To the Editor:
The Herald's story on housing in Morse [Morse renovations won't help crowding next year, 4/5/96, YH] contains several inaccuracies. We would like to correct them, and also to wonder about an attitude in news coverage we've noticed since we both arrived here in September. The latest article is based on a faulty premise. The current underpopulation of Morse is an exception. In some past years, the college has been quite crowded. Whatever crowding may or may not result next year will be the result of more students deciding to stay on campus. It is wholly unconnected to the renovation of the college and reconfiguration of a few suites. The number of singles available to students has been altered slightly. When Morse was built in 1962, it had roughly 195 singles and 30 doubles. Following the renovation (that includes turning unused basement student rooms into a new laundry area, new darkroom, and music module), reconfigurations will produce a college in which there are roughly 185 singles and 35 doubles. In all past years, most "common rooms" were, in effect, empty rooms available because of occasional underpopulation. Next year, five suites will have built-in common rooms for the first time. The reconfigured suites will be in entryways on the E-H side of Morse, not A-D as reported in the Herald. The Dean never told your reporter that the two annexes on York Square Place will be brought up to the same standard as the college; he said he understood their quality would match the rental properties adjacent to them. Both Master and Dean emphasized that renovation to the currently unoccupied 104 York Square is essential before Morse students can live in it, and the University has agreed to renovate both buildings.
The article is filled with a confusing tone that has characterized much of the coverage of this college. In the eyes of the campus press, there always seems to be a crisis in Morse. Stories announcing the Master's appointment last year focused on the numbers of students said to be moving off-campus. What is essentially a story of good news-vibrant student life and scheduled renovations that promise greater housing options and new activity areas-becomes another occasion for portents of lurking doom. Before, allegedly, no one wanted to live here. Now, it seems, too many people do. We and the students of Morse will keep trying to get it right. We hope the Herald will, too.
-Glenn Wallach, Dean
Stanton Wheeler, Master
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