Housing Squeeze Puts 200 in Gym

One out of every seven Freshmen will bed down in the Indoor Athletic Building gym for as long as two and a half weeks.

About 200 of the estimated 1325 underclassmen registering today will receive an unexpected dose of last year's barracks-type accommodations, Associate Dean Robert B. Watson '37 announced yesterday.

The housing dilemma, supposedly solved by careful preparations last spring, was caused, Watson said, by:

Draft Falls

1) failure of the peace-time draft to call up the extra men admitted late last spring to keep the Class of '52 at a normal level;

2) abolition of the "forced commuting," which has affected all students living within a 45-minute radius of the Square for the past two years;

3) graduation of many married students who found their own homes in the University community.

Both the commuting and married-student changes were anticipated in the overall housing picture, Watson explained, but the extra Freshmen now make both factors vital inasmuch as their rooms would, in the past two years, have been available for the overflow newcomers.

The conversion of the Blockhouse basketball gym on the fourth floor however, will not be so chaotic as last year, Watson said.

"We have a little more time this year and are profiting by our mistakes," he admitted. "We have been aided by recommendations from last year's temporary tenants as well as from the Student Council-CRIMSON investigation. It should be a much more comfortable place to live."

Changes include the type of beds, barracks-living regulations and study facilities.

Very few of the 200 Freshmen who will sleep in the gym tonight will be there the full two and a half weeks estimated as the length of time needed to find regular College accommodations for the surplus men.

"As vacancies turn up in the Yard or possibly outside dormitories such as Claverly, Apley Court and Dudley, we shall choose by lot who will get them." Freshman Dean Dan R. Fenn '44 explained. "Assignments will definitely not be made wholesale, but only as the va- cancies trickle in."

Fenn also emphasized that the "gym-dwellers" are not victims of persecution.

According to customary procedure, he said, combinations of roommates were arranged for the Yard and then the deans drew lots for the rooms. "The men living in the gym," Fenn said, "are those whose names were drawn last--just a matter of luck and nothing else."

Watson said that the Freshman will have company in the Blockhouse in the form of about 70 more men, either transfer students and men returning from a leave of absence, or Law School students.

Freshmen Have Company

The Key to getting Freshmen out of the gym into regular rooms is the upperclassmen now assigned to the Yard. Unlucky House applicants from the Class of '51, totaling about 195, have been allotted suites in Wigglesworth and Grays Halls, the two Freshman dorms facing the Charles on Massachusetts Avenue.

Watson said that House Masters have been asked to take an average of ten extra men each as well as filling the normal vacancies that pop up in the fall.

"We want to keep the Freshmen together as much as possible," Watson said. "But we promised Wigglesworth and Grays to the non-House residents among the upperclassmen. It is up to them to decide where they want to be."

Yard Can Hold '52

If they prefer to stay in the Yard, some Freshmen will be forced to live in the outside dormitories. Under the present system of tripling up double suites, etc., the Yard can hold about 1200 men approximately the expected final size of the Class of '52.

About two-thirds of the basketball court in the Indoor Athletic Building is now covered with single, hospital beds, which Watson called better in most cases than many of the double deckers in regular rooms. There are chairs and tables nearby. Bedding will be provided by the University.

The fencing room has been provided with the study facilities and Watson said that another room will be set up if the demand warrants it. Following last year's recommendations, lights will be turned out at 10 o'clock, except for a dim, precautionary bulb overhead.

Janitors will sort incoming mail and deposit it in specially-arranged, boxes Watson advised gym tenants to delay delivery of their baggage until they get a permanent room assignment