All Harvard Houses will be coed next year, but, with only one woman assigned to Leverett House, seven to Kirkland, 11 to Mather, and 18 to Eliot, life at the four currently all-male Houses will probably undergo little change.
A total of 252 Radcliffe women applied to move to Harvard. Since, according to Dean Epps, preferences were "fairly well distributed," applicants were, in most cases, assigned to their first-choice House.
In an attempt to increase the number of women at Leverett, Kirkland, Mather and Eliot by the beginning of next term, the Housing office will notify Radcliffe students returning from leaves of absence of available places in these Houses. The Office will also continue to accept applications from enrolled Radcliffe students to these four Houses, as well as to Winthrop House.
"The hope," Epps said yesterday, "is that, come September, we will have a minimum of from 10 to 15 women in each House. If we cannot eventually increase the number of women in the Houses that have few, we will perpetuate an unfair situation."
Ratios
Of the other Houses, Adams will receive 65 additional women, giving it a total of 92 women and a female-male ratio of 1-to-2.2; Dunster will receive 48 additional women giving a totalof 84 and a ratio of 1-to-2.5; Lowell will receive 45 additional women giving a total of 100 and a ratio of 1-to-2.3; Quincy will receive 41 additional women giving a total of 86 and a ratio of 1-to-3.5; and Winthrop will receive 16 additional women giving a total of 49 and a ratio of 1-to-5.8.
The original coresidency plan proposed by the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) had provided for a minimum of 40 women in each House. The CHUL plan finally used by Dean May's subcommittee on coresidency abolished the minimum female residency requirement and allowed women applicants to define the situation in which they would like to live.
Although Epps expressed great concern over the inequities between the Houses, he said that the original plan had had the defect of possibly forcing students to move, while the final plan maximized freedom of choice.
On the other hand. Richard T. Gill '48, Master of Leverett House, who faces the prospect of having one woman in his House with over 400 men, yesterday repeated his dissatisfaction with the final plan.
"The plan created great pressure for women to go to Houses which were already coed," Gill said, "and this was particularly true in a large House like Leverett."
Commenting on what will be an extraordinarily imbalanced situation in Leverett House, Gill said, "It's rather what was to be expected, but we'll do our best to make any woman in the House feel comfortable."
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