Masters Hope Room Assignment Problems Will End This Week

The customary room accommodation problems that beset Masters every September are particularly troublesome in Lowell and Kirkland Houses this fall, according to Masters Elliott Perkins '23 and Charles H. Taylor.

Master Perkins said he now has 12 students with beds but without permanent room assignments. He said such situations have been worse in the past (200 undergraduates bunking in the I.A.B.) and were straightened out by early October, so he hoped the problem would iron itself out this week.

He explained that Masters provide assignments for every student on the books, but frequently some of these fall to return, thus providing some additional rooms.

Master Taylor said his local situation was "tighter than in several years" with Kirkland House absolutely full and every expected student back. He said he had taken over three spare spaces, but still had seven additional students without proper accommodation.

The problem seemed less acute in other Houses, where Eliot had about four, Leverett six, and Adams two students in this category. Master David E. Owen of Winthrop House said he was lucky this year since at most "a couple of students are sandwiched in," and the House might well have no surpluses at all.

Master Taylor said the situation will correct itself somehow, but the unplaced students (generally those returning after an absence) might not stay in their present Houses. Adjustments include having some residents of the Boston area live at home, or some advanced standing students return to the Yard, others said.