Head Residents Voice Disapproval Of New Room Assignment System

Several Radcliffe head residents criticized the 'Cliffe's new room assignment system yesterday. The new system is scheduled to affect the assigning of rooms for next year, which will begin Monday.

Mrs. Howard Denning, head resident of Whitman Hall, criticized the new plan because it will involve House Committee members in the financial matters of other students. Room assignments involve a knowledge of each student's ability to pay, she explained.

Under the new system the responsibility of assigning rooms will be transferred from the Dean of Residences' office to the head resident and House Committee members of the specific dormitory, Mrs. Denning said.

The change was made on the assumption that these dorm officials, being acquainted with the students involved, could best make an intelligent distribution of people with differing personalities and interests. However, Mrs. Alan S. Locke, head resident of Briggs Hall, called it "inefficient" not to handle the room assignments in one central place.

Mrs. Locke also criticized the new system because it will force many freshmen to move off campus during their sophomore year.

The College's policy of discouraging interdormitory moving by upperclassmen is intended to help each hall develop a "character of its own like that of the Harvard Houses," Immogene Fish, associate dean of residence, said yesterday. However, the college "cannot create dormitory spirit by law," Mrs. Locke commented.