Girls in Cabot to Have Room Keys

Cabot Hall, scene of 19 of Radcliffe's 34 reported thefts this Fall, will reactivate unused locks on room doors within the next ten days.

Radcliffe has alloted $200 to clean, oil, and repair locks on the 72 doors. Many keys are missing and new ones will have to be made.

The locks have been in the doors since Cabot was built in 1936. "They haven't been used for years, if they ever were," J. Boyd Britton, Radcliffe Administrative vice president, said yesterday. "These buildings were built in a gentler age when there weren't so many robberies," he added.

Cabot girls now have keys to the main door and to their closets, where they can lock valuables over vacations. The rooms can be locked from inside.

Cabot and Mabel Daniels Halls will be the only two of the ten brick dormitories to have keys to individual rooms. The new dorm, Currier House, will also have keys. The other eight don't have locks in the doors.

Although many of the robberies have been by people outside the dormitory--a girl in Cabot woke up one morning to find a man going through her purse--some of the girls think their fellow residents are stealing. "In certain incidents, it really looks like girls in the dorm are doing it. This is where keys would be really helpful," Elisabeth M. Sopka '70, Cabot president, said yesterday.

One other Cliffie was not as enthusiastic. "It's too late for me, I've already had all my money stolen," said Margaret F. Warnke '71 who has had a total of $32 and a watch stolen on three occasions.