To the Editor:
Labeling the new CFS housing policy the administration's "latest assault" on the Greek System as Jeff Caterino did in his editorial ("New CFS policy wrong," Jan.17) is inaccurate and unfair.
Caterino ignores the important fact that the policy has not been officially adopted yet. The new policy is not being forced on CFS houses. All houses have the opportunity, through the CFSC, to submit a counter proposal or alterations through the end of January.
The administration is willing to work with individual houses to help solve the problem. Deb Reinders states that any house, whether independently or college-owned, that feels its occupancy requirement is unfair, may petition to have it altered on the basis of room size. Many houses have rooms which are smaller than most on campus, making them difficult to fill.
Every house also has the opportunity to alter its own housing policy to include taking in boarders, allowing friends of members to live in the house or making certain terms residence requirements for members.
By helping to ease the housing crisis we are contributing to the Dartmouth community; we will be helping our own friends and classmates that might otherwise be denied housing. Had CFS houses been filled last term, the wait list would have been cut by as much as a quarter. Though Caterino asserts that this policy "is not an attempt to solve the housing crunch," filling all the CFS houses would indeed help remedy the housing shortage. As members of CFS organizations we have a responsibility to our houses. How can we be taken seriously when we are not willing to live in our own houses if necessary?
The new proposal is not a pre-meditated attack on the Greek System or an attempt to slowly dissolve it. It was conceived as an attempt to solve the housing problem and help houses better deal with their own difficulty in filling their rooms.
