The Freshman Poker Game

Late one hot summer night in a smoke-filled room. Two men sit around a table. They are bargaining and they've been going like this all summer long, but the trading deadline's tomorrow. Occasionally the haggling gets loud enough so that you can hear a snip of the conversation despite the secrecy that surrounds the whole affair.

"Give me that linebacker and I'll promise to make a deal for almost anybody I got."

"Nothing doing, not until you part with the man I've been out here trading for every night."

Silence. Some whispering, and then:

"Okay, I give in, I need that linebacker bad enough--I'll give you the man you're after. But you're getting a great deal--he's the only Ernest Hemingway enthusiast I have left to bargain with."

Hemingway enthusiast? That's right, because the dialogue you heard wasn't between two general managers attempting to build pro teams, but a couple of Harvard senior advisers trying to form successful roommate groupings for this fall's freshman class.

Of course not all the dealing goes on in that fashion. But W. C. Burriss Young '55, acting dean of freshmen and leader of the all-night sessions, claims that "there is a lot of competitive horsetrading" when the freshmen advisers play matchmakers with the incoming class.

The advisers begin the lengthy task of placing 1200 freshmen into rooms in the Yard at the start of the summer and don't finish until early August. This year for the first time, freshmen were not given the chance to request to live at Radcliffe or at the Yard. This made the job a little easier. Now all Radcliffe applications as well as all males that requested singles and doubles, are sent to the associate Radcliffe dean's office for placement in 280 freshmen spaces at the Radcliffe Quadrangle. After all those spaces are filled, the remaining names revert to the freshman dean's pool for placement in the Yard.

There the dean's office breaks down the freshmen into several broad categories such as prep or public school background and science or art preferences. Then each takes a chunk of the class and pores over each housing request until they get a feel for their charges. Then they step up to the bargaining table. By trading with other advisers they try to put together as many harmonious rooms as possible, rooms with common interests and traits and little potential conflict.

It's a tricky job, especially when freshmen don't bother to give complete data on the request form. Nevertheless, Young says that the barter system, which he claims is unique to Harvard, is the best possible method of matching roommates. "The whole job could be done by computer," Young says, "but there would have to be a lot of options and one helluva program." Is the process successful? Young cites the large numbers of students who stick with their roommates for the next three years at the College as evidence that the summer sessions are most productive.

Young is especially proud of the groups of individuals he has helped horsetrade into life-long friendships. "They called one the bird room," Young says now of the three freshman ornithologists whom he matched up more than four years ago. "They hit it off so well that they stayed with each other through all four years here and now two of them are off on a South American bird expedition together."

The dean's office tries to grant as many requests to people as possible, yet at the same time they are careful not to overload an entry-way with too many similar types, such as prep school people or pre-meds. "Many people ask 'Give me a Californian,''' Young says, "but the dean's office won't sacrifice an entry's geographical variety unless it is unavoidable."

There are a couple of exceptions to the request process. For instance, the office would never comply with a request from two super New York City-types to be mated with a third person from a small midwestern town so they can broaden their sociological horizons.

The office doesn't stop at trying to match up successful triples or quads. Entryways are coordinated by students' interests and proctors who love debating may get a couple of high school debaters in their halls. Similarly, a Harvard administrator who may want to win big in freshman intramurals may try to cull a couple of strong high school athletes for his entry.

There is a great minority, Young says, who check the boxes that specify racial or religious objections on their rooming applications. More typically though, the office honors musicians' requests for fellow players, so they can practice at will. Non-smoking requests are also granted. Young says that this year these requests were not difficult to fill because only seven per cent of the men and ten per cent of the women profess to smoking on their rooming applications.

The office is careful with some students who may potentially cause roommate problems and make sure that these students are matched first for the best possible combinations. Similarly, a well-adjusted person who has lived for a year with the AFS in a damp dungeon in Tierra Del Fuego, may be one of the final draft picks. "That doesn't mean he will be put in a damp basement at Harvard, however," Young assures.

Not every group will be as cohesive as Young's birdroom and at times advisers have been known to dip deep down in the request form, matching two people who have made obscure references to Sherlock Holmes. But the dean's office is the first to admit that the process isn't perfect. And if you feel yo've been the victim of a bum trade, don't hesitate to get back into the draft pool and find another, more compatible roommate.