CHUL Hears Opposition to Fox Proposal

The Committee on Housing and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) met yesterday to discuss Dean Fox's proposal to move all of next year's freshmen to Harvard Yard and make Currier, North, and South Houses three-class houses.

Forty Quad freshmen attended the meeting to voice their opposition to Fox's proposal, occasionally raising signs proclaiming "Freshmen Want the Quad".

Fox proposes to house the additional Yard freshmen in Canaday Hall, now occupied by sophomores who are being housed there because of crowding in the River Houses.

Fox said the primary purpose of his proposal is to get these upperclassmen out of the Yard and into the Houses.

House Opposition

Two of the Quad Houses, Currier and North, have already organized opposition to the proposal.

Eric S. Roberts '73, resident tutor at Currier House, circulated a letter to Daniels Hall freshman on Monday informing them of the Fox proposal.

"If you took a poll in the Union, or at Currier, you would have found that no one even knew about the proposal," he said. "Today's meeting was the first time it has been discussed publicly."

Roberts said the proposal solved the problem of unhappy sophomores at Canaday at the "expense of the Quad."

He said the elimination of freshmen would make the Quad Houses more unpopular since the freshmen "supply a certain energy and vitality to these Houses which contributes to the community life and spirit."

Alternative proposals were discussed at the meeting, including suggestions to make Canaday into a separate House, making two River Houses and two Quad Houses into four-class Houses, and new construction.

Dean Rosovsky said that the alternatives were "nothing new under the sun."

Fox said yesterday after the meeting that he had expected his proposal would meet with considerable student opposition.

He added, however, that he believed his proposal is the best solution yet devised to the Canaday problem.

Jeffrey K. Griffiths '77, CHUL representative from North House, proposed at the meeting that North House and another Quad House each take over entries of Canaday, offering space in the Yard to students affiliated with Quad Houses.

Michael Jiminez, assistant to the Senior Tutor at North House, said yesterday that the North House proposal alleviates the problem of unhappy sophomores at Canaday, puts the Quad in closer touch with Harvard Square and the River House community, and allows the Quad to keep its freshmen.

"Contrary to what Dean Fox said in his proposal, there is no evidence that sophomores want to leave the Quad because there are freshmen there," Jiminez said.

Jiminez added that passage of the Fox proposal would cause"a loss of diversity at Harvard College" and would damage "social living as an educational experience by losing the advantages of four-class House living.