Coffee, Cookies, Conversation Flow at Widener Library's Newly-Opened Lounge

The pale graduate student eyed his cup of coffee. Would he have cream or sugar? No, only a slice of lemon.

Since the middle of February when the little coffee lounge on the main floor of Widener opened for business, 3000 graduate students and faculty members have left their alcoves in the stacks to got coffee, team, and cookies. So far only the pale graduate student has defied the tea and lemon convention.

Dim and Undecorated

The lounge is virtually the only place inside the Yard where the thesis-writers and the section men preparing for their sections can sit, talk, and eat. The room is dim and undecorated, but its main attraction lies in its congenial atmosphere.

Financially, too, the lounge caters to its specialized clientele. Coffee--no matter how many cups--or the same amount of tea with all the cookies he wants, costs the impoverished graduate student only ten cents a sitting.

On a Silex stove purchased by the Graduate Student Council, four Radcliffe girls brew the coffee and listen to the talk.

"And some of it is pretty dull," admitted Betsy Schoenberg '53. "We get too many mathematicians."

Provided with free space, electricity, and a new paint job by the Library Committee, the Graduate Council has been breaking just about even, serving eight pounds of coffee a week. Charles Stastney 3G, in charge of the lounge for the Council, hopes to keep the room open indefinitley and to lengthen its hours, which now run from 3 to 5 p.m.

Talk is as much the stock in trade of the lounge as is coffee. The researching section man and the Radcliffe graduate leave books and file cards behind when they drop down for a 3:45 pickup.

Cronkhite Provides Cups

The green cups and saucers and the cutlery provided by Dean Cronkhite of Radcliffe are washed in a small, round dishpan as the occasion arises.

"They've been promising us a big sink and a table for weeks, but we don't have them yet," said the cook.

A coke machine may soon be installed to draw hot-weather customers and keep up the present average of about 100 visitors a day. Stastney also intends to increase the comfort of the room, which is now furnished with plain wooden chairs and tables.

Undergraduates can also take advantage of the cut-rate refreshments--first door on the right behind the main stairs, and all you can drink.