Some Seniors Will Move Early

As most seniors loll in their dorms during the two weeks leading up to Commencement, about 30 seniors in Pforzheimer House will thrown out of their rooms along with underclass students on Sunday.

The seniors in Wolbach Hall, along with two residential tutors, will relocate to other Pforzheimer halls on move-out day because of room renovations, which will begin next Tuesday and are expected to take all summer.

But few of the seniors are complaining.

To compensate the students for the inconvenience, the University is paying for the seniors’ items to be shipped home and for movers to take their belongings to their temporary rooms. The House masters are also holding a reception for the affected students on Sunday.

Zachary M. Gingo, manager of administrative operations for Harvard Yard Operations, said the extensive amount of time required to complete the project made the extra week of construction necessary.

“It’s what’s called ‘gut’ renovation, where we’re taking apart everything on the inside of the building,” Gingo said. “And, given the time frame between when the project would start and the move-in in the fall, we needed every possible day.”

The time crunch is so severe, he said, that it is part of the reason why the renovations will not even build closets in the rooms, which instead will be outfitted with stand-alone wardrobe units.

“We tried very hard to avoid [moving students out],” said Thomas A. Dingman ’67, associate dean of the College. “Nobody likes to push anyone out.”

But Dingman said the renovations had to be started next week in order to finish by next semester’s move-in day—and avoid disrupting the next school year.

“It seems a lot better than to put students up in trailers in the fall,” he said.

According to Gingo, the cost of shipping and other services for students, which he said had not been calculated, will be included in the construction budget.

Kiri J. Mah ’02, a senior living in Wolbach, said she had heard rumors about the renovations starting early for a while before she received a letter from the Pforzheimer House administrator confirming the move.

“I was pretty mad because it’s a big inconvenience and I’m going out of town in a few days, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to be around for the move,” Mah said.

Mah also said she was happy with the amenities the House is providing for the move. She said she will be moving into a duplex in Comstock—a room she picked herself.

Wolbach resident C. Coble Armstrong ’02 said the free shipping and other services more than made up for having to leave the room she has lived in all year.

“I would have been packing up my room anyway,” Armstrong said. “Once you put your stuff away [your room] feels different anyway. Personally, they’re doing so much for us, I feel like it’s worth it, but I could see how some people whose parents have never seen their rooms would be upset.”

The Wolbach gutting is part of a number of renovations taking place this summer in the Houses. Overflow rooms in Jordan Hall will also be gutted and the shared kitchen area for all three Quad Houses will be renovated. Renovations to Dunster, Eliot, Kirkland and Mather Houses are also planned for this summer.

—Staff writer Anne K. Kofol can be reached at kofol@fas.harvard.edu.