WHEN PRESIDENT BOK proposed the 2.5-to-1 male-female ratio in the fall of 1971, he expected the addition of 300 undergraduates to the college by 1976. To accomodate the increase, Bok said, "Efforts will be made to provide new housing through methods of financing that would remove the need for substantial capital gifts."

But two years later his miscalculation has been demonstrated beyond doubt. The college is expanding at double the projected rate of 75 students per year because forced commuters and transfer students have been carelessly admitted into the housing pool. Only recently have the admissions committees been challenged for their practice of admitting extra applicants with the proviso that they live off campus and for admitting transfer students without any regard for overcrowding. A $3-million undergraduate dormitory is being constructed in the Yard where Hunt Hall once stood. The trend toward leave-taking has reversed, and off-campus quotas are not being filled.

There remains no doubt that a temporary decrease is necessary until serious study is made to determine the optimum size of college. Tomorrow, the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate life should support and send to Dean Rosovsky the proposal to admit 125 fewer men to the next freshman class. If Rosovsky does not approve this necessary stop-gap, Harvard and Radcliffe could be destined for overcrowding of extraordinary proportions next fall.