The Decision Nobody Made

Dean von Stade's prediction that the Harvard Student Agencies' linen and laundry depots will not last the month is certainly welcome news to freshmen. A glance at the long lines of students awaiting their weekly care packages of linen would be enough to suggest that the depot system is far from the ideal solution to linen and laundry delivery problems in the Yard.

The depot experiment's failure is not nearly so surprising as the fact that the HSA was able to make such a drastic revision of the Yard operations without the approval, or even the knowledge, of many members of the Administration.

It is perhaps a credit to the tightness of Mr. Burke's security system that Gordon Linen, The Coop Laundry, and the Gold Coast Valeteria--the only firms previously allowed to make deliveries in University dormitories--were denied their solicitation privileges without the knowledge of some members of the Committee on Solicitations.

Dean Watson, a member of the Committee, insisted last week that he was totally unaware of the Yard proposal until it was reported in the CRIMSON. He also stated that the matter "never went before the Committee on Undergraduate Solicitation," and added that Dean Trottenberg "made the decision himself, on a trial basis." Dean von Stade amended Watson's remarks with the information that "Burke and McDonald were in on it, too."

Wallace McDonald, Director of the Financial Aid Office, upon hearing that he was "in on it," charged Watson with a "conveniently foggy memory." McDonald recalled that his only contact with the matter was at a meeting of the Committee, with Watson and Trottenberg in attendance. Bob McCoy, a student director of the HSA, summed up the whole situation: "Nobody seems to know exactly what happened."

In the midst of such complete confusion in the Administration the injustices to the Coop and the Gold Coast are easily forgotten. Trottenberg had sent a memo to Burke as a reminder to inform them about the new delivery system; Gordon Linen (HSA's biggest customer) apparently had been informed well in advance. But Burke did not bother to inform the Coop and the Gold Coast until the Fall Term had begun and the depots had already been organized. He told them the decision preventing room to room deliveries was irrevocable: "it was an administrative decision from over my head." Burke was right about the futility of protest. Few members of the Administration, it would seem, know who was responsible for the decision, or, more important, who has the power to reverse it.

Dean von Stade's prediction that the entire experiment will fail is heartening indeed. But he has offered no suggestions as to how the depots are to be closed. Presumably some Monday morning their doors will refuse to open to the keys of their HSA employees. It seems they were created without the help of the Administration, and no one in the Administration appears willing to claim the responsibility of reversing a decision that nobody made.

In the meantime, the HSA has gained seven rent-free offices in the Yard--offices which could be used for practically any new vending venture the Student Agencies may devise. And freshman are still paying room service prices to wait in line for their sheets.