LAST YEAR PEOPLE who worried about where Harvard Radcliffe students should live white at Harvard Radcliffe called their plans A B and C. Today they're arguing over a new set of plans called 1,2, and 3 (plus 4). Yet, while the transition from letters to numbers occured only this year. It's really always been a numbers game: How and where to house the 300-500 extra students that will attend Harvard by 1976. Now the game has one more player a mysterious donor whose identity has not yet been revealed to those outside the inner sanctum.

The initial flurry of plan-making was set off Last year by President Bok's decision to lower the male female ratio in the College to 2.5 to 1 over four years, with only a minor decrease in the number of males admitted. That decision meant that theoretically the number of males would decrease from 1200 to 1125 per class, and that the number of females would increase from in 300 to 450 per class. Thus, there would be a net increase of 75 bodies per year, or 300 over four years. Contrary to theory however, the current freshman class includes 11.5 males rather than 1125, a figure that if continued could result in 500 rather than 300 extra bodies over four years.

With this projected increase in students. It is clear that there will soon be just too many bodies to continue with current housing arrangements. The problem was solved this seat by adopting the Committee of Houses and Undergraduate Life's "Plan B." which made the Yard coed and moved approximately 80 upperclassmen and women into the Hotel Continental.

Next year's increase will probably be handled by taking over the rest of the Continental for use by undergraduates. The increase in two years will be dealt with by renovations" that will add 50 extra beds at the Radcliffe Quad and 25 to 50 extra beds in The Harvard ("Renovations" means the partitioning of existing rooms and the installation bunk beds). When three years are up however. Harvard will run out of make-shift possibilities new construction will be a necessity.

Four plans have been devised by various members of the Harvard community to cope with that need. All involve building on University owned property. As a result there is no plan to build a new House near the other Harvard Houses, since the Planning Office has found that sufficient land in not available. All plans will probably require, in addition to their main construction, the building of an addition to Kirkland House in order to accommodate the increase. The four plans are named, appropriately enough. Plans 1,2,3, and 4.

PLAN I INVOLVES the creation of a fourth Radcliffe House by taking over the Graduate Center, located near Radcliffe Yard, and building a major addition to it. The Hotel Continental would then be transferred to graduate student use.

This plan has been largely discarded for two reasons. First, opponents contend that such a House would be too far removed from the other major residential centers, and that its members would feel isolated from the community. Second and more important in terms of the plan's viability. Bernice Cronkite, the woman who raised most of the original funds for the Center, has stated a desire to preserve the building for use by graduate students. While it is not clear that Cronkite has issued a definite "no," hopes for Plan I currently seem dim.

Plan 2 has been the darling of F. Skiddy Von Stade '38, dean of freshmen, for over ten years now. It involves the destruction of Hunt Hall (at the north end of the Yard) and the creation of a new freshmen dormitory capable of housing approximately 200 people. Under plan 2, all freshmen, both male and female, would live in either the Yard or Claverly--none would inhabit the Radcliffe Houses.

Von Stade's plan is supported by those who favor the concept of a separate freshman year, including Burris W. Young. assistant dean of Freshmen and Chase N. Peterson, '52, vice president for Alumni Affairs. The plan is opposed by those who favor the "Radcliffe Way" of intermixing freshmen with upperclassmen.

Plan 3 might best be called the "critical mass plan," or less dramatically, the "fill-in-the Quad Plan. "It involves the construction of "connecting additions" between the dorms of South House as well as an addition to North House.

To prevent the connections from solidly warning off the Quad, they would be interspersed with arcades to allow access between the center area and the outside. This plan developed by the Planning Office under Director Harold Goyette calls for the creation of single student units that can be clustered in a variety of says. The plan attempts to avoid the model of a long central corridor with bathrooms of the end of the hall.

Proponents of Plan 3 subscribe to the "critical mass theory," the argument that the placement of additional buildings and bodies at Radcliffe will balance "the weight" of the Harvard Houses maintain a high level of activity in the Quad area and hence keep the 'Cliffe from becoming an undesirable residential area. Much the same logic motivated the Radcliffe trustees in their efforts to construct Hilles Library on its present site.

The major supporters of Plan 3 include the Matin S. Horner and Vice President Hale Champion. In addition President Bok has told the Radcliffe Masters, and others, that he "leans" toward Plan 3.

THE FINAL PLAN left in contention. Plan 4, represents the ultimate compromise: half of each of Plans 2 and 3. Under Plan 4, connections would be built at the Quad to house 100 extra students, and an approximately 100-person dorm would be built at the site of Hunt Hall. While this plan does not alter the freshman year in any way, it does provide some significant advantages.

First, it would help reduce the large proportion of freshmen currently living at Radcliffe. Forty per cent of Quad residents are now freshmen. Plan 4 would reduce that number to approximately 25 per cent.