CHUL Votes New Coed Living Plan

The Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) yesterday adopted a new coed living plan which eliminates a minimum female residency requirement in Harvard Houses.

The plan will probably make all Harvard Houses coed next year.

"As ridiculous as it may sound. I think every House will have at least one girl next year," Keith Raffel '72, member of the CHUL said last night.

Under the plan, women currently living at Radcliffe who wish to move to Harvard will list at least four House preferences on their application forms. Applicants may also indicate either the minimum male-female ratio they would accept in a House or the minimum acceptable number of women in the House of their choice.

Priorities

In cases where women specify desired ratios, priority will be given to ratio preference rather than House preference. If no Houses meet an applicant's desired ratio, she will have the choice of remaining at Radcliffe or being assigned to a Harvard House with an undesirable ratio.

Applicants who specify a minimum number of women will not be assigned to Houses which do not meet that condition. A woman who places no qualifications on her House preference will be accommodated without regard to ratio or to the number of women in the House.

According to one member of the CHUL, no one will be forced to move under this plan and class balance will be preserved wherever possible.

The new CHUL plan discards the so-called "critical mass thory" which states that there needs to be a substantial ratio of women to men in a House in order to make co-residential living effective.

Although there are no predetermined all-male Houses, the number of women living in any particular House will depend upon the number of applicants to the House.

"The plan forces men and women to choose between a House and a ratio," Raffel said. "It presents the problem of how to balance the two."

Men living in Houses with very few women will have the option to move to Radcliffe to get more desirable ratios.