Free Choice For Seniors

Uncle Sam is making ominous noises and, liked dew on a hot morning, leaves of absence have evaporated. Everyone is back, nestled safely in the warmth of a 2-S, overfilling the houses. So many people have returned that the college, normally fusty about losing sight of as charges, is almost encouraging people to move off campus.

In former years, each house permitted a limited number of seniors, usually 15, to take up homemaking on the outside; about 125 students lived off campus. The number this year is over 180, and Dean Watson last week predicted a similar figure for next year.

Some of, this year's emigres did not welcome exile; they were forced out. This is deplorable. The College has needed a new house for many years. Now, with the Eastern World exploding, it needs one desperately.

But, though overcrowding has deprived some students of their choice of living quarters, it has opened that choice to others. For many seniors the house system--with its curious social rules, converted suites, and fetching meal lines--has never been the ideal place to court a fiancee, write a thesis, or plan a career. Until very recently, however, the 15-man quota prevented many from moving off campus.

The rationale behind the quota is two-pronged; the Administration fears that dropping it would (1) drain the houses of seniors and thus cripple the system, and (2) re-introduce class distinctions into the College by allowing wealthy students to move into local mansions and penthouses.

We don't see much sense to this reasoning. First, only a small percentage of the senior class will ever willingly leave the system. And How does keeping these "mal-contents" improve the houses? Second, it is now cheaper to live off campus than in a house; many many more students will have to besiege the landlords before a rise in apartment prices reverses this situation.

Under present conditions, the 15-man quota is a dead letter in practice. This is a good time for the Administration to declare it so in theory and announce that henceforth, conditions in the houses aside, every senior will enjoy free choice of residence.