THE UNIVERSITY'S PROBLEM

Divided opinion among members of the Phillips Brooks House committee which is endeavoring to solve the commuter question is centered around the problem of selecting a suitable place for commuter activities. At the present time, Hemenway Gymnasium is receiving serious consideration.

Such a choice is lamentable and if carried out will ultimately fail to solve the problem and probably complicate an already difficult task of providing commuters with a satisfactory center for social inter-course and a common meeting ground. The gymnasium is a dreary dilapidated building and designed for athletic purposes. The cost of renovating it would be no small sum. Even if a large majority of the commuters were willing to contribute ten dollars each for that purpose it is unlikely that a large enough amount could be collected to make the necessary alterations. That some arrangements for commuters should be made is acknowledged. The choice of a place for their activities, if it is to be satisfactory from all points of view, must be made after a careful consideration of what needs and desires are to be fulfilled. To merely shift the commuters from Phillips Brooks House to another equally unsuitable place is evading the problem rather than squarely meeting it.

The responsibility for solving the problem does not rest, however, with Phillips Brooks House which up to the present time has admirably endeavored to supply the commuters' needs but with the University. A greater sum of money than can be raised among the students must be supplied if a suitable center, is to be organized. It is the University's responsibility to supplement the money that students are able and willing to contribute in order to make some satisfactory arrangement possible.