Debris

Freshman rooms were usually the dirtiest in the college, even when porters vacuumed them once a week. Now that the University has eliminated this service, conditions have gone from bad to worse. Most members of the class of '70 have apparently declined the University's gracious invitation to borrow vacuuming equipment and clean their own floors. And the rooms, say the proctors sadly, are beginning to look like sties.

Whatever the causes of the reduction in service, it makes very little sense to cut the freshman off entirely, while continuing to play maid to the upperclassmen. Only one year removed from the well-inspected rooms of home or prep-school, the youngest class is the least experienced in "keeping house" and the least likely to take advantage of the self-service offer. Instead of cleaning freshman toilet bowls more frequently--three times a week now, as compared with once a week previously the caretaking services might worry about the piles of debris collecting on the floors.

Resuming vacuuming service in their rooms would probably mean a further reduction for the upperclassmen--from once every two weeks, say, to once every two and a half. But the difference for the Houses would only be marginal. The total amount of University dirt, to put the matter in terms the bureaucrats will understand, would be dramatically reduced. At the very least, the freshman would be required to pick up the old newspapers, clothes, and towels now scattered around the rooms to let the vacuumers get at the dust underneath.