FACULTY HOUSING

The announcement in today's CRIMSON of the house now being built for Dean Donham of the Business School marks another addition to the faculty houses owned by the University. Several homes, notably those of Professor Hocking and Palmer adjoining the Yard have long been controlled by the College, but so far the policy has been to limit the ownership of single housing units to a minimum.

The problem of proper housing for the faculty is increasingly a hard one, and it is no doubt undesirable that any very large percentage of this body should have to find lodging in apartments where entertaining and informal meeting with students can be accomplished only with difficulty. Quite recently the most pressing phase of the situation, that of proper housing for young instructors has been met by the establishment of the Harvard Housing Trust, which though owned and controlled outside of the University, works in informal cooperation with it. The two groups of houses so far built by this organization, namely Shaler Lane and Holden Green have met with a well merited popularity from faculty members and married graduate students. The fact that so many units are contained within a small space makes for a congenial and compact society and has the practical advantage of facilitating the management.

The admirable success of the Housing Trust to date should indicate that there is no need for the University itself to take definite measures to provide homes for its faculty except in special cases. Obviously the home for the head of the Business School is a special case. Its close relation to the other buildings of the school will enable the Dean to keep in close touch with his affairs and will render easy the duties of "landlording" required from the University. The proposed masters' houses to be built in connection with the projected Harvard system appear to have the same justification for University ownership, but it cannot be too clearly pointed out that this should not establish a precedent for a general University housing program. The difficulties of managing isolated units and keeping everybody happy are too great to warrant the University's participation in work of this sort unless under the utmost duress of necessity. Happily the Harvard Housing Trust, as has been pointed out, has largely removed the likelihood of such obligation.