Commuters to Draw for Thirty Room Vacancies

A small number of the 290 commuters probably 30 at the maximum--will get a crack at rooms now available in College, as vacancies turned up over the past three weeks will be offered via the lottery method to men now living at home, Robert B. Watson '37, Assistant Dean of the College, announced yesterday.

The commuters are being informed in a letter from Watson's office that the vacancies exist, but warned at the same time that "the number is by no means adequate to absorb all who are obliged to commute."

In this first drawing for rooms, only those living farthest away--probably from Wakefield, Milton, Quincy, and possibly Lexington--will be considered. Watson's office will work on the outer fringes first, and later allocate rooms to men living near Cambridge.

Vacancies have been reported at the rate of five or six a week, Watson said, with most of the openings occurring in the Yard. He attributed a "substantial" number of men dropping from College to the draft, which is hitting the younger men harder.

More Commuters' Troubles

Watson also had bad news for those men within the 45-minute commuting range and who plan to enter College in February. He said that the new group would have to live at home until present commuters had been given a chance to move into the Yard or one of the Houses.

A ruling from Provost Buck last week made the relaxation possible, Watson disclosed, while admitting that a very few exceptions to the commuting rule had been made since the beginning of the term, mostly on request of the Hygiene Department.

Graduate student requirements have been almost completely filled with the shifting of graduates in Apley, Dudley, and part of Claverly, Watson said, and virtually no more reassignment of undergraduates from these dormitories into the Yard, or from the Houses, will be effected. After a month or more of living in one set of rooms, Watson claimed, men are not willing to make a move for the sake of convenience. He cited October 18 to 29 as the turning point in the housing picture in this respect.

Meanwhile, Edward Reynolds '15, administrative Vice President, announced that 165 of the 385 units at Harvard evens Village had already been filled by veterans, and that 256 completed units had been accepted by the University from the FPHA. He said every applicant now on the Strauss Hall Housing Office list had been offered an assignment in the Devens project, but that all answers would not be in until the end of the week. Reynolds predicted, however, that space in the development would eventually be offered to non-veterans as well as veterans in an effort to get the Village filled up.

About 90 couples are now occupying the total of 115 suites at the Brunswick Hotel, with more applicants coming in every week, according to Reynolds.