ALL YOUR HOUSES

With over three hundred men of the Class of 1940 refused admission to the Houses, and with all but a few odd rooms praceled out on the first assignment last Saturday, the University has been brought face to face with the most serious problem since the inception of the House Plan. For if the House can cope with only two-thirds of each sophomore class, the question of where to put the remainder and which the Houses bring to the rest of the College looms all-important.

Perhaps the first consideration that comes to mind as a possible way of dealing with the vast over-application is to build another House. But even if a fairy god-father could be found to bestow his largesse at a moment's notice, adding a House hardly seems to offer a solution. For if a bad depression after the current economic boom should occur, the possibility of saddling the University with an unfilled "white elephant cannot be considered remote." Only a few years ago the College was unable to rent a considerable number of rooms in the Houses as they stand.

Another way to meet the situation would be to cut down on the number of Freshmen admitted to the College in the first place. Fifty or so men lopped off each incoming class would, spread over three classes, mean one hundred fifty less for the Houses. But thus ruthlessly to reduce the number of chances for men to enjoy a Harvard education, and at the same time to take a sizable slice out of the University income, cannot be regarded as away out.

What provisions, then, should be taken to care for the Freshmen who not reach the Elysian fields of the Houses? It seems eminently clear, and the Student Council report has pointed out, that n one should be denied at least one year in the Houses, no matter where he comes from, what his social connections, and how high or how low his scholastic standing. This principle should be the guide of the University in assigning rooms to present and future upper-classes.

But for the men of 1940, who are getting the short end of the rope this year, one other solution presents itself. That is to give the men not admitted to Houses the same privileges as those who are lucky enough to live in the river palaces already. This would mean that about thirty additional non-residents would use the facilities of each House. Such an increase, though perhaps tending to nullify the effort to make the Houses "individual", would not overburden the commissariat, the common rooms, or the libraries.

Above all it is imperative that the University, the House masters as well as University Hall, recognize that it has an intolerable situation on its hands. With hundreds of students up in arms because they cannot share in the advantages of the House Plan, it is obvious that some action, even if only a stop-gap solution should be take to salve the justly wounded students who have been left unplaced.