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With the announcement that Memorial Hall is at last to be fireproofed and used as a storage vault for college records there arises a vague satisfaction that at last some definite use has been found for the old gothic pile. For years, Memorial Hall has stood empty and scorned, with only the occasional tramping of feet directed toward examination desks and convention chairs to remind the dusky shades of halcyon days when windows were bright and unpainted, and biscuits whistled through the air of the popular college beanery.
The service for which Memorial Hall has at last been selected is a worthy and important one. Too long have college records been scattered indiscriminately through many widely separated buildings. And though for many there could be little call save from scholars or compilers, it is well that they be grouped together and classified in readily accessible form.
But in making all this possible by voting a refusal to use Memorial Hall as a central dining unit, Law School students have lost an opportunity, which, as it now appears, will scarcely be offered again. True, as it stands, the huge ghastly "architectural hiccup" would not appear to be a particularly attractive dining room. But brighter windows could have been inserted as well as steel beams, and in voting to dine together Law men would have followed the example of the college in its revolt from the temporarily attractive freedom of the one arm lunch. The legal profession, of all others, is the most conducive to, and derives much of its enjoyment from, interminable discussions and conversation. Law students may have been justified by physical discouragement in refusing to eat in Memorial Hall, but in the process, they have given the college a long desired vault and must depend now, for any dining center which may be desired in the future, on the fickle favor of philanthropy.
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