Library Hours

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer, will names be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

Returning students are noting the changes in Widener Library hours. To many as well as to me, this curtailment has, apparently, been performed with utter disregard for the fundamental principles of a college organization.

If Widener closes at 6 P.M. those who are athletic or earning their way in the afternoon will be deprived of both a necessary source for reference books and, for some, a welcome retreat from the bedlam of house and home. If the change is based on the supposition that no one studies in Widener either at night or on Sunday, it could be proved that the supposition is false. It is true that at intermittent seasons the libraries are practically abandoned. Well could they be closed in those periods. However, as every one knows, the beginning of the year, reading periods, and exam seasons are overwhelmingly busy. After 7 P. M. the library is usually pretty active. If we are to be deprived of a study both evenings and Sundays, the inconvenience and dissatisfaction both, to working students, and athletic men will far outweigh the paltry saving.

As the budget must necessarily be cut the mistake seems to lie in where the cut is made. It appears to be a rather misconceived program to uphold the salaries of the teaching staff and curtail the services to the students; in as much as the college is primarily operated for the benefit of the students, and that said students are paying practically as much for services now as over before. Winthrop Lewis Plaisted '33.