Housing Assignments Irk Leverett Men and Women

After a few false starts, Leverett House has reserved 25 places for women and managed to enroll at least 19 for co-residency next fall, although the original lottery assigned only one Radcliffe student-Heather J. Whitney '74-to Leverett.

"I was really happy when I read the story about Heather and realized that Leverett still wanted a lot of women," one freshman said Tuesday.

However, she, like many of the other 18 women, went on to complain that she quickly lost her initial enthusiasm for Leverett as a result of what seemed to be a maze of deadlines, quotas, applications and lotteries.

In particular, several black women believe that efforts have been made to limit the number of black women moving into Leverett, and to reserve some of the 25 places artificially for white students.

No Room

Dean Epps held a lottery last week between three groups of black Leverett roommates. The result was that the places of four women were confirmed, and three women were told that Leverett no longer had room for them. After the lottery the number of women assigned to Leverett totaled 17.

A black freshman who was among the first women to apply to Leverett and who was not included in the eliminating lottery told the CRIMSON Tuesday. "I was encouraged" to apply to Leverett because my first choice, Mather, already had 'enough' black girls-namely, 12 out of a House of 400. Suposedly Leverett has spaces for 25 girls, but now they're telling us that some of us have to go. I can see how they're hung up on a policy of 'diversity' but since they need women, and since some of us have nowhere else to live, then the only standards they should apply are numbers."

Epps said yesterday that he had held the lottery because he was unsure of the number of places available to women in the House. and he denied that race was an issue in the elimination of the three women.

"Today I sent the three girls a letter stating that they could live in Leverett next year, because I found that the House does in fact have 25 spaces open. There've been some other changes since we held the lottery, so now we have a total of 19 women in Leverett," Epps reported yesterday.

Which Room?

In addition to the confusion over the number of rooms available to women, there has been some controversy over the procedures used to assign rooms. For example, Whitney will live in a two-room single in Old Leverett, a room for which seniors writing honors theses ordinarily compete fiercely.

Some Leverett men and women criticize this room assignment as part of a "plot" on the part of Richard T. Gill, Master of Leverett House, to bribe Radcliffe women to brave Leverett's male atmosphere.

"The House Committee ruled that all the rooms would be assigned according to class, but Gill just stepped in and took 25 of the very best rooms in the House out of the lottery and set them aside for the girls," a Leverett junior said yesterday. "They've been negotiating with him personally about the assignments. The guys are really mad."

Gill confirmed last night that certain rooms had been withdrawn from the lottery and reserved for women, but he denied that the rooms were generally superior or that the men in Leverett had been cheated.