CIRCLING THE SQUARE

For the majority of students, the approach to knowledge is along a slushy Holyoke or puddle-pocked Plympton Street. But to many it is a more devious way, by streetcar or subway. For these last, the commuters, Dudley Center is the one place to eat, rest, and enjoy some of the congenial atmosphere associated with the term "college life."

This year is the Center's fifteenth. Before 1935, few facilities, if any, were provided for non-resident students. Until the Houses were opened, the commuters and all other students, centered their activities in the Union. When upperclassmen moved out of the Yard, the Union was restricted to freshmen, leaving commuters with no place for meeting or recreation.

Phillips Brooks House offered a basement room, which some wit soon dubbed "the black hole of Calcutta." Although students could cat a homemade lunch there and play ping-pong, there was no doubt about the room's inadequacy. Finally, in 1935, with aid from a special fund, the University opened the Commuter Center in Dudley.

This new arrangement required no little effort. Walls had to be demolished and a portion of the main floor set off from the suites in the rest of the Hall. The architects soon discovered that the building was even more massive than it looked. When Dudley opened in 1908, it was a privately managed apartment house for University men, advertised as the best built in Cambridge--and those were the days before plywood walls and plastic plumbing. In one instance, electricians had to go through 22 inches of masonry to put in a wall plug. Now the last vestiges of the destroyed suites are several ornate stone fireplaces.

Since it started, the Center has served a majority of commuters. During the war, with the college's small civilian population largely resident, only 40 or 50 people paid the five dollar fee for membership. When peace returned, the many veterans and married students living nearby raised membership to 550. Now there are about 450 voluntary members, well over the majority of non-residents. They still pay five dollars to join--it is the University's only unchanged fee.

Improvements have gradually made Dudley much more acceptable that the "black hole," though its facilities, do not approach those of a House. Besides the main common room, there are a dining room, ping-pong equipment, and locker facilities. Since many commuters bring part of their own lunch, the Center serves food a la carte. Student organizations have the use of common room tables, and are busiest during lunch hours when the day's largest crowd pours in.

Dudley also fields teams that compete in all major sports in the intramural league. Although commuter schedules don't allow much time for practice, league records prove Center teams are quite successful. Of course, anyone willing to go so far for an education would probably be successful in almost anything.