For the first time in Harvard's nearly 350-year history, the students moving their sofas and Mao Zedong posters into the river houses in 1971 were not only Harvard men. Among the movers this time were women.

That year, Radcliffe undergraduates participated in the first full co-residency program between Harvard and Radcliffe--changing Harvard's living arrangements forever. The exchange expanded on a small pilot program begun the previous semester.

Co-residency in the fall of 1970 meant that women were allowed to move from the Radcliffe Quad to the houses, while men were allowed to relocate to Radcliffe.

Swap rooms were allocated using lotteries of interested men and women.

Rooms in the houses, which tended to be organized in large, airy suites containing bathrooms, were considered more desirable than housing at Radcliffe, where rooms were often on a long hallway with communal bathrooms. Because of the comfort factor, as well as the considerable distance between the academic buildings and the Quad, many women were anxious to move to the river.

However, the allure of living among hundreds of women and the novelty of the situation drew some men to venture to the Quad.

Co-residency, a hotly debated issue among Harvard and Radcliffe administrators at the time, was the result of the "non-merger merger agreement" of 1971, which further solidified the relationship between Radcliffe and Harvard.

Under this agreement, the precursor to the main merger agreement of 1977, Radcliffe kept its endowment and continued to over-see the Schlesinger Library, the Radcliffe Seminars, the Radcliffe Alumnae Association and the Office of Alumnae Career Services.

Quite significantly, Radcliffe also retained control over the Offices of Admissions and Financial Aid, as well as its buildings and capital.

As part of the agreement, Harvard acquired responsibility for managing Radcliffe's day-to-day operations, like facility maintenance and dining halls, in return for all undergraduate tuition payments.

Despite the administrative changes, however, the co-ed dorms were the most obvious sign of the accord.

A New Experience

Many men who suddenly shared an entryway with Radcliffe women found that co-ed living shattered the stereotype of the Radcliffe student.

"[Co-residency] meant there was a lot of demystifying of 'Cliffies as a group," says Barry M. Wright '71, now a psychologist in Grand Ledge, Michigan. "Before, they were seen as very rich, very bright and not very attractive. In reality, it was much complex than that."

Because of the positive relationships co-ed living fostered between men and women, students who lived in co-ed dorms during the first year of the program overwhelmingly remember their experiences fondly.

"It was the best thing I did," says Carey R. Rodd '71, now a physician in New Hampshire.

Rodd moved from Quincy House to Cabot House his senior year with his three roommates. "I think all of us felt that way."

"It was the best thing I did in my four years at Harvard," echoes John Burris '71, Rodd's Quincy roommate who moved with him to Wolbach Hall in what is now Pforzheimer House. "It was a very interesting and enjoyable experience."

Living with members of the opposite sex enhanced friendly relationships between men and women, according to alumni who participated in the co-residency program.

"Before co-ed housing, you would ordinarily only meet women through mixers or through friends," says Burris, now the head of the Marine Biological Institute in Woods Hole.

"It was easier to become friends with girls if you were living with them," says Wright, a Leverett resident who moved to Currier House when the new dorm first opened in 1970. "Having breakfast together is much different than going out on dates."

Some Unhappy Movers

But not all students who moved from one campus to the other were satisfied with the experience.

One Quad resident who moved to Winthrop House under the co-residency plan says she moved back to Wolbach Hall after she was made to feel unwelcome in the House.

"There was a systematic campaign of harassment against the women who lived in Winthrop," says Katherine Park '72, now a professor of history at Wellesley.

Park was one of 150 women who moved to the River Houses the semester before the full co-residency plan went into effect, with 50 Radcliffe students each moving to Adams, Winthrop and Dunster Houses.

"What happened was, in order to make room for the female students, some people felt aggrieved, and some guys just didn't want women down there," Park says.

She says some of her male entry-waymates urinated against her door and made life generally unpleasant for the women in the house. Park points to the hockey team members, many of whom lived in the house, as being particularly obnoxious toward the new female residents.

"The crucial thing was the ratio," says Park, who became friends with Rodd and his roommates during her time in Wolbach. "The ratio moved towards 50-50 faster in the Quad than it did by the river. That's why there were a lot of problems in general, because of the four-to-one ratio."

The controversy surrounding co-residency both before and after the plan went into effect often degenerated into sexist terms.

"Do we need to remind ourselves that when co-ed housing was first considered that the Harvard house masters said women in their hallowed dining halls would lower the level of dinner table discussion? That the Radcliffe administration fretted that it would be inhumane for Harvard men to have to live in the tiny rooms at Radcliffe?" asks Sheila A. Sondik '71 in her class 25th Anniversary Report.

In fact, according to Burris, the intellectual level of conversation actually increased when the men and women were mixed because the men were forced to abandon their two main topics of conversation: sports and women.

But for most, the co-residency debate was not the major event of the era. It was overshadowed by the radical activist agenda on campus at the time.

"I don't think it mattered a great deal," says Charles E. Gilbert III '71, who is now a lawyer in Hampden, Maine, who lived in Eliot before moving off campus. "In the context of that time, with all that was going on in the Vietnam War and other issues, I don't recall this as the burning issue of the day for the average student."