CHUL Holds to Decision On Freshman Transfers, Freeze Remains in Effect

The Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) yesterday voted 27-4 to sustain its previous decision prohibiting rising sophomores from transferring out of their assigned House until February 1977.

Earlier in yesterday's meeting the CHUL rejected motions allowing one-to-one switches and one-way transfers by votes of 20-11 and 21-8 before voting to reaffirm its support of the transfer freeze.

The CHUL voted 19-5 on March 3 to freeze transfers until the beginning of the spring term next year, but decided on April 7 to have its House Systems Subcommittee reconsider the ruling.

The subcommittee unanimously recommended that one-to-one switches be permitted when one of the roommate groups involved had been assigned to a House it had ranked below eighth choice. The Freshman Council endorsed the proposal on April 12.

No Possibility for Transfer

The CHUL action "officially closes" the possibility of freshmen changing their House assignment until next February, but there is "no way to stop people from screaming and complaining," Frederic Haber '79, a freshman representative to the CHUL said yesterday.

Lee Bains '77, Kirkland House representative to the CHUL and chairman of the House Systems Subcommittee, said yesterday the CHUL is "only delaying an inevitable occurrence for one semester." He added that 176 freshmen were assigned to one of their last three choices and most of them will still want to transfer in February.

Freeze Defended

Robert J. Kiely, master of Adams House, told the meeting that the freeze should be kept on so "students can see, in one term, if they can make a life for themselves" in their assigned House. Kiely also told the CHUL that no one "will take us seriously if we keep reopening questions two or three weeks after a vote is taken."

But Neil D. Gross '77, Adams House representative to the CHUL, told the meeting that "flexibility is more important" than credibility and CHUL should "maximize student's freedom" instead of forcing them to remain in a House.

There has been "less confusion, unhappiness, and turmoil" this year because freshmen knew that the CHUL policy would not allow them to transfer, Alberta Arthurs, dean of undergraduate affairs, said yesterday.

Eleanor C. Marshall, assistant to the dean for housing, who handles student complaints about housing assignments, said yesterday the response this year was "not as vocal or as angry" as last year, but "many students and parents were patiently awaiting today's decision."

Marshall asked the CHUL's permission to begin immediately compiling a list of those freshmen who want to change their House. However, the CHUL ordered Marshall not to take any names until after Christmas vacation next year.