EVASION IMPOSSIBLE

An attitude of placid unconcern characterizes the Administration's stand in regard to solving the commuter problem. University Hall remains complacently aloof, although members of the faculty declare Phillips Brooks House inadequate to meet the commuters' needs and a student committee requests some definite aid in reaching some satisfactory solution.

Though no report has yet been made by the committee, one is promised next week. The solution of the problem will then rest definitely with the University. No evasion, no postponement, and no shifting of responsibility will be calmly accepted by a group of students ardently striving for what they justly consider their due.

If the University feels no obligation to supply the needs of eight hundred and twenty of its students, about one-fourth of the total enrollment, then it should see through the Admissions Office that commuting students are excluded from the College. So long as it accepts these men it must make some effort to supply them with the privileges of other students.

The expense of a project to supply commuters with suitable quarters is the most important consideration. The University should not be expected to bear the entire burden but should rightly insist that some portion of the total expense should be borne by those benefitting. A not unreasonable expenditure could be made by the University's contribution of a building for the use of the commuters. The maintenance of the quarters could be delegated to those who make use of them without any great burden to those concerned.

Phillips Brooks House has laudably fulfilled a function not strictly in accord with its purposes and having given the movement impetus it rightly refuses to assume further obligations. When it issues its report next week the responsibility for supplying the commuters' needs will rest squarely with University Hall. Only two alternatives present themselves: positive action on the part of the administration to solve a pressing problem or the substantial curtailment of admitting commuting students.