No Monopolies, Please (Vol. 2, Issue 3)

The complications attendant upon the recent rearrangement of the dormitory have demonstrated, once for all, that student dormitory problems cannot fall under the jurisdiction of a committee responsible solely to the S.O.Y. 

Much resentment was caused! by the necessity for students being under the supervision of a committee in which they were not officially represented. There exist, in addition to the S.O.Y., two other student organizations as important and as active as the S.O.Y. which were not consulted in this matter at all. No wonder, then, that opposition arose from all sides. 

Furthermore, many of the difficulties which confronted the committee arose as a result of insufficient acquaintance of the committee with dormitory students not affiliated with the S.O.Y. A great many of the faults in the procedure adopted by this committee might be traced to the absence of true representation.

If any plan for the selection of room mates in order to secure a maximum influence of the Yeshiva spirit in addition to compatibility of partners is to succeed, it must be administered by a committee representing the various divisions of the student body. If in the future the committee is to prove a potent factor in creating a more congenial dormitory life and in organizing different resident activities, it must reflect the interests of the student body in its diverse aspects. Only in that manner will it secure the complete trust and cooperation of the students.

We, therefore, strongly recommend that dormitory problems be removed from control of the S.O.Y. and be entrusted to a combined committee of the S.O.Y., the Students Organization of Yeshiva College, and the Students Organization of the Teachers Institute.

This step would not only result in better administration of such matters as fall within the scope of the committee. It would also be a first move in the direction of cooperation among the three student organizations. By coordination of aims and efforts an by common consideration of problems they have in common, the duplication of work and conflict of policies, which have proved such a hindrance in the past, would be eliminated. 

We know that the students as well as the administration have for a long time hoped for such cooperation.