Housing Brings Much Disappointment

A record 15 per cent of the Freshman Class were assigned yesterday to Houses they did not list among their five choices, and less than half the freshmen will live in their first choice House next year.

The increase in the percentage of freshmen who will not live in one of their House choices stems primarily from the fact that fewer people wanted to live at Radcliffe than this year's revised CHUL quotas dictated.

The CHUL ordered a decrease in the number of freshmen living at Radcliffe and a three-to-five ratio of men to women among the sophomores at Radcliffe next year.

More than 75 men and about ten women who did not list any Radcliffe Houses among their choices will live at North, South or Currier House next year. Everyone who listed a Radcliffe House as his or her first choice was assigned to Radcliffe, though not always to the House requested.

Ten per cent of the Class of 1975 were assigned last year to Houses that were not among their five choices--all at Radcliffe. Fifty-nine per cent were placed in their first choice House.

Genevieve Austin, assistant dean of Students, declined yesterday to reveal the number of freshmen who applied to each House or what percentage of its first choice applicants each House accepted, because releasing this information would "help perpetuate House images."

Austin said that only six or seven people know how many applicants each House had, and called all public reports of these statistics "pure fabrication."

The Housing Office used field of concentration, rank group, high school background and Master's choice as criteria to determine the assignments. Masters of the overapplied Houses could choose only 25 per cent of the incoming sophomores.

About 40 upperclass women at Radcliffe applied to other Houses, and all of them were placed in one of their five choices.

Members of the Class of 1976 can transfer Houses--with the approval of their Masters--starting December 1, 1973, if they can find people willing to switch rooms, or discover empty spaces in Houses. This year, about 185 students switched Houses, most between Harvard and Radcliffe.

Only 114 freshman women applied to Radcliffe as a first choice for housing, 40 per cent less than the 187 women that the CHUL set as its quota for the Class of '76 in the Radcliffe Houses next year.

Only three of the 200 women now living in the Yard listed a Radcliffe House as their first housing choice for next year. Of the 250 freshman women at Radcliffe, 111 asked to stay. Of the 150 freshmen at Radcliffe, 63 asked to stay.