HOUSE OF ILL REPUTE

The University has been given its thirty days. A State Building Inspector, who last week made a tour of Shepherd Hall, has required that within a month some action be taken toward the improvement of this building.

There is a long and not too honorable history behind Shepherd Hall. Purchased in 1918 from a boarding house proprietress, it has become the home of the Naval Science Department, and the enforced repository for twenty-five dropped Freshmen. A veritable fire-trap, a prey to the first strong wind that blows, the wooden edifice of Shepherd is in shameful contrast to a group of buildings which includes Dunster, Lowell, and Eliot Houses. The University has recognized these facts for years, yet has pursued only a patch-work policy, just effective enough to hush condemnation proceedings.

The policy of housing dropped Freshmen there is perhaps the worst feature of the hall. These students, who are most in need of an environment conducive to study, are relegated to a building which is poorly ventilated, an eyesore externally and internally, and has the plumbing and lighting fixtures of a bygone age. Even with this, the room rents are exorbitant. Finally, its frame construction, its single fire-extinguisher, and its narrow stairways, make it a dangerous fire-trap. If the University has any regard for safety and congeniality in its housing accommodations, then the abandonment of Shepherd Hall is a foregone conclusion.