College administrators will meet today to discuss whether representatives of certain student groups will receive temporary housing during freshman week.

A conflict arose when the fall move-in date for the 1997-98 school year was scheduled for Sept. 10, while the freshman week activities fair was set for Sept. 8.

Without undergraduates on campus to table at the fair, student groups fear low attendance at the fair unless a solution is found.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III said that "the matter is still under review."

"What used to happen is that you had people who had a role to play in the college during that week," said Epps, who will meet today with Associate Dean of Harvard College for Human Resources and the House System Thomas A. Dingman '67 to discuss plans for next fall..

However, since the upperclass houses opened at the beginning of freshmen week, many sophomores, juniors and seniors moved into the houses as well, to get a head start on unloading or to relax through a week of no classes.

But Epps said that allowing students a week of relaxation, with no academic responsibilities, was not the original intent of opening the houses early.

"We have not made that decision to extend that housing privilege to all groups."

Typically, groups like the Crimson Key Society, The Harvard Crimson, choral groups that perform during the week or peer groups that are trained during that time are temporarily housed.

"We intend to house all the students that need to be here," Dingman said.

However, with houses next year officially closed until mid-week, the administrators are forced today to begin deciding which groups deserve special temporary housing.

"It continues to be a problem because we need to determine which groups will play an important role during the week," Dingman said.

Epps promised as fair a resolution as possible.

"We are going to try to find a way to respond," Epps said. "In the interim, we have been telling students to ask students who live locally to cover the freshman registration and we will go on to decide whether to accommodate other student groups."

Lamelle D. Rawlins '99, under-graduate council president, met with Epps yesterday and said she felt confident that student groups would be 1accommodated.

"The situation next [fall] is not going to be ideal, but I'm hopeful that the University will give temporary housing to all student groups that need to be here in the beginning of the year," Rawlins said.