IMPROVEMENT OF SENIOR DORMITORIES.

The absence of decent toilet facilities in most of the Yard dormitories has been for years an irritating grievance. Although this deplorable state of affairs exists in all the Yard buildings except Hollis and Stoughton, it is particularly unfortunate in Holworthy and Thayer, which are reserved for Seniors; for the lack of these facilities seriously interferes with the segregation of the Senior class. The present Juniors, owing to the liberality of the Corporation and to the able management of the committee in charge of the Senior room allotment, have taken more rooms in the Senior buildings than any previous class. This hearty response, due largely to unusual circumstances, is not likely to recur in succeeding years unless the Corporation continues its liberal policy and sees to it that the improvements necessary to maintain four Senior dormitories are made.

Steam heat, closet space, telephones, and electric lights, although convenient, are not vital; but bathing and toilet facilities have come to be considered a necessity. Water, and plenty of it, is essential. Tubs with every room are not necessary, but there should be shower baths on every floor. Hollis and Stoughton are adequately equipped in this respect: there are set bowls with running water in every room, and showers on every floor of each entry. Only two-thirds of the rooms in Holworthy are equipped with running water, and there are only two showers in each entry. These conditions should be improved by the addition of set bowls in every room, and by the further addition of one spray to each of the existing showers. Thayer, at present, does not afford much opportunity to use water. There are a very few set bowls scattered throughout the building. For the vast majority of the men, who do not happen to get one of the rooms thus equipped, one set bowl is provided in the basement of each entry. In each of the entries in Thayer there is but one shower with four sprays. There should be one on each-floor.

But most inadequate of all are the toilet facilities in Holworthy and Thayer. In the basement of the former is one toilet room for the whole building. More need not be said. In Thayer there is one toilet in the basement of each entry. "They are all underground, gloomed by high-set, unclean windows, which preclude good ventilation, and lighted by one or two dim-flickering gas jets. The rough brick walls are often dirty and the wood work is worse. Compared to any respectable house or hotel they are Mr. Viles." This description is not overdrawn.

It is understood that the Corporation intends to have toilet facilities installed on the third floor in each entry of Thayer. This is, of course, a step in the right direction, but it will by no means make the conditions what they ought to be. It is not the high rent that has kept the Yard rooms from being filled in past years: the heating, bathing, and toilet facilities have been responsible. The aggregate cost of making the needed improvements in these buildings may be considerable, but a comparatively small rent advance would make it a profitable investment. This year the Juniors have done all in their power to reinstate the Yard as the centre of College life. It remains for the Corporation to make it permanently so.