Up to 8 New Houses Suggested for Allston

A draft of a report to be released at the end of the month proposes that the University should build between three and eight new undergraduate Houses across the river in Allston.

The possibility of undergraduate housing in Allston, first floated in October when the University released a preliminary report about the new campus, now seems all but inevitable.

The Undergraduate Life Task Force, co-chaired by Dean of the Divinity School William A. Graham and Director of Athletics Robert Scalise, suggests three different scenarios for a future undergraduate campus in Allston, according to a source involved with University planning who has seen a draft of the report.

The report also lists other parts of the University that could move to Allston, such as the University Health Services, the Office of Career Services, the Bureau of Study Counsel and the Office of the Registrar, according to the source, who adds that the FAS Department of Music and the Visual and Environmental Studies Department could also be candidates for relocating across the river.

The Task Force—one of the five Allston planning committees instituted by the University in December 2003—suggests three options for construction of residential space across the river. The main variables are whether the Houses in the Quadrangle will continue to be used for undergraduate housing and whether the College will expand its enrollment. If the University relocates the undergraduates currently residing at the Quad, it would need to build three or four new Houses in Allston; an expansion would necessitate an additional four Houses.

But if the Quad remains in Cambridge and the College expands, student housing will be divided into three different locations—an issue which will likely spawn opposition among students.

“Any plan that leaves undergraduates at the Quad and puts others in Allston is unacceptable,” said Undergraduate Council President Matthew W. Mahan ’05.

Along with Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby, the Task Force is gathering student input—they conducted a College-wide survey last month about students’ behaviors and habits as well as possible options for the Allston campus.

According to the source, the interim report includes estimated costs for each of these scenarios, which range from $173 million (three houses in Allston) to $462 million (eight). The report also proposes pros and cons for each scenario, suggesting strengths of some options—like ameliorating overcrowding and accommodating growth—and pointing out problems of others, such as transportation issues and negative effects on former Quadlings.

Former Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said that building housing in Allston is a “seductive possibility” if the College is to expand enrollment, but he is cautious to split the campus.

“I hope that the Houses will never be in more than two loci: either (as now) the River and the Quad, or—in an imagined future—each side of the Charles,” Knowles wrote in an e-mail message.

Mahan, who is one of two student representatives on the Task Force, said that he was “skeptical of any plan to put houses in Allston,” but acknowledged that alternatives could improve upon the current housing structure—provided that the University demonstrates “a very serious commitment to undergraduate life.

“I think that the broader question of whether or not we actually want Houses in Allston is crucial, but impossible to ask if you don’t have an idea of what an Allston campus might look like,” he said.

According to the source, the Task Force report recommends that the Allston houses have spaces for seminars and tutorials, reading rooms, computer labs, individual dining halls, fitness areas and arts practice spaces, but discourages spaces devoted to house libraries and arts performances.

But Mahan said that the construction of centralized student space is vital to the success of a new Allston campus.

“One of students’ top priorities is having a central, open-to-all student center with common space, eateries, student group space, and useful services,” he said. “Allston presents a great opportunity to deliver that much-needed space.

“The fear that a student center will hurt the house system is irrational,” he added. “We simply don’t have space. Student group and other extra-curricular activities don’t need to be jam-packed within the house basements in order for us to have a vibrant house system.”

The report also recommends that morning classes continue to be taught in their current locations, but suggests that afternoon classes could take place in Allston, as long as they were taught in two-hour long chunks and occurred at 2 p.m. or later in the day.

The Task Force’s final report is slated to be released on April 30, and should be made public shortly after that, according to University spokesperson Lauren Marshall.

“The interim reports will, so far as I know, be made public asap after they are submitted,” Graham, the Task Force co-chair, wrote in an e-mail message.

—Staff writer Lauren A. E. Schuker can be reached at schuker@fas.harvard.edu.