Seven Houses May Turn Coed With Varied Male-Female Ratios

Dean May. chairman of the Committee on Coresidential Housing, said last night that as many as seven Houses could conceivably go coed next year with ratios ranging from 1:3 to 1:7.

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May also said the committee encouraged Harvard students from non-coed Houses to move to the Radcliffe Quad. Men who wish to live in an allmale House may transfer if necessary, he said.

The lucky Houses will be selected by the preferences of the 160 Cliffies in each class who became eligible to move to Harvard by drawing the lowest room-lottery numbers.

These Cliffies will receive a detailed application today listing the nine Harvard Houses and the ratio at which each House can accommodate them. The House ratios were determined by adding the number of House members willing to move to Radcliffe to one-third of the House's freshman quota for next year and dividing this sum into the total number of spaces available in the House.

On the application the Cliffies will rank the Houses in order of preference. However, Radcliffe sophomores can apply only to six Harvard Houses-all except Quincy, Mather, and Kirkland.

The Cliffies' preferences will be fed into a computer to determine how many of the most popular Houses will be required to accommodate them.

"We anticipate that most of the girls will apply to those Houses with the most favorable ratios so that only five Houses will probably go coed." May said yesterday. However, girls may consider other factors besides ratios in deciding where to apply. And the traditionally most popular Houses are the ones with the least favorable ratios the ones fower men want to move away from.

After the final selection of Harvard's coed Houses. the 480 Radcliffe applications will be processed exactly like the House applications of Harvard freshmen.

"We will try to allocate them as nearly to their preferences as possible." May said.

May said that although only 440 Cliffies will be allowed to move to Harvard, 480 have been given the opportunity to apply to enable Houses to interview and possibly reject Cliffie aplicants.

He added that the 440 figure could be changed slightly depending on how many of the 180 actually apply and the number rejected by the Houses. Houses will then make up for these variations by accepting more or fewer freshmen, May said.

Incoming freshmen at Harvard and Radcliffe will not be allowed to participate in the coed exchange.

Harvard freshmen will receive a questionnaire this week asking whether they are willing to move to Radcliffe.

All Cliffies will vote this week on whether girls now at Harvard should be permitted to stay. If the referendum decides to give priority to these girls. Adams. Lowell, and Winthrop will automatically remain coed next year.

Although the committee's coed plan is binding for only next year, the committee suggested a four-year plan which would rotate the three Houses to which sophomore Cliffies could not apply. In this way, all the Houses could eventually be coed.

The May committee's plan has been criticized on the following grounds:

The all-important potential male-female ratios in each House are based on hastily assembled-and possibly incorrect-figures on how many students in each House would be willing to move to the Cliffe. In Adams House for example. the committee found only 15 men willing to move to Radcliffe for the current semester.

In the case of Mather House in particular. the committee found only 15 cut of 345 students willing to move. One reason for this low number is that almost 200 of these "students" are unoccupied or uncompleted Mather rooms which could be filled with Radcliffe students without forcing anyone to move. But instead they have been "personified" as intransigent Harvard students unwilling to move to Radcliffe.

Girls with low lottery numbers who want to move to Harvard will have to abandon friends with high numbers. In past years, roommates were allowed to average their numbers together to establish their ranking.

The potential male-female ratios in the nine Houses, figured according to May's formula, are as follows: Adams, 1:6.2; Danster, 1:5.7; Eliot, 1:5.4; Kirkland, 1:3.8; Leverett, 1:3.2; Lowell, 1:4.5; Mather, 1:6.5; Quincy, 1:3.9; and Winthrop. 1:4.0.

So how do you know if your House is going to be coed? Well, if you're a Cliffie, it's a sure, bet. If you're at Harvard, it depends on:

whether you're willing to move to the Cliffe:

If not, how many others in your House are: and

how many Cliffies can be persuaded to make your House among their top preferences.