Fewer Upperclassmen to Live In Yard in Second Coed Year

The program of upperclass advisers in the Yard has slumped just one year after its inception.

This year only 16 upperclass advisers will live among freshmen in the Yard, compared to the 24 that resided in the Yard in its first years of coeducation.

The number of men will drop from 14 to 10, and the number of women from 10 to 6.

The program resulted directly from coeducation in the Yard. When sexual diversity was first proposed for the Yard, many upperclass women stressed the importance of the traditional experience of Radcliffe freshmen residing with their upperclassmates in the Quadrangle Houses.

F. Skiddy von Stade '38, dean of freshmen, and a stalwart supporter of the separate freshman year concept, approved the program, but the duties of the upperclass advisers were never spelled out. Presumably they were to serve not as peer counselors, but as older peers.

But this year, six women upperclassmen--four of whom are returnees from last year--will fill the upperclass needs of 260 freshmen women.

W.C. Burriss Young '55, associate dean of freshmen, said last week that he had hoped more upperclass women would apply to live in the Yard.

Young said the upperclass advisers system probably has to be organized better to attract more upperclassmen. This year many prospective upperclass advisers did not learn they were to live in the Yard until August.

Not all of the women who did seek admission to the Yard as upperclass advisers were accepted, despite efforts by Young to recruit women upperclass advisers.

Young said that the housing crunch prevented the appointment of a greater number of freshman advisers.

In addition to the six women upperclassmen who will live in the Yard, three will live in an otherwise all-male Claverly Hall.

The freshman dean's office initiated another program this year under which 200 prospective freshmen were assigned to 200 upperclass big brothers and sisters.