A FRESHMAN DORMITORY.

It was announced last Friday that a gift of $250,000 had been donated to Princeton for the erection of a freshman dormitory. That there should be a need for such an institution at a university so closely knit together as Princeton is worthy of note in its bearing on our own situation. It has only been against the opposition of the College authorities that the Senior class for the past few years has been able to take for itself three buildings at the north end of the Yard, and the future of the Senior dormitory scheme is by no means assured. From the standpoint of the Seniors, it has invariably proven satisfactory in spite of the handicap assumed at the start in the peculiar assignment of the rooms; but on the other hand, there is the excellent contention that a mixture of men of all classes, of law and graduate students even, is the best possible arrangement for a dormitory in giving a man opportunities for friendship with men both older and younger than himself. Whatever the possibilities of this scheme may be for men with a year or the experience in undergraduate life, it is rarely true of Freshmen, and Princeton is fortunate in being able to group a large number of their first year men near each other where they belong, rather than scattering them at random.

It would be a most excellent unifying factor for future Freshman classes if some such institution existed here; not one of the antiquated and inconvenient buildings of the Yard, but a modern dormitory which could offer to a large number of men comfortable accommodations, possibly a common dining hall to which all members of the class would be eligible, and the greatly increased opportunity for intimate friendship with a larger majority than is possible at present.