Bucking Trend, Harvard Students Take More Leaves of Absence Than Ever

More Harvard students are taking leaves of absence this year than ever before, bucking a national trend that shows college students taking fewer leaves.

More than 230 Harvard students have taken leaves in 1975--double the number that left the school in one-year periods during the 1960s and far more than University officials expected earlier this year.

"We're studying it but we don't understand it yet," Dean Whitlock said yesterday.

The number of students taking leaves at Harvard has increased over the past five years while it has decreased in many other schools during that period, Whitlock said. Harvard often lags behind the rest of the country in leave of absence trends, he said.

A surprising number of upperclassmen have left school since September, with 20 people taking leaves of absence in the first two weeks of November, the dean of the College said. "It's not very typical," Whitlock added.

To University officials who try to predict how many students will return in order to provide housing space for them, the increase in leaves has been a blessing.

Because of the high rate of attrition, Whitlock said, every student who sought space on campus this year has now received it, with approximately 12 beds to spare.

A Strain

University budget administrators said yesterday they fear the increase in students on leave will strain the Faculty's budget.

"The amount of tuition lost from the students going on leave can be an important factor in trying to balance the budget," Harvard Treasurer George F. Putnam '49 said yesterday.

No estimates of total tuition fees lost are available yet, budget officials said.

Hale Champion, financial vice president, said yesterday the absentee increase may have "some effect" on the Faculty's board revenues because the dining services can feed more people at cheaper individual rates.

Whitlock said there are currently about 1000 students "out in the bushes"--students who have taken a leave of absence within the past five years and have not returned.

Eleanor C. Marshall, assistant to the deans for housing, said yesterday all students currently on leave will receive a letter soon asking that they let the University know before February whether they will be returning for the school term beginning September 1976.

Marshall said because students with good academic standing do not need to specify why they are taking leaves, it is difficult to ascertain why more students are taking leaves now.

Administrators contacted at other Ivy League colleges yesterday said fewer students are opting to take leaves. The administrators cited the poor job market as the biggest reason for the decline.

Officials at Yale University said yesterday an unexpectedly low number of students taking leaves has caused substantial overcrowding throughout Yale's housing system.

"Harvard is way above Yale" in the number of students choosing to go on leave," Lloyd Suttle, director of Yale's Institute of Research, said yesterday.

Princeton officials said yesterday that the number of students taking leaves has remained steady in the last two years