With Commencement fewer than two months away, seniors, parents and the College's administration alike have mostly begun to make plans for that brilliant weekend in May. Parents have to book rooms (if they haven't already), seniors must look for buyers for their furniture and student workers need to submit housing forms very soon. Every year the procession of Amherst seniors into post-graduate life takes place, and every year the workers that make possible this rite find themselves housed with expedient callousness.

We believe, simply speaking, the living conditions for Commencement workers leave much to be desired. More specifically, the meager allocations of living space and a lackadaisical attitude towards maintenance of that space collectively contribute to a distasteful experience. Now, lest we appear to be casually taking the College's arrangements for granted, let us qualify each criticism.

First, most student workers make do with living in unreasonably cramped conditions. Placing three students in a one-room double in South College, for instance, leaves each person with one third of roughly 180 square feet (160 in smaller rooms). Consider, too, the size of the average prison cell in Stanislaus County, Calif. Prisoners each languish in a six-by-nine feet cell which, after doing one's math, isn't very much smaller than the space allocated to individual workers. This comparison is, no doubt, a little extreme. Nevertheless quarters this cramped, in the heat of late spring, create some rather uncomfortable living conditions.

More fortunate students squeeze six or seven to a suite in the socials. Almost invariably, that means some sleep in the semi-exposed common rooms. Hygiene is hardly helped by the irregularity (if at all) of janitorial services during this period. Bathrooms are a particular nightmare.

The situation in general begs amelioration-amelioration of a kind not beyond the means of Residential Life and Physical Plant. We do apprehend the magnitude of the entire undertaking-of harmonizing the perfect Commencement-but the well-being of the workers that arrange this perfection necessitates change.

Currently student workers' chief competition for housing during Commencement is, of course, parents and guests. Yet the College has no responsibility to house parents, much less relatives or guests; the Office of Public Affairs states on the Commencement Web site that "housing cannot be guaranteed" for even parents. Thus the College must reexamine its priorities: Is treating the indispensable corps of student workers well or pandering to seniors' families more important?

To us the answer is relatively simple. Be faithful to the design capacities of rooms; house students with some thought to their welfare. Then, at the very least, provide some cleaning equipment for the bathroom. We ask not for the privilege of staying in our own rooms after finals, or to pick our own Commencement housing. We hope merely that the workers and performing groups enlivening Commencement will receive their due.