Dudley May Take Over Lehman Hall Next Year

Dean Ford will probably recommend that Lehman Hall be turned over to Dudley House when the Comptroller's Office moves into Holyoke Center next year.

Ford said last week he would recommend the conversion of Lehman into "a commuter center" to the Corporation within the next few months. The move dealt a severe blow to student suggestions made last year that the Hall be converted into a student union.

At present Dudley has been quartered on the ground floor of the Ambassador Hotel which the University acquired last year. The Hotel is primarily used for office space and when Dudley moves out of its present quarters will also be turned into University offices.

No thought has been given to eliminating Dudley House and assigning the commuters to the eight resident Houses, Ford said, since "the people associated with Dudley feel that it is very worthwhile." Ford cited the administrative burden an additional 30 to 40 students per House would impose upon the House administrations as a further obstacle to disbanding Dudley.

The student union request has been made periodically over the past several years, but for the first time last year some real hope was expressed by various student groups that the union would materialize. The primary stumbling block was always the construction of a building, but the possibility of using Lehman had removed that hurdle.