Housing War Alliances Entangle: Winthrop Pledges Support for Adams

At 10:35 p.m. Friday night Winthrop HoCo issued an official pledge of support for Adams House, giving Adams its first ally in the Housing War. Adams has been alone in its struggle against Currier House and its allies Cabot, Pforzheimer, and Mather Houses since Tuesday when the Housing War began.

"Our main goal is access to Lowell gate," said Lauren E. Tiedemann '13, co-chair of Winthrop House Committee, which has already declared war on Lowell House. She explained that Adams House has an incentive to help Winthrop fight for swipe access to Lowell Gate, whereas citizens of the Quad Houses and Mather House probably would not care about Winthrop's challenges because of their remote locations.

Strategic conversations about the benefits of allying with other Houses circulated over THROPTALK, the Winthrop open email list, over the past few days. Tiedemann said that some Winthrop students believe Adams House to be overly pretentious, but others agreed with Adams House's defense against the infiltration of its inner House voting process.

Ultimately, Winthrop residents decided to form an alliance with Adams through an online poll. According to Tiedemann, over 100 Winthropians participated in the vote and about 60 percent were in favor of forming an alliance with Adams House. Special precautions were taken to ensure that the Winthrop poll was not tampered with by outside forces.

Adams House was grateful for Winthrop's support in this struggle. "When we went to war those that called us friends were nowhere to be found," said Adams House Committee Special Projects Chair Antone Martinho III '13.  Martinho also expressed his regret that the Winthrop alliance has pitted Adams against Lowell House, a House that Adams had considered to be a tentative friend.

Martinho said, "Our war is primarily with Currier. We're not going to stray from that," but he also said that Adams is willing to support their new ally if necessary. In a statement released at noon on Saturday, Adams House wrote: "In light of Winthrop's pledge of support in our growing conflict, we too pledge our support to Winthrop, that in what conflicts it may have, we shall be supportive."