Watson Now Can Provide Rooms For All Undergrads

Dean Watson said Tuesday that Harvard dormitories are no more over-crowded this year than in previous years and that all students will be assigned rooms within a week.

"We have the spaces." Watson said. "It's just a question of matching a body with a bed."

As of Tuesday, there were still 99 "floaters" -students without permanent room assignments. Seventeen of the floaters are transfer students and 15 are students returning after one or more years' absence.

The number of floaters was reduced from 154 of a week ago by filling vacancies in Houses and permitting more students to live off campus. Several Houses have also agreed to take more than their quota of students.

The Houses still report 56 vacancies for the floaters, in addition 53 rooms in various graduate and other dorms will be used to house Mather House students.

These 109 spaces eventually will house all 99 students still without rooms, Watson explained, "but all this takes time."

Watson said that anyone inconvenienced by living in a temporary barracks will pay only his board fee-on a prorated basis-until he gets a permanent assignment.

The off-campus living fee will remain at $150 for the year instead of going up to $200 as originally planned. Sophomores and freshmen, however, still cannot live off-campus.

Overerowding at the beginning of the Fall term has been a problem for a long time. Watson said, "We've had a barracks situation at the beginning of every year since World War II."