Students Want More Course Offerings

Most Harvard students want expanded curricular offerings and increased services and options in living arrangements, final results from a survey of undergraduates conducted by the Student Assembly indicate.

An overwhelming 91 per cent of the 3784 students who responded to the poll favored options for studying abroad which could meet requirements under the Core Curriculum. About 54 per cent of respondents said they would participate in such foreign study programs.

Two-thirds of the student body favors the establishment of drama courses for credit, something Dean Rosovsky said Tuesday is already possible, but only 24.5 per cent said they would enroll in drama courses.

Seventy-two per cent of River House residents said they would like Harvard to distribute free toilet paper to all students, even if term bills would have to be upped two or four dollars.

Quad residents and freshman, who already receive free toilet paper, supported this suggestion by 35.5 per cent and 69 per cent, respectively.

Anne B. Spence, associate dean for housing, said yesterday the decision to distribute toilet paper only to Quad residents and freshmen "evolved historically" and is related to the location of communal bathrooms.

Spence said the question had been raised in the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life's (CHUL) sub-committee on finances and would probably be considered by CHUL this spring.

"I am sure that you will not find anything written that's called 'toilet paper policy," she added.

Seventy-three per cent of respondents said they favored some kind of alternative to the current mandatory 21 meal plan. Only 22 per cent said the present system is satisfactory.

Benjamin H. Walcott, assistant director of food services, said Wednesday that alternative meal plans would be financially feasible if at least 50 per cent of undergraduates opt for the 14 meal option.

CHUL has tabled meal plan options legislation pending further reports from the food services departments.

Sixty-one per cent of students polled reserved judgement on the recently-formed student assembly when asked to comment on its performance. Upperclassmen are slightly more likely to express an opinion on the body's performance.

Winthrop attributed low turnouts in both Dudley and Kirkland houses--20 and 30 per cent respectively--to poor survey efforts. In Kirkland House, surveys were only available for three of the six meals they were supposed to be distributed at. Dudley House residents, most of whom live off campus, had to go to Lehman Hall to answer the survey.