Fourth House to Replace Off-Campus?

The future of off-campus housing depends on plans for the Fourth House, and on whom the Radcliffe Administration decides to put there.

According to a poll taken earlier this year, most Cliffies believe that the Fourth House should be used to relieve crowding in the existing dormitories, not to increase Radcliffe's enrollment.

There are presently about 110 "economy doubles"--rooms originally intended to be singles which are now used as doubles--in the dormitories. Mrs. Bunting hopes to convert these back to singles and possibly to convert some of the full-sized doubles to singles when Fourth House is built.

Some of the residents of 54 Concord Ave. have accused the administration of hoping to use the Fourth House to abolish off-campus living. But Lvnn M. Selker '65, chairman of the RGA housing committee, has pointed out that "The people in frame houses are happy; the people in economy doubles aren't."

Helen H. Gilbert, acting president of Radcliffe, said in an interview Friday that the "houses we now own we will probably continue to use for students even after Fourth House is built." But she added. "It's possible we might tear down some of them to build a new recreation center."

The poll revealed that, although the opinion of the off-campus girls is evenly split, sentiment at Radcliffe as a whole is overwhelmingly in favor of Fourth House. 352 of those responding indicated their support for the proposed new dormitories and only 63 expressed opposition.

The answers to the questionnaire indicated that Fourth House should have as many single suites as possible and a number of small rooms for studying rather than large all-purpose rooms such as the existing dormitories have.

There should be kitchens for eight to ten people instead of one large kitchen for the entire house. There were also some requests for a snack bar that would be open at all times.

Many of the replies emphasized that the Fourth House should have a great deal of variety. The rooms should not all be the same size or shape and there should be no long corridors or dead white walls.

The answers from several from of the small off-campus houses suggested that Fourth House should be a group of bungalows, with possibly a common dining room to give the house unity.