Unexpected Shortage Forces Cabot Residents Into Jordan Co-Op

For the first time in recent memory, some Cabot House residents have been involuntarily placed in the Jordan Co-op.

Five members of the sophomore class will be living in Jordan W, a Cabot-affiliated building, because there was not enough space in Cabot's regular housing.

"We didn't have room to fit all the sophomores into brick buildings," said Susan Livingston, assistant to Cabot House Master James H. Ware. "We have no say, as Houses, as to how many students we get."

According to Harvard College Housing Officer Susan R. Kane, the housing office uses a regular system to determine how many students are assigned to each House.

"There's a formula that we use and it's based on the House capacity, continuing students and assumed attrition," said Kane. "Cabot House didn't reach that attrition."

Attrition refers to the number of students who do not return to a House, including students who study abroad, take a leave of absence or withdraw from the College.

"There was no error," said Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman '67, who is responsible for housing. "The College is equipped to deal with such circumstances.... With Cabot House, not as many people left [as expected]."

Since it is not possible to predict an attrition rate, the housing office uses past rates as a guide, which Dingman compared to the methods used to price a stock.

"We don't know what the leave-taking will be in the Houses," said Dingman. "Like airlines, we overbook everywhere."

This annual process of overbooking is usually not a problem because each House can handle the student load.

In cases where this is not possible, Dingman said the Houses use what is referred to as "swing space."

On the River, overflow housing formerly could be placed in Apley Court. But the conversion of the Holyoke Street dormitory to first-year housing this year means that "swing space" now is comprised of a floor in Claverly Hall, a Mt. Auburn Street dormitory.

Before this year, Claverly was shared between Adams and Lowell houses. To create the floor of swing space, a floor was taken from Adams House.

According to Dingman, "Adams House always seemed to be over cap. This move will just about balance their classes."

For Quad Houses, the swing space is Jordan J and K, affiliated with Pforzheimer House. Cabot used its affiliate Jordan W, the co-op entry, because Phorzheimer is also over capacity and needed the swing space in entries J and K.

At other colleges, the problem of overbooking a dorm is not as significant as at Harvard.

According to Dingman, other schools would simply move people to another dorm, but here, one's House affiliation is more meaningful than mere location.

But while housing officials said that the crowding was unpredictable, Cabot resident Adon Hwang '98 attributes the crowding situation to randomization.

"Before randomization, the Quad was pretty much under capacity," he said. "After randomization, to alleviate the River [Houses], everybody tried to put more people in the Quad."

Hwang described Jordan as "pretty nice."

"It's a different environment," he said. "It's better than Mather."