There Was an Old Woman

By order of the University officials, incoming students residing within 45 minutes of the Yard will no longer be furnished living space by the College. Admittedly a desperation move, this announcement constitutes a tacit admission on the part of the University that it is no longer capable of providing quarters for all of its students. Every trick in the bag, including the re-classification of every room in the Houses, has been used in an effort to house the human torrent that will flood over Harvard next month.

In the face of this failure, the once sound rule which required all except commuting students to live in University rooms becomes an anachronism. Designed originally as an attempt to make Harvard a more cohesive unit by bringing as many students as possible within the orbit of House life and to break down the isolation and discontinuity of College life caused by the widespread practice of living in "rat-houses" in order to pay one's club dues, the rule has more than justified its intention.

But the forces now operating in American college education compel the repeal of the rule immediately. For at least two years Harvard will be over-crowded. The only foreseeable way to increase appreciably the number of available vacant rooms is for the University to allow all students who so desire to provide their own lodging while at College.