THE KENTUCKY KERNEL, Thursday, April 29,

1963- -9

Provincial But Improving,
Averitt Says Of Lexington
Continued From rage 8
had found a place for every student who was coming."
One of the best ways for the
new students to find housing,
is by the "grapevine." "If we
find there is an Indian student
coming," Mr. Averitt said, "we
tell other Indian students, and
they keep us posted. Foreign students themselves do a good job
this way."

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"Many landlords actually

pre-

fer foreign students since in many
cases they are more conscientious
and mature," Mr. Averitt ex-

plained.
Of 221 UK foreign students,
180 of them are from Asia or the
Near East, whereas most American colleges and universities have
or
predominantly
European
South American foreign students.
Consequently the skin color ele- -

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one-mont-

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eating, and studying: are the activities carried on in this
single area of a Negro apartment shared by three students.

Cooking:,

No Special Help Is Offered
To Negro, Foreign Student

No special assistance is given by the University to Negro stu-

dents seeking town housing.
Negro students are expected to draw possible housing situations
from the same lists available to all students in the town housing
office. No consideration or information is given to indicate whether
or not a landlord will rent to Negroes.
Jack Hall, assistant dean of men, explained, "the lists are there
for everyone. We don't make special lists for groups of students."
Some colored students on campus feel that having to use the
same lists presents a hardship. Some feel information should be
available indicating whether a landlord is willing or has rented in
the past to Negroes.
One sophomore male Negro student seeking town housing last
semester said after inquring at the housing office, "our biggest
problem was the Kincaid office. No help there."
"They gave us a list of about 122 places available to UK students. They had not been checked to see if they accepted Negroes."
Mr. Hall said Negroes unable to find town housing could submit applications to the dormitories. He added that these applications would be accepted with the same priority given to first
semester freshmen applications.
As is the case with dormitory housing policies, town housing
policies for next semester are due to come under inspection as the
jurisdiction of all housing moves into the office of Vice President
Robert Johnson, in charge of student affairs.

ment is an important problem in
finding housing.
When Dr. Pritam Singh came
to Lexington in July 1964, as a
research entymologist, he spent a
week in Donovan Hall, then
rented a
apartment
on Linden Walk, and finally obtained a "dirty apartment in disrepair," where for four months
the landlady promised to get
things fixed "next week." He
found a suitable apartment on
Maxwell in January.
Dr. Singh said that, "almost
everyone I talk to, except for the
few who live in international
houses, has the same problem."
However, Joe Mensah,
student in Commerce, didn't feel that he and his roommate
"had any problem or difficulty."
He and his roommate, also from
Liberia, lived in a dormitory their
first semester here. His only problem was that common to most students: the student who begins
his housing search late is not
likely to find the best room or
apartment.
Many times, Mr. Averitt explained, foreign students like to
find places where they can live
together. Since they are of the
same national background and
are accustomed to the same foods
the can often all go together
and can thereby live chcaicr.''
Mr. Averitt said that by living
together they are both limited and
helped: it helps to bridge their
distance from home, but they
don't get to meet other peoples.
Although one student from India suggested that the University
should build a special dormitory
to assure foreign students a place
to stay, nearly all of those inter-- v
viewed favored a
where
foreign students have the same
house hunting'
problems as
other students and thereby become thoroughly enmeshed in the
University situation.
An important part ol the foreign student housing problem
was attributed by Mr. Averitt to
the fact that Lexington is still a
somewhat provincial area. However, he also commented that the
situation appeared to be improv- -

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In"Most places

foreign students
are acceptable," Mr. Averitt said.
"The foreign students are a great
help to other foreign students in
finding places where they are
generally acceptable.
foreign students feel there
is less and less feeling against
housing those from foreign
lands," ir. Averitt concluded.

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two-rooTwo white students pay $80 a month for this
apartment (top) which is airconditioned and located one block
from campus. On the other hand, this torn chair (bottom) is part
of the furniture supplied to three Negro students who pay $135 a
walk
month for their
apartment which is a three-bloc- k
from campus. The Campus Committee on Human Relations survey
indicated that landlords were hesitant to rent to
students and that they, especially the American Negroes, must take
the higher priced apartments farther from campus.
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UK Policy Attempts To Exclude Segregation
was no actual segregation in the dormitories.
University policy tends to exclude
Mr. Hall said that although these
segregation in dormitory room assignhave been housing policies in the past
acments and town housing assistance
they might not apply in the future since
cording to University officials.
next year's housing will fall under the
Jack Hall, assistant dean of men, said
of Robert Johnson, vice presidormitory room assignments in the past jurisdiction
for student affair.
usually followed a policy of housing dent,
And this must be the case with four
people in a college on the same floor,
and attempted to house people of the same Negro males from a Louisville high school
who attended the University last year.
major together in individual rooms.
There also existed the negative policy
The four attended the same high school
of not housing individuals together from and came from the same hometown, yet
the same hometown or same lu'gh school. were all housed together in two separate
rooms, seemingly in conflict with the
This policy attempted to restrain hometown friends from separating into small policy of separation of hometown students.
cliques.
Another facet of policy according to
From the basis of University housing
MH. Hall is, "The University does not
policy it seems that the odds of housing
use any methods of discrimination in Negroes together without being in conflict with the hometown policy are astrohousing."
In the past, however, identification of nomical.
race was required on housing applications.
In fact not all Negroes live together.
The reason for this was explained by
Mr. Hurch, also a former Donovan Hall
Joseph Hurch, direc tor of men's residence counselor, said he can recall at least one
1U
lie said, "It was helpful to the coun- case where a Negro and a white student
selors by letting them know what to lived together.
lUtt this is not usually the case. Ac
confront." Mr. lkirch also stated there
By TERENCE HUNT

cording to Mr. Hall, most Negroes live
with other Negroes. He said this is usually
their preference.
And Negroes as are whites are given
a preference of roommates after the first
semester of the freshman year.
Mr. Hall said Negroes usually exercise
this privilege and room with another
Negro. But, he also said he knew of instances of a white and a colored student
living together. To emphasize the lack of
discrimination in the dormitory, Mr. Hall
cited the case of a Negro counselor in
Haggin hall last year.
Although there are no Negroes living
in Donovan Hall this semester, there arc
some Negro students in Haggin. In at
least one instance, a colored male is living with a wliitc male.
According to a dormitory counselor
most rooms are not integrated unless two
students make such a request.
Mr. Hall said he did not know of any
problems that existed in housing Negro
students in the dormitory. He said if a
Negro and a white student or any two
students were housed together and found
they were incompatible, a room change
could, and probably would be made.
However, he said he could not recall

of an incident in which race determined a
room change.
Mr. Burch could recall one incident in
which a mother of a first semester freshman male asked that her son not be housed
with a colored student. He said a change
was made to insure the best possible study
and living environment.
A counselor in Donovan Hall said he
had approved room changes before but
racial conflict was never given asa reason
for the changes.
Housing assignments in the girls'
dormitories also are made w ith no attempt
at segregation, according to Miss Doris
Seward, dean of women.
The polities regarding female housing
closely parallel those of the mens' housing and the female students arc usually
subject to the policies longer since most
women live in the dormitory during their
'entire college tenure.
More often than the men, the women
exercise the privilege of choosing their
roommates.
Dean Doris Seward said with regard
to dormitory housing, "in my heart
believe no problem exists. This is a controversial subject that should be handled
without fanfare."
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