Students Living Off Campus Find Freedom, But Also Isolation

Most undergraduates never even consider moving off campus. Meeting new and different people in the Houses, lingering in the dining halls where meals are ready for you at specified hours of the day, and living in a convenient location--all are cited as integral aspects of the "Harvard Experience."

But others are dissatisfied with the Houses and eventually move off campus. They maintain that University food is despicable, that living in a House necessitates relinquishing one's anonymity and that coping with Harvard's institutionalization is unpleasant at best. As one Radcliffe senior puts it, "I'd rather regulate my life than have Harvard regulate it for me." Or as another disaffected Harvard senior explains, "Once I realized that I had to dial `9' every time I wanted to get out of Harvard into the real world, I knew it was time to move off campus."

There are over 600 undergraduates who live off campus, mostly of whom are affiliated with Dudley House, Harvard's only domicile without enclosures. There probably would be more off campus dwellers if Harvard didn't impose a quota on the number of students within each House who are allowed to move off campus. This year, each House permits about 20 students to move out.

According to Dudley House Senior Tutor John Marquand, "Students who live off campus seem to me to be more independent, more mature, and more self-reliant. They also have more financial problems and family concerns than students living on campus. But the single most striking difference between Dudley and the other Houses is its diversity of students."

Indeed, the make-up of undergraduates in Dudley (which includes the Harvard Co-ops and Apley Court residents) appears to be a mixture of extremes. It has more people on probation and more people graduating with high honors than any other House. It has the highest percentage of former prep and private school students: 51 per cent. Relatively speaking, it has a very small proportion of athletes and a high proportion of returning Radcliffe women who have interrupted their studies to have children. Seventy of its residents are married. ("Many more are virtually married, but not legally," says Marquand.) And about 70 per cent of its members have taken time off from Harvard.

Dudley House also has an unusually high proportion of writers and artists, one of whom attributed his move off campus to "Harvard's stifling environmental boundaries." Of the seniors who graduated last year in Visual and Environmental Studies, 60 per cent were from Dudley House. And the larger number of musicians who live off campus this year might be a reflection of the limited circumstances in which musicians are allowed to rehearse in the Houses.

Certainly, Dudley is no longer the commuter House it used to be. In fact, it has a smaller percentage of Boston-area residents (3 percent) than any of the other Harvard Houses. Of those Dudley affiliates from the local area, most were admitted to Harvard or Radcliffe on condition that they be non-resident students.

In addition, Dudley is the only House which includes 100 first-year graduate students. As Dudley House Master, Jean Mayer, explains: "They're really nobody's children once they get here and are completely isolated from the community."

Many undergraduates who live in the Houses confess that they'd move off campus if it weren't for their laziness or worries about losing contact with the Harvard community. (Mayer recognizes this problem of losing touch and says that his primary responsibility as master is "to create a sense of community for students who don't live on campus and to make myself accessible to them.") Mayer doesn't kid around when it comes to his obligations to Dudley residents. (Eight hours after he delivered a speech to the United Nations World Food Conference on Hunger in Geneva, he was bouncing around in his Santa Claus costume at the Dudley House Christmas party.)

Many off-campus residents, like their less than wealthy predecessors, claim that they save money by living off campus. One Radcliffe senior says, "I pay half as much now for food as I did when I lived in Eliot House. And rent is a lot cheaper too." But generally speaking, expenses for students living off campus are about the same as they are for those who live in the Houses. One common misconception, however, is that only those undergraduates who live off campus are required to pay the $310 college facilities fee when, in fact students living on campus pay the same fee (which is included in their term bill).

The reasons why students choose to move off campus are as varied as the students themselves. Some crave privacy. Some "want to be their own bosses," as Marquand points out. Some want to take meals with people by choice rather than by chance. Some are just plain tired of leading the boarder's life. And some want to be a part of the "real world" rather than live in a virtual ghetto of students.

One Radcliffe senior will say, "I was glad I lived in the House for two years but tired of superficial dining hall conversation. Adams House was very cliquish and I wanted to get away from it," while a Harvard senior will explain that he lives off campus "because people are monsters. A large group of people is just a large group of monsters. And I just prefer relating to monsters in small groups."

Perhaps the most pervasive sentiment among off-campus dwellers is their feeling of isolation. The isolation is refreshing for some but frightening for others.

"You feel less protected off campus," a Radcliffe sophomore admits. "You know that you're responsible for yourself and the place you're living in...I get lonely sometimes, but not more lonely than when I was living in Currier House."

If nothing else, living off campus necessitates becoming one's own caretaker and meeting added responsibilities. But the additional obligations, such as buying food, paying rent and utilities bills and dealing with other domestic tasks, appear to be outweighed by the delight of being able to leave Harvard every day and relaxing within the confines of one's own home.

This is the second of three feature pages about the Houses and other living options at Harvard and Radcliffe. The last page of the series will appear Friday.