Eliot Students Petition for Tape; Kirklanders Fast for Facebook

As any resident of a newly renovated Harvard dormitory knows, the obligation to keep the rooms in perfect shape can create more than a few nuisances.

This fall at Eliot House, however, nuisance turned to hardship when students increased not to attach wall decorations with tape, found that their renovated rooms lacked the mouldings along the ceilings from which students traditionally hang posters and paintings.

Rather than face bare walls, most students disobeyed orders and hung pictures--with tape. But when Eliot superintendent Kathleen Dehaven began inspections in late October and began either to remove posters or leave warning notes for students, William A. Spencer Jr. '85 and Paul P. Huffard IV '85 decided their civil disobedience had been justified and circulated a petition requesting that they be allow to continue using tape.

In three hours at two dinners, Huffard said, the two collected 230 signatures--those of more than half of the House residents. They presented the petition to Assistant Director for Facilities Robert L. Mortimer, who arranged for the addition of the necessary moulding.

Dehaven said that until workers complete the installations, which should be finished in early January, she will allow students to use tape to their hearts' content.

"The University was very accommodating," said Huffard. Facilities Maintenance and Dehaven "realized it was a problem and they moved to help us," he added.

However, students are liable for any damage they inflict on the walls by using the tape. "The longer tape stays up, the more possibility [there is] of damage," Dehaven said.

Faceless

In other river action yesterday, four students at Kirkland House began a hunger strike to protest a delay in the production of their facebook.

A facebook produced earlier this year had to many mistakes that it never circulated, said House Committee Chairman Bruce W. McNamer '85. The new version is not yet out.

"It's been a long time without a facebook, and we don't know who anyone is," said Louis M. Rios '86, one of the strikers. Although only Rios and the three other juniors have so far decided to fast, the group circulated a petition outside the dining hall last night to muster other students' moral support.