Cabot Hall Fines Bells Forgetters

Cabot Hall has introduced, a mercenary spirit into Radcliffe dorm obligations by making girls who don't do their bells duty pay those unfortunates who do the work in their place.

All girls in the brick dorms must "do bells"--answer dorm phones and serve as a receptionist--usually for an hour each week. The Radcliffe Redbook states: "Shared responsibilities for dormitory functioning are considered an important part of learning at Radcliffe."

This fall the Bells desk at Cabot was unmanned for as long as four to six hours every day, Deborah K. Daniels '71, Cabot work chairman, said yesterday. "People didn't believe that the situation could get that bad," she said.

Last week the girls in Cabot voted overwhelmingly to institute a fining system--the only one at Radcliffe. If a girl doesn't do her bells or find someone to do them for her, she has to pay $2 an hour for weekday duty and $2.50 an hour for weekends to the substitute the work chairman finds.

"A lot more people have been doing their bells shifts than before," Ellen Messing '72, Cabot treasurer said yesterday. She estimated that now one to two girls miss their bells every two days.

Some Cabot girls, however, are not paying for what they miss. The dorm committee is considering asking Radcliffe to put the fines on girls' term bills if they don't pay.

"I'm a little surprised by this regulation. I'm almost sure it couldn't go on the term bill; it's something that should be taken up at RUS," Mrs. Genevieve Austin, Radcliffe Dean of Residence, said last night.