Avon Calling But Yale's Not Home

Avon House, an off-campus Radcliffe dormitory, has been rejected by Yale.

The 18 occupants of the house sent a joint letter to Yale last month asking for an application to transfer en masse.

The thirteen girls living in Avon, the resident couple and their four-year-old son, the janitor, and the maid said they wanted to move to protest their position at Harvard which they describe as "separate and unequal."

The Avon House Transfer Committee mailed a letter to Yale on Nov. 25 requesting application forms. They desired to apply as a unit and would attend Yale only if all of them were accepted. The girls enclosed an application fee with their letter to ensure that the Yale Admissions Office would take their request seriously.

The Yale Admissions Office, in their letter of December 18, said "Despite the apparent attributes of the group, none of you could satisfy the two-year residence requirement for a degree."

"There are so many people applying that we must consider all applicants individually," they said.

The letter with which Yale returned the 15 dollar application fee, was "really sympathetic," Carolyn R. Craig '69, chairman of the Avon House Transfer Committee said. "Yale was really intrigued by the maid and janitor," she said.

"We really don't know what we're going to do now," Miss Craig said. Three of the girls will graduate in June.

A group of girls from "Smith College wrote a letter to the Boston Globe offering themselves as replacements in Avon House if 18 current inhabitants moved to New Haven.

"While it is undoubtedly nice to be equal, many of us here believe it is better to be unequal than separate," the Smithies said.

Two hundred and fifty freshman girls and two hundred and fifty transfer girls will be accepted by Yale for next year. The freshman applications are due on January 20 and the rest on March 1.

The 18 malcontents of Avon House and Smith are the least of Yale's problems. The Admissions Office says that it simply cannot keep up with the letter opening.