A new age for the clubs and the University: Cap & Gown

On several occasions during her tenure, President Tilghman has expressed reservations about the Prospect Avenue club system and particularly the bicker clubs. That is why I have found it so reassuring to have worked with Executive Vice President Mark Burstein and his assistant Matt Kinsey '98 over the past several months. Without any rancor or disputation, they have negotiated with Cap and Gown and other clubs an experimental joint membership plan available to upperclass members of Whitman College beginning next academic year.

The University would like Whitman to be reasonably representative of the undergraduate community, not just a haven for students with no interest in the Street. To that end, the administration wants to offer some juniors and seniors the option to live in Whitman but still eat most of their meals at a club. When Burstein approached me with this proposition earlier this year, he made it clear from the start it would be accomplished at no financial cost to our club and that the University would work with us in other ways if this project succeeds. To that end, the University will increase the board portion of financial aid to equal the average board rate of all the clubs, making it easier for students to afford a club membership. Cap will offer up to five "joint meal plan" spots in each of our junior and senior sections with a $1,000 discount from our board rate, which the University will apply to those members' board bills at Whitman.

Cap and Gown Club views this agreement as a "win/win" situation for all concerned. More choices will be available to everyone, which is generally a good thing. A new era of good feelings has apparently commenced between the clubs and the University, a result few of us expected when we first learned of the advent of four-year colleges.

George W. C. McCarter '71 is the graduate board chair of Cap and Gown club.