Disclosure that President Conant's old home on Oxford Street has come under the scrutiny of the Commuters' Investigating Committee was made yesterday coincident with authoritative information from University Hall that Hemenway Gymnasium has been abandoned as a possibility for the new Commuters' center.
Besides President Conant's old home, other buildings recently added to the Committee's list of prospective locations are the Fifty-Four Club at the corner of Winthrop and Dunster Streets, and Dudley Hall. Of these, the Fifty-Four Club is not owned by the University.
Hemenway Abandoned
The reasons for the sudden abandonment of Hemenway Gymnasium, which has been considered by the Committee since early in December, were explained yesterday by a University official. "We feel," he said, "that since the University has little space at its disposal, we would not be justified in assigning so large a building as Hemenway Gymnasium to the commuters, for their demands are not sufficient to warrant their occupying the whole space." He also said that the running expenses of Hemenway Gymnasium would be heavier than the non-residents could pay. There is a possibility that the old gym may be given to the Freshmen for the squash courts, thus relieving the pressure at Linden Street.
Vigorous opposition to the University's disinclination to finance a new commuter social center has been voiced by Phillips Brooks House, the present home of the commuters. Brooks House has repeatedly maintained that the University ought to establish a center if the commuters who use it will pay their maintenance charges.
The following statement was issued by a spokesman for the Investigating Committee: "Because of the pressure of examinations, the Committee has suspended activities, but will resume them immediately after the end of the examination period. It still hopes for a successful conclusion to the problem."
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