Committee Will Study Living Out of College

More freedom for students who want to live outside of University dormitories and Houses may result from the study of a special sub-committee of the Administrative Board, Dean Watson stated yesterday.

Watson said that he considered the present situation whereby students who wish to live outside are forced to live within the University, and students who wish to live in are forced to live at home to be "highly unsatisfactory."

He explained, however, that to remove all restrictions on where students live might recall the period of the so-called "rat houses" of the early 30's. These were dwellings in which a clique of students lived and were operated somewhat as fraternity houses.

The primary purpose of the sub-committee, Watson said, will be to investigate under what circumstances a student should be allowed to live in private lodgings. At present, only a very few older students or persons with psychological problems are allowed to live outside the Houses.

The prompting for the present study has been brought about because of the sizable number of persons who are forced to commute from nearby homes because of crowding in the Yard and the Houses. This year's freshman class has a total of 107 "forced" commuters, and there is slight possibility that these students will find accommodations any easier to secure in the Houses.

Watson said that while the number of students who wish to leave the Houses is not known, he expected that some would prefer to live out, thus making room for those who desire to live in. The same agreement applies to Yard dormitories.

In addition, he pointed out that while advanced standing sophomores theoretically have the choice of living either in the Yard or in the Houses, most are compelled to live in the Yard because the Houses cannot find the necessary space.

Watson said that the Board was unhappy about the existing situation, and that the sub-committee would meet within the next few weeks to discuss possible changes. Conceivably, all housing restrictions could be removed, but a much more likely solution will be liberalization of the general rule which prohibits students from living outside the University.

Watson said that the present decline in the number of voluntary commuters and the crowding in Houses and dormitories made this the time to determine a new policy. He stated, however, that plans for liberalization were more an expedient than an ideal solution, which he said was expansion of both the House system and accommodations for freshmen