Housing a Happier Harvard

Every year millions of tourists pass through Harvard Yard, the iconic and historic center of campus. They pass by major administrative buildings and the cornerstone of Harvard’s library system —the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library.

They also see 17 dormitory buildings — some historic and renowned for their architecture — which house the newest members of the Harvard College student body.

Harvard touts these freshmen dorms as fundamental to the freshman experience, but for every funny encounter with a tourist, there are perhaps twice as many horror stories about unwelcome critters and sweltering nights without sleep.

Rats and roaches have called these buildings home as long as students — if not longer. Meanwhile, students and summer visitors living in the dorms suffer extreme heat and humidity without air conditioning.

The solutions to these problems are not easy, cheap, or quick, but as Harvard approaches its 400th anniversary, it is fundamental that it prepares for another 400. If today’s freshmen struggle to live in dorms built in the 19th century, one can only imagine what they will say four centuries from now.

It is only natural that pests with lineages deeper than the Kennedys inhabit Harvard’s buildings when some of them are literally older than the United States.

However, this does not have to be the case. Harvard can easily free its buildings of rodents and insects by fumigating the buildings and increasing the Yard’s feline population.

I understand that fumigating the freshmen dorms to rid them of their roaches, centipedes, and other creepy-crawlies is a massive undertaking — one that would potentially require dorms close for a period of weeks. If only there was a period of time, about three months long, where Harvard students did not live in the dorms in the Yard….

To accomplish this fumigation, the University may have to adapt summer programming in the short run, but the disruption would be worthwhile. Fumigating is one of the most effective ways to exterminate pests, and the payoff for student wellness would be well worth an empty Yard in the summer.

Furthermore, increasing the Yard’s cat population would certainly decrease the population of mice and rats that call the Yard home.

Cats’ presence in the Yard is nothing new. Remy, a beloved orange cat and frequent visitor to the Yard, is beloved by much of the student body, who welcome him into dorms with open arms.

Boston’s summer heat can make living in the Yard during the summer and early fall term quite literally feel like hell. It seems like every year is becoming the “hottest year on record,” and it is an undeniable fact that the Earth is heating up.

Adding a comprehensive air conditioning system to every freshman dorm is unreasonable, and so I believe the next best thing is installing ceiling fans in every freshman living space.

Currently, air conditioning units require an official medical accommodation, and even if AC units could be installed in every single freshman bedroom, it would taint the historic views of Harvard Yard which make it so iconic (the horror!). Ceiling fans are a reasonable middle way.

Fans are discrete and have been installed with much success in some of the upperclassman housing outside of the Yard. The presence of ceiling fans would make braving the Cambridge summers just a little easier.

While Harvard often succeeds in creating an environment where students can singularly focus on their studies — for example, by requiring a meal plan — they fall short in other areas. As it stands right now, Harvard’s freshman housing is one of those areas.

While an occasional critter encounter or sleepless night might seem like a small price to pay for the chance to live in the Yard’s iconic housing, it can be frustrating to attend a university with billions of dollars in its endowment and wonder why you’re fighting rats with your roommate instead of studying, or why your dorm hasn’t seen a basic upgrade in decades.

These solutions have costs, but Harvard freshmen should be happy to call their dorms home. That happiness is worth the investment.

Mac M. Mertens ’26, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a double concentrator in Classics and History in Mather House