Students at work in the Hilles penthouse will be much less likely to doze off this year. The carpet is gone, and cork tiling isn't nearly as soft.

A petition protesting the missing carpet is posted in each of the Radcliffe dorms and in Hilles. "They're turning Hilles into Lamont," it reads. "Help save the penthouse."

But according to Ruth K. Porritt, Hilles librarian, it's already too late. "We took up the carpeting on August 9, after the summer school program," Miss Porritt said yesterday. "The tiling was ordered in mid-August from Spain, and should be here in a week or two," she added.

The carpeting had been completely ruined last year by food and drinks spilled by students coming from the coffeehouse, Miss Porritt said. "I know that cork is not as soft to sit on," she added, "but sanitary reasons were paramount. We were faced with the problems of bugs."

Julie A. Shiner '70, a Radcliffe student involved with the circulation of the petition, said that the petitioners had offered stainless carpeting as an alternative.

But "that indoor-outdoor carpeting isn't soft either, and it doesn't wear well," Miss Porritt said. "We talked to architects all last spring, and for the sake of maintenance and quiet, cork is the most satisfactory substance."