Let Them Have Ratios

The College administration's decision, announced this week, to retain the Quad's 1.5-to-1 male-to-female sex ratio surprised and pleased most Quad students and masters, but this gift from University Hall did little to cure the malaise that settled in after Dean Rosovsky announced the implementation of the revised Fox plan last week.

The plan, which Dean Fox proposed in detail last January, put forth no specific recommendations about House sex ratios.

But in an appendix to the statement announcing his approval of the plan, Rosovsky said four unspecified Houses of the 12 would receive next year's sophomores in a 1.5-to-1 sex ratio.

Currently, only the three Quad Houses are maintained at the ratio, which is lower than that in the College overall.

When Rosovsky announced his housing plan, Ann B. Spence, assistant dean of the College, and Dean Fox, who participated in choosing the four low-ratio Houses, were considering establishing two of the Quad Houses and two River Houses at the 1.5-to-1 ratio, Spence said last week.

But Quad masters who talked to Spence in the past few weeks felt the low ratio was an important advantage of Quad life, Spence said.

But even after Quad residents learned they will keep their low ratios many remained less than optimistic concerning the Quad's prospects under the revised Fox plan. "People are still disappointed (that the plan passed) even though they expected it," Hanna Hastings, co-master of North House, said last week.

Retaining the 1.5-to-1 ratio did not sweeten the Fox plan enough to dissuade Eric S. Roberts '73, a Currier House resident tutor, from announcing his resignation from the House effective next semester.

Kirkland, now at a 3-to-1 ratio, will be the fourth equalized House. But since the lower ratio will only affect the sex balance among sophomores assigned to Kirkland, the House-wide ratio will remain above 1.5-to-1 for several years.