Vacuuming in Cabot—the Inhumanity!

The list of student grievances about dining halls is growing: first it was overcrowding in Adams, now it's late-night vacuuming in Cabot. This latest complaint lit up Cabot's House open list last week when one resident fired off a missive over the deplorable fact that workers vacuum its dining hall at or around midnight, a time when many students are trying to study.

This injustice was brought to light after vacuuming commenced minutes before 11 p.m. But not just that—there were also cups missing from the dining hall!

"It's also 10:53 and they're out of cups to drink with," the student wrote. "No, we can't have someone replenish the cups, but God forbid we go one night without vacuuming."

And thus the debate raged. Might the House library suffice for those studious night owls?

"I think the library is a false solution," another student wrote, adding also that "while we're complaining about the dining hall: there is a serious need for more coffee, or for student-enabled operation of the coffee machine."

Another voice of reason: "How about we all join Harvard's already established, maybe not in use now, Idea Bank, to have our concerns voiced and fleshed out and demand that the UC take it to FAS?"

Just when things could not have gotten any worse, the original whistleblower on Cabot's abusive vacuuming practices added this nugget: "Man, I'm sure glad Harvard's not laying any workers off, because it's not like they're just sitting around looking for things to do, like vacuuming for example."

But this point went a little too far for at least one resident, who responded, "Oh come on.  Don't take it out on the workers.  They're working hard, and (in this case) during late hours, too."

Anyway, the debate seems to have been settled by Cabot House Master Jay M. Harris, who has arranged to move the vacuuming schedule to 3 a.m.

"...Mike has arranged for the vacuuming in the DH to take place at 3am and not before," Harris wrote in an e-mail to Cabot. "I'm sure there is someone who will not be happy with that, but we very much hope that holding off on the noise until 3 will serve most of you."