The Old Order Changeth

The Notice Boards and Letter Racks have gone.

Of course, if you look carefully enough you will possibly find something which could possibly be called a substitute.

The reasons for such far-reaching changes are hard to find. Last year the Notice Boards were centrally placed, and in a position convenient to everyone. They could scarcely be avoided by anyone either entering or leaving the College by the main door; and there was enough room for numbers of students to view them at once—by standing three and four deep if necessary.

Now they are in an inaccessible, draughty corridor, which is so small that it becomes unpleasantly crowded If more than a handful or students attempt to use It at once. And at the same time it is supposed to be used as a thoroughfare. It would be far easier to move against the crowd in a theatre exit.

Where they are the Notice Boards are not being sufficiently seen by students—e.g., the Debating Club annual meeting. And naturally enough.

Although moving them from the main hall may have been convenient to certain people, it certainly will have a damaging effect on student life, which up till now in theory at any rate, was one of the important functions of the University.

Surely the welfare of student activities is immeasurably more important than any benefits which tidyness and mechanical convenience have to offer.

And the Letter Racks.

What is one to do if one has a note to deliver to a woman student, and Mr. Brooks Is not available?

What is one to do if one has a note for a Club Secretary and is not aware of his or her sex?

What is one to do if one is expecting an urgent letter, and arrives to find the Common Room locked?

A case of this has already occurred.

Clearly, whatever prompted the changes from the old System, it was not anything approaching consideration for students.

Those arriving hero from other universities. Otago, Canterbury, Auckland—have been amazed at the primitive and ill-developed state of students facilities here. At their own colleges, they tell us such conditions would not be tolerated.

At Victoria, we have been without a Common Room, and without a decent Student Union Building for generations.

If the Executive we have appointed is worth its salt, let it make something like an effort to retain those few facilities which up till this year we thought were our own.

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