhouse, and he apparently reported back favorably to the other members of the Committee yesterday.

If a serious financial imbalance between the Harvard and Radcliffe dining hall departments results during the trial period or if overcrowding becomes a problem in House dining halls, Trottenberg said, the program will be discontinued. "Any exchanges of cash between the two will mean problems," he said.

A few Masters were reported earlier this fall to be opposed to any Harvard-Radcliffe interhouse plan, but they apparently changed their minds to provide a near unanimous decision yesterday.

H. Reed Ellis '65, chairman of the Harvard Council for Undergraduate Affairs, said last night that he is "extremely happy" with the Committee's decision. An HCUA poll in October indicated that 87 per cent of the College favors some free interhouse plan with Cliffies.

"This accomplishment demonstrates one good reason for the existence of a representative student organization which can petition the Masters and achieve changes in the status quo," Ellis said last night. The HCUA is scheduled to be abolished and replaced by two new councils at a meeting tonight.