4,430 Is a Crowd

Students throughout the College, especially those sleeping on daybeds in overcrowded suites, will welcome President Pusey's endorsement of the acute need for an eighth House. Although Mr. Pusey was disappointingly vague about financing the project, saying merely that "we plan to make every effort to get ahead with the program this year," it is reassuring to know that additional housing space for upperclassmen is definitely on the way.

The Administration should not, however, plan an immediate increase in the size of the College merely on the basis of the projected new House. Two new Houses would just barely handle the present overflow. Gradual expansion during the next few years is probably inevitable, but the College should never again be as crowded as it is now.

As the President's conservative statement indicates, moreover, it will take a great deal of time before a new House rises from the Cambridge pavement. A structure comparable to Lowell, which was built in 1930 for $3,500,00, would cost approximately $12,000,000 today. This is a substantial sum of money, and the task of raising it is further complicated by the absence of donors like Edward Harness, who spontaneously gave some $13,000,000 to found the House system. In the present crisis the University's fund-raisers will probably have to approach a number of wealthy individuals who, among them, may be able to provide the needed funds. One House master has estimated that at least three years will elapse before the new House reaches the brick and concrete stage.

By that time this year's upperclassmen will have left the College. During these next three years, however, they will welcome any stopgap measures towards relieving overcrowding in the Houses. The Administration has already taken several such measures this fall. Qualified seniors have been allowed to live in private quarters, and three additional buildings, one of which is very well equipped, have been set aside to house the upper class overflow. Even the placing of temporarily homeless students on daybeds for a couple of weeks, bothersome as this may be to their hosts, is preferable to last year's remedy of putting them on cots in the Indoor Athletic Building.

Despite President Pusey's encouraging statement, overcrowding seems definitely here to stay for at least the next three years. During this time, upperclassmen crammed into the present seven Houses might as well make themselves just as comfortable as possible.