CHUL Should End the Freeze

THE COMMITTEE ON Houses and Undergraduate Life (CHUL) demonstrated last week its unwillingness to respond to legitimate student grievances when it refused to alter its policy prohibiting rising sophomores from transferring out of their assigned Houses until February 1977.

More than 100 freshmen signed a petition asking the CHUL to lift the transfer freeze it imposed on March 3 and permit one to one switches between roommate groups in different Houses. The CHUL agreed to reconsider the freeze and referred the matter to its House Systems subcommittee for further study. Although the subcommittee unanimously recommended that the CHUL allow one to one switches and the Freshmen Council endorsed this position, the CHUL voted 27-4 to sustain its previous vote and keep the freeze in effect.

The CHUL based its transfer freeze on the assumption that fewer freshmen would wish to transfer out of their assigned House in February, after they had lived there for a semester and had the opportunity to dispell any misconceptions they might have formed about the House. This paternalistic attitude assumes that freshmen are not capable of rationally deciding whether or not they want to live in a particular House until they actually live there, and that therefore, they should not be given the option of arranging a switch with someone assigned to another House, even though that switch would leave both parties at least slightly happier than they are at present. The result is a situation where no attempt is made to minimize discontent and every attempt is made to thwart the student's freedom.