Computers to Go To Houses in Fall

Computer consoles for nightly undergraduate use will be installed in three Houses and in Sever next fall, following a recommendation of the eight-man Faculty committee chaired by Frederick Mosteller, professor of Mathematical Statistics.

Dean Ford, with the backing of the Committee on Educational Policy, has approved the plan that will enable undergraduates to use typewriter-sized consoles to punch into an SDS 940 at the Harvard Computer Center.

The Mosteller Committee's other major recommendation for making computers more available to undergraduates has been tabled-at least until next fall, however. In its report last November, the Committee recommended that the Faculty set up a special fund to buy computer time for students who need the bigger IBM 7094 for thesis work. The SDS 940 can be used only for relatively simple computations.

"The full Faculty may have to discuss this one," Dean Ford said Wednesday of the second recommendation. "It is a much bigger question than the consoles and there are some who fear that money from this fund would take away from libraries," he said.

However, Ford added that there will be considerable increases next year in the investment in computers in departmental budgets.

Ford termed the console program "experimental." The Mosteller report had recommended a console in each of the Houses, but Ford said that the University wants to see how heavily four will be used and how easily they can be maintained in the Houses before installing more.

The consoles will be useful for math, chemistry, and some physics problems, and Edward T. Wilcox, director of General Education, has said that a new Gen Ed corse in computers will be offered next fall.

Mosteller estimated that the consoles would cost $40,000 to install and operate for a year. The reductions which Ford decided to make will bring the actual cost down.