New College Housing Priority A Boon for Transfer Students

The College has provided housing for an unusually large number of transfer students this fall because of a new policy that gives transfers higher priority for space in the 12 Houses.

Nineteen transfer students on the College's space-available housing list have moved on-campus during the first two weeks of classes, Housing Officer Lisa M. Colvin said yesterday. She added that the figures compare favorably with last fall, when the College took until October 25 to house 26 transfer students.

Transfer students have first priority on the College's waiting list for housing this fall, thanks to a change adopted last year by the student-faculty Committee on Housing. Previously, transfer students came third on the list, behind students who returned to College late and students returning from leaves of absence, according to Thomas A. Dingman '67, assistant dean of the College for housing.

Mixed Emotions

Transfers who have not yet received spots on campus despite their new top-priority status said they have mixed emotions about the wait they must undergo.

David Lipson '87, a transfer from MIT, said "it's definitely not fair" that transfers are not guaranteed housing by the College. Although he called his Peabody Terrace apartment "good", he maintained that "80 people overall [the original number of transfers on the waiting list] is not that much" for a university to house.

Bradford Swing, an assistant to the dean of the College who provides summer housing advice for transfer students and visiting undergraduates, called the number of new students "a sizable one." He said also that the University makes it clear that transfers are responsible for finding their own housing while they wait for on-campus openings.

Another transfer student, Roy Sinai '87, agreed that Harvard clearly spells out the housing difficulty to transfers, but said some transfers pay as much as $400 a month for off-campus apartments.

Tradeoff

Sinai, who attended American University in Washington, D.C., last year, said his Peabody Terrace apartment costs about $500 more than living in a House, but added that he faces a tradeoff "between Harvard and no Harvard."

"It would be great if we did have [on campus] housing," he said, especially since Dudley House, which serves as a social center for off-campus students, is inconvenient for many transfers. But he added that he is not dissatisfied. "For me," said Sinai, "it has been worth it."