Four Grad Schools Consider Changing Administration of Student Dormitories

A minor controversy over how to divide costs and responsibilities for placing student in some of the primary graduate housing is brewing among four graduate schools.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) is hoping to shift some of the responsibility for placing students in the North Yard Graduate Dormitories to three schools which also house some of their students in that area.

"We're just essentially asking the other schools to help on counseling students to look for rooms," Nancy S. Reinhardt, assistant dean for student affairs and special students in GSAS, said last week.

Administrators at the Graduate School of Design (GSD), the School of Education and the Kennedy School of Government, however, said that the move would be inefficient and costly because room and board charges go directly to GSAS, which runs the dormitories.

Last Tuesday, the Deans of the four schools involved met and agreed to leave the GSAS in charge of placing students, at least for the coming year, sources said Officials added, however, that the issue will be rediscussed in the fall.

If the four schools work out a solution, "it has the potential to be a precedent setting principle of how graduate schools share common interests," said Norman R. Smith, assistant dean and director of career and student services at the K. School.

Reinhardt said GSAS wanted help determining student priorities for the rooms available and with some of the other administrative duties such as informing students they had not gotten housing. She added that it is difficult for GSAS to handle students from the other schools because her office didn't have their files.

"It's not a matter of money, we're doing student affairs type things for the other schools and it's becoming a burden because of the light [housing] market," she said.

But the other schools fear that they may be asked to pay extra for a service that only benefits a few of their students.

"If it's decentralized, the K-School will have housing costs, but in no way will it have any income," Smith said.

"Students who aren't even living there sill end up paying for those who are, and we don't think that's fair," he added.

Of the 413 rooms in the North Yard Dormitories, GSD has 40, the Ed School 20, the K-School `13, and GSAS 340. Students are assigned a priority according to their needs and then the rooms are distributed by lottery.

"On the one hand, I am enormously sympathetic to the GSAS, said Kate Rooney, assistant dean for administration at the GSD, but, she added. "I don't think that the solution is to dump it back on the other Grad Schools."

Reinhardt said she did not think it would be a substantial burden for the other schools to help administer housing.

She countered charges from Smith and others that GSAS acted unilaterally in attempting to restructure the program.

"It's all been explained in memos and meetings," she said. "It sounds like people overreacted."