The young Bryn Mawr graduate looked up from her ironing board. "The living room is no place for work like this," she remarked, "and it's certainly no atmosphere in which to raise children."

Conditions in the apartment gave substance to her words. Two children of preschool age were using the living room as a playpen, several times coming dangerously close to extinction from electrical wiring, paperweights, and other threatening objects. The kitchen, its plaster peeling, was too narrow to contain an ironing board and chair; and the bedroom, far from copious, held two beds and a cradle.

"I can't let the children play outside," the mother said, "because I have to keep an eye on them. You see, we haven't a yard, and it's a crowded street. We had to repaint the place ourselves; the rent is $85 a month. One of the kids has to sleep on the sofa.

"But I shouldn't complain too much," she added quickly. "My husband is a Yalie, and we didn't know the situation in Cambridge. From what I hear, we were lucky to get within ten minutes' walk of the Square."

Such a case is not atypical. "Almost anything bad that can be said about married students housing," states Dean Elder, "will underestimate the situation." The married graduate student at Harvard is an exploited creature. High rents, inadequate facilities for children, and overcrowded living conditions are stimulating an exodus from Cambridge to Arlington, Somerville, run-down sections of Watertown--even as far as Revere.

This move seriously weakens the concept of an academic community. "The tragedy of the world," Albert North Whitehead once commented, "is that those who are experienced have feeble imaginations... The task of a university is to weld together imagination and experience."

Martini Atmosphere

A true welding can take place only if students can meet their teachers on a social, as well as on an academic plane, if ideas in the seminar can be rehearsed over the more informal atmosphere attended by the martini.

The House system, while deemphasizing the martini, is an attempt to create an academic community for the undergraduate. Except for tutors, however, the opportunities which this system tries to offer hardly exist for many graduate students, who are isolated from the University by distance. Even worse than this is the loss which occurs when many students--apprised of the housing situation--are dissuaded from coming to Harvard at all.

The Cambridge landlord occupies an enviable position. Because apartments convenient to the University are at a premium, he is in a position to name his price, and to pick and choose tenants from a swarm of applicants. Last year, for example, the Harvard Housing Trust received 2944 inquiries, whereas 874 apartments were offered.

Moreover, many of these apartments are unsuitable for student living; and it is only the severe shortage which encourages landlords to offer them. Despite the acknowledged scarcity, many apartments remain on the Housing Trust list for months. An example of this is an apartment on Bigelow Street--a bedroom, a living room and a kitchen. No children are allowed; the rent is $125 a month.

Better locations come even higher. A one-bedroom apartment near Radcliffe, on Walker Street, is listed at $225 monthly. It has been listed for eight weeks, with no takers.

'No Children' Restriction

In an era of inflation, these rents may not seem astronomical; but the average student in GSAS, for example, has an extremely limited income. The frequent "no children" restriction adds to the graduate student's dilemma. Landlords are not entirely to blame here; an over-whelming percentage of them ask if the child is of school age. If he is not, they assert, complaints are received from other tenants on the grounds that they are prevented from studying.

The burden of providing adequate housing for the married students falls upon the Harvard Housing Trust, which has developments in Shaler Lane and Holden Green. These are attractive, low-rent apartments. A two-bedroom unit rents for $75 monthly; three bedrooms, $90; and a four-bedroom apartments is $105.