Bok Picks Freshman Housing Plan; Women to Live in Yard--Officially

President Bok yesterday picked a housing plan for next year which will put freshman women in the Yard and freshman men in the Radcliffe Houses for the first time in Harvard history.

Bok's plan for next year places approximately 200 Radcliffe freshmen in the Yard along with about 1000 freshman men and some upperclass advisors, both men and women.

About 150 freshman men and 250 freshman women will be distributed equally in the three Radcliffe Houses.

New Advisors Set-Up

Upperclassmen and/or proctors selected jointly by Radcliffe and the freshman dean's office will advise the freshmen living in the Yard, while the Quad freshmen would be under the jurisdiction of their House Staffs.

The plan Bok picked is essentially "Plan B", which Mary I, Bunting, president of Radcliffe, and a group of students drafted last weekend.

"Plan B" was a modification of a housing proposal by Dean Whitlock. In Whitlock's recommendation, the freshmen living at Radcliffe would have all lived together in three halls presently part of South House instead of being spread among all the Radcliffe Houses. His plan meant that the upperclassmen now living in those dorms would have been forced to move.

Bok said yesterday three considerations influenced his choice of plans.

Bok's Reasoning

The first was that he would not have adopted any plan "which forces a significant number of students to move unless those students are willing to do so after ample discussion of the issues and alternatives." Several South House students last week protested against Whitlock's plan.

The second consideration was that "the plan provide at least a limited variety and innovations" so that "next year's experience" could "help in planning for the future."

The third consideration rejects the possibility of converting the Yard into House "if only because the expense would be unacceptable in a period of financial pressure upon scholarships and other pressing needs."

Several aspects of next year's housing arrangements were not a part of yesterday's decision and remain to be clarified.

One is whether the housing office will assign women to the House according to their preferences or move to equalize the ratios, putting more sophomore women in houses with "poor" ratios of men to women.

Inside the Computer

A computer now fills most, spaces in the Houses according to the student's list of House preferences. The computer is now programmed to assure an equal distribution in each House of men form such categories as "preppies", people from different parts of the country, and those with different rank groups.

Whitlock said last night that the computer program could be changed to distribute the women, like preppies, equally among the Houses but that the program is not set up to do that now. In its next meeting, CHUL will vote as to whether the program should be changed.

The housing plan also does not specify how the women will be placed in the Yard. Whitlock said last night that proposals have been discussed which would segregate the women by entryways or wings of some of the Yard dorms.