Howls Of Protest

Monday's freshman housing assignments brought howls of protest from disappointed students, as the percentage of freshmen placed in Houses that were not among their five choices reached an all-time high and the projected overcrowding for next year rose to its highest level since the early fifties.

A record 15 per cent of the Freshman Class were assigned to Houses they did not list on their housing choice forms, and less than half the freshmen will live in their first choice Houses.

The Houses will hold 166 more students next year than they do now if, as the Housing Office estimates, 126 students decide over the summer to take leaves of absence next year.

The three Radcliffe Houses drew most of the freshmen who did not get any of their housing choices--about 95 men and ten women--because of the CHUL-directed increase in the number of upperclassmen at the 'Cliffe.

Eighty angry freshmen who were unwillingly assigned to Radcliffe, including 35 members of Harvard athletic teams, decided at a meeting Wednesday night to ask Dean Whitlock to reconvert Claverly Hall into a sophomore dormitory, thus creating 82 additional living spaces at Harvard.

The students at the meeting complained that the Housing Office had been more concerned with class rank, concentration and sex ratio quotas than with personal choice in determining next year's assignments.

In response to the protests, CHUL yesterday scheduled an emergency meeting for Tuesday night to discuss further the housing arrangements for the Class of 1976. However, it is unlikely that CHUL will dictate any last-minute housing changes.