Self-Service

Dartmouth students residing in the dormitories will have a chance, starting next fall, to develop their domestic skill in making beds, wielding a vacuum cleaner, and otherwise keeping their rooms clean and in order. In lieu of an increase in room rents the College has announced that there will be a reduction in janitor service and that henceforth students will be responsible for the upkeep of their own living quarters while janitors will confine their work to cleaning the halls, stairways and public and private toilets, and to emptying waste baskets.

It is estimated that this change in janitor service will save the College approximately $35,000 a year and will go a long way toward enabling the College, without raising room rents, to meet rising costs in dormitory upkeep and to undertake some of the badly needed maintenance improvements that have been put off because of the expense.

The reduction in janitor personnel can be effected at this time without taking work away from any man who wishes to continue with the College. Effective July 1, a number of the janitors who are 70 or over can retire with Social Security benefits in addition to benefits for which most are eligible under the College's own retirement plan. The balance of the reduction will come about by shifting from dormitories and classrooms men who have been working as temporary janitors this past year.

By taking over the housekeeping chores in their own dormitory rooms Dartmouth students next fall will be in step with those at Yale and Princeton. Some of the present janitors, when interviewed by The Dartmouth, predicted that the student rooms would be a mess; others felt that the boys would do all right, or at least would soon learn how to take care of themselves. It is conceivable that willingness and ability to tidy up a dorm room will become a highly desirable quality in the weekend "date" of the future.