Houses Will Feel Squeeze Of All-Time Record Influx

Pressed to accommodate the largest enrollment in Harvard's 811 years, housing officials over the weekend moved to squeeze 20 more residents into each of the Houses, prefacing the registration today of 4,250 students returning from the spring and summer-terms.

The seven House Masters emerged from a meeting last week with plans to take in the 140 extra undergraduates in answer to an expected record University stampede of 12,500, including 5,500 in the College.

The most acute congestion to be relieved by House expansion was in the Indoor Athletic Building, which last Friday hit a peak of 176 inhabitants that slipped down to 159 late last night. Nineteen men had been moved out by University officials, four more had been moved in, and an untold number--officially logged in--had departed for friends rooms or hotels until College rooms could be found for them.

Yardling Move to House

In announcing the House plan to absorb 140 of the gym dwellers, Robert B. Watson '87, associate dean of the College, stated that it would be from ten days to two weeks before the multiple room changes could be made. Men eligible for the Houses will be moved from the Yard and the outside dormitories such as Claverly. Their vacated rooms will be turned over to the landless students in the gym.

The gym surplus will be scattered among the Yard halls, with a promise from Watson that the will be out of the Indoor Athletic Building no later than October 20.

To find room where none was thought to exist, the House Masters have proceeded on a non-compulsory program, hoping that present members will volunteer to crowd up even further. A proportionate rent reduction has been offered to men who accept a third or fourth roommates.

In one House, Leverett, the 20 newly-created vacancies have been arbitrarily selected, but the residents of those rooms will be allowed to pick the particular man they want to move in. Leverett's situation is such, it was explained, that the House's construction dictated where the new men will go.