Elder Rejects GSA Proposal On Coed Dorm

Despite a Graduate Student Association proposal, there will be no girls living in the men's dorms at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences next year.

A GSA committee last month asked J. Petersen Elder, dean of GSAS, to consider changing some of the men's dorms to women's dorms, David Feintuch, editor of the Harvard Graduate News; said yesterday. "The answer was a blunt no," he said.

"The question of coed dormitories will not be discussed again this year" Arthur D. Trottenberg '48, assistant dean of the Faculty, said yesterday. "It is not economically feasible."

"To change dorms so that they are fit for female occupancy would take money," he said, explaining that what money was available would go toward "renovation work higher on the list of priorities."

Isolation

The original GSA proposal, written by Michael R. Gardner, a second-year student, asked for relief of the "artificial isolation" of the sexes.

"We believed it would help in the less tangible realm of sociable relations," John L. White, secretary of the Graduate School Council, said yesterday. "There is not at present much contact between men and women grad students, and coed living arrangements would certainly improve communication."

"We didn't expect major opposition other than on grounds of feasibility," White said. "These grounds have not yet been thoroughly explored. The problem is that nobody knows just what next year's graduate school population will look like."

But Trottenberg said it is "unlikely" that any changes will be made in the near future.