Residents of East Quad concerned by the steep path leading to it will have to wait some time for a permanent solution.In the meantime, the University will try to make the hill safe for this winter, a senior administrator said.

The Office of University Services will add a new coat of asphalt to the steep hill and build a third railing along the middle of the path this month, Vice President for Campus Operations Mark Collins said. He said the new asphalt, which should be laid down by the beginning of next semester, will be less slippery because it will consist of coarser, rougher material.

Collins said the plan was "a good interim solution" because the possibility of building a staircase on the hill was impractical. To do this, the University would have to remove the existing rock underneath the hill, something he said would be "time consuming and expensive."

East Quad Senator Jessica Blumberg '09 said she uses the path every day and that she was concerned about the hill becoming more dangerous in the winter as a result of snow and ice.

"Especially when it's rainy and there are lots of leaves on it, it's very slippery," she said, adding that she knew many students who had tripped or fallen on the path.

Blumberg brought the issue to the attention of the Campus Operations Working Group, a Student Union committee that meets monthly with Collins. Student Union secretary Alex Braver '09, who coordinates the committee, said the steep path was one of many issues on the agenda at the committee's first meeting of the semester in October.

Collins did not rule out the possibility of constructing a staircase or platforms in the future, but stressed that any such plan would require lengthy planning and careful budgeting and that the construction would have to take place during the spring and summer months.

He encouraged any student concerned with the hill's safety to use the existing staircase leading to the peripheral road by the Castle.