Masters Urge Uniformity In Room Charge

A visiting committee of the Board of Overseers to study the Tenth House last night heard near unanimous opinion from the Masters that deconversion of the existing Houses and uniform room rents throughout the College should be high-priority items in final plans for the Tenth House.

Most Masters reportedly felt that a great deal of consideration must be given to deconversion and remodeling of the existing Houses, particularly to provide more individual bedrooms for students.

The Masters joined Senior Tutors, leading College administrators, and members of the Committee in discussing the relative merits of courtyard and apartment-type construction, and reached general agreement that architecture makes an important difference in the function of the House.

There was some support, especially among Masters of the older Houses, for the Tenth House to be a low-rise building, but Richard T. Gill, Senior Tutor of Leverett, reportedly defended the high-rise concept of Leverett Towers.

The Overseers' committee spent the entire day at the College, interviewing students and House administrators and touring the existing House facilities. The final report, which committee chairman Albert L. Nickerson expects to present to the Corporation "sometime next fall," should be very influential in plans for the Tenth House.

Private Kitchen Preferred

At a meeting with representatives of the student body yesterday afternoon, the Overseers again found considerable demand for individual bedrooms. Most students felt that the ideal size for the Tenth House would be about 350, and practically all agreed that the House should have its own private kitchen.

Leverett and Quincy House representatives objected to interior construction of cinder block or raw concrete and, urged that the new House have finished interior walls. There was also considerable discussion of the relative merits of long corridors and small entries, but no clear consensus was expressed.

Nickerson said that he might have an oral report for the Overseers at the May meeting in Washington, but stressed that such a report would only be tentative.