The Committee on House Life recently made the process of transfering from house to house slightly easier for undergraduates.

Now, undergraduates who apply for a housing transfer will be notified in mid-March, several months earlier than in previous years. This change will allow transferees to participate in the room lottery of their new house.

The committee voted to request the change in policy during reading period and the College Housing office officially approved the proposal soon afterwards.

To help implement the new policy change, the Housing Office yesterday announced that they would initiate a new deadline of February 25 for fall term inter-house transfers. Under the olddeadline of May 15, undergraduates were notnotified until the summer whether their requestfor transfer was granted.

Committee members say the policy changerepresents the continued effort of the College toreconcile student choice of houses with the desirefor diverse populations within the houses.

According to Housing Officer Catherine M.Millett, the policy is the culmination of atwo-year effort of faculty members, the Undergraduate Council, Dean of the College L. FredJewett '57 and the College Housing Office itselfto improve the quality of the transfer process bymaking it more appealing to potential transferstudents.

Anticipating a rise in transfer applicationsand as a result of the new policy, the Housingoffice recently established artificial "caps onthe number of transfers between houses.

"This is being done to maintain the balance ofstudents among the residential houses," Millettsaid.

The caps were implemented after several housemasters expressed fears that large numbers oftransfers would be demoralizing to certain houses.

The new policy is designed to provide those whohave successfully passed the initial applicationprocess the chance to take part in the annual roomlotteries of the host house, thereby allowing themto "lock-in" with a group of friends in the hosthouse, Millett said.

Past Problems

In previous years, the final decision on theeligibility of transfer candidates did not takeplace until the following summer, long afterlotteries in host houses had taken place.Transferees "Were then faced with the possibilitythat they would have no choice but to room withstrangers," according to Daniel H. Tabak '92, amember of the committee.

Millett said that before the recent change,transfer decisions were based on space in thehouses and took place after each house had alreadyhad its own internal rooming lottery.

Ordinarily students transferring into the housewere placed into full rooms along with all otherresidents of the dorm. This left candidates withthe undesirable possibility of rooming withstrangers.

The change in policy was originally suggestedby Tabak, who was chair of the council'sresidential committee two years ago. "[Transfers]were being forced to hope that their friends gotrooms with empty spots after the lottery," hesaid.

Council representative David L. Duncan '93,also a member of the council's residentialcommittee and the Committee on House Life,co-au-thored the proposal with Duncan.

Tabak said the original impetus for a change ininter-house transfer policy came from Jewett twoyears ago when the house choice process forfirst-year students was revised. Jewett "thensuggested that was all do something to improve the[transfer] housing process as well", Tabak said.

In addition, Duncan said, "masters thought thatthe existence of an early date for transferdecisions would encourage transferees to detachthemselves from the residential life of the Housethey were leaving."

Reaction to Policy Change

So far, reaction to the policy change and thecap has received a generally positive receptionfrom house masters. "It makes a lot of sense,"said Leverett House Master John E. Dowling '57."The whole system will work better because of it."

Adams House Master Robert J. Kiely struck asimilar note, saying that he thought the measurewas "fine" and that it represented "an attempt atbalancing students' wishes with those of the housemasters wishing to prevent a drain of studentsfrom their houses."

Kiely also said the measure was a sign ofprogress, calling it a movement away from thetrend toward randomization that has characterizedrecent College housing policy