Housing Crunch

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Although I am glad to see that you picked up the article on the GSAS housing crunch on the front page of the September 17, 1987 issue of The Crimson, I must take issue with Stephen Black's quote, "It shouldn't come as a surprise to any of them because they weren't promised housing. They knew the risk and there's not a damned thing the University can do about it."

Until recently, I was on the waiting list for the GSAS dorms. I knew that first year students got priority over second year students. Yet, when talking with various graduate students, I got the impression that generally second year students who want to be in the dorms would be able, in practice, to get them although they were not guaranteed them in theory. Even after I found out that my draw in the housing lottery was bad, various graduate students, including my residential advisor last year, said that I probably would be able to get in the dorms. When I found my position, the Housing Office speculated that I might get sometime from mid-August to early September although did no promise anything. My R.A.'s response to that was that the Housing Office was pessimistic. As it turned out, this speculation, which was one of the most pessimistic things I heard by the start of the summer, was extremely optimistic. Even as I returned in August to look for a place off-campus, I ran into students who thought I was rather crazy to look for a place off-campus given my position on the waiting list.

What happened was a strong grapevine encouraged something which turned out to be quite reckless. This information receive in the first year of the graduate career turned out to hamper some students' search for housing. I'm glad I was skeptical enough to take action that led me to find housing off-campus, but I'm furious at what I was being led into by my fellow students. Martin V. Hildebrand, GSAS II