Sanction Granted To Leave Houses

The Administration has decided as a temporary policy to allow members of the Class of 1959 to live outside the Houses in their senior year. The policy will terminate when the eighth House opens in the fall of 1959.

The decision climaxed three months of study in order to reduce the number of "forced commuters," or students who are required to live at home because of over-crowding in the University.

Although there are approximately 100 forced commuters in the present freshman class, there is slight chance that an equal number of next year's seniors will choose to give up their places in the Houses.

Dean Watson said yesterday that he hoped as many as 75 would leave the Houses, but he expressed doubt that even that number could be raised.

It is generally thought, therefore, that practically all students who desire to move out will be permitted to do so, even though they must technically secure approval from the House Master and the Dean.

In a statement released yesterday, Watson stated that a student wishing to live in private lodgings must first secure the approval of his House and of his parents.

The Dean also stipulated that the student would be responsible for finding his own accomodations, and that these must be also approved by the Dean's office.

The University hopes that students living out will find accomodations in supervised rooming houses or in private dwellings. Although there would be no parietal rules as such, the Dean's Office would inform proprietors of what it considers reasonable behavior and ask them to report extraordinary occurences.

Watson said yesterday that approval would not be ordinarily granted to apartment houses unless there were a proctor on the premises. Students wishing to live in apartments would, moreover, have to pay rooming costs for the proctor.

Watson emphasized that students living out would be assumed responsible to manage their own affairs. Only if six or eight students propose to live together, or in the case of apartments, would the question of proctorial supervision arise.

The Dean's Office statement also said that students living out will keep their House affiliation on a "courtesy non-resident basis." The only other alternative would be to apply for membership in Dudley.

Individual Houses will be able to define exactly what House membership entails, however. Thus one House may allow evacuating students to participate in certain activities that another unit would deny to non-residents.

Students who wish to move outside the Houses must submit applications before February 7, according to Dean Watson. This date is necessary, he said, so that work in reassigning rooms for next year can be started.