LANE DESCRIBES P. B. H. ORGANIZATION AND AIMS

The following article was written for the Crimson by J. H. Lane '28, graduate secretary of the Phillips Brooks House.

In the fall of the year the first effort of the Phillips Brooks House Association is directed toward welcoming new students and helping them to become acclimated. A Handbook containing information of interest to the new men is published and distributed among all those who are coming to the University for the first time. An information bureau is maintained in the parlors of the House during the opening weeks of the fall term. The Phillips Brooks House Association also publishes a list of inspected and approved rooms and apartments. A man who is thoroughly familiar with the rooms on this list keeps office hours daily in the Phillips Brooks House, and assists students in selecting suitable living quarters. After registration day, receptions are held for Freshmen, graduate students and students from other countries. At these receptions prominent members of the faculty and leaders of undergraduate activities speak, and musical entertainment and refreshments are provided.

Following the first week of the College term the regular activities of the Phillips Brooks House Association get fairly under way. The Social Service Committee helps all men who are interested in doing philanthropic work to find some outlet for their interest. Under this committee about 200 Harvard men annually do work varying in nature from coaching boys' basketball teams to teaching English to foreigners. The Speakers Bureau and the Deputation Committee furnish students to speak at preparaotry schools, churches, and various and sundry kinds of meetings and dinners. Thus the student's point of view is presented to the community at large, and the students themselves gain valuable experience. Students of limited means find the Text Book Loan Library of material assistance. Law books and books used in undergraduate courses may be taken out and used all year for a nominal consideration. The clothing drives conducted by the Social Service Committee furnish many articles of wearing apparel which are put at the disposal of needy students. A room in the basement has been fitted up as a lunch room, and is used every noon, by commuting students who bring their own lunches.

The Phillips Brooks House was built with funds contributed by friends and admirers of Bishop Brooks. It was dedicated in 1901 in his memory to "Piety, Charity and Hospitality." With these three stones for a foundation the scope of the work has grown and is growing to include any service which may be of benefit to the students, the University or the Community. It has become the link between the storehouse of thought and action, that is the student body and the small world which surrounds it.

The work of the House is carried on by the Phillips Brooks House Association and is entirely in the hands of students. A cabinet, headed by an undergraduate president and made up of the chairmen of the various committees among which the work of the Phillips Brooks House Association is divided, determines the policies and practices of the organization. The Association is made up of the students who are participating in its work, and participation is the only requisite for membership. A graduate secretary lends his efforts and advice to the work and to the cabinet. That is, in brief, the organization. The members of the Association believe that action directed towards the betterment of life and living is one of the truest expressions of religion.