PDF (1941) - CaltechCampusPubs

STUDENT LIFE
Student Houses. The four Student Houses are situated on the
California Street side of the campus. Planned in the Mediterranean
style to harmonize with the AthenOEum, they were, like the latter
building, designed by Mr. Gordon B. Kaufmann. While the four
houses constitute a unified group, each house is a separate unit
providing accommodations for about seventy-five students; each has
its own dining-room and lounge, but all are served from a common
kitchen.
All four houses have attractive inner courts surrounded by portales.
Most of the rooms are single, but there is a limited number of
rooms for two. All the rooms are simply but adequately and attractively
furnished. The buildings are so planned that within each of
the four houses there are groupings of rooms for from twelve to
twenty students, with a separate entry and toilet and kitchenette
facili ties for each.
The completion of this group of four residence halls marks the
initial step in a plan to meet the housing and living problems of
undergraduate students. The plan calls eventually for eight residence
halls, "each to have its own distinctive atmosphere, each to be the
center about which the loyalties developed in student days and the
memories of student life shall cluster." Each of the four present
houses has its own elected officers; each is autonomous in the matter
of allotting rooms to residents, arranging dances and other social
events, preserving its own traditions, and promoting the general
welfare of the house.
By action of the Board of Trustees, all undergraduate students are
expected to live in the Student Houses unless permission is given by
one of the Deans to live elsewhere. This permission will be given only
when there are reasons of emergency or when there are no longer
any vacancies in the Houses. Since the demand for rooms may
exceed the supply, newly entering students are advised to file room
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