Leverett

The Towers are the main reason people apply to Leverett House. After the pristine beauty of the Yard begins to cloy, or, worse still, or worse still, after you inched your way along the algae-encrusted corridors of one of the Union dorms for a few months, the Towers look understandibly inviting. Real penthouse living. Unfortunately concrete idol has clay feet. For some, living in the Towers can be a grisly experience. The view of course is fine if you're lucky enough to get a room above the seventh floor. But you can't look out the window all day, and when you're not looking out the window you look at the three remaining walls in your cinder-block cubicle. More than one year in the Towers could scar a man for life and make a raving idiot of a claustrophobe.

And if you're looking for a sense of community, don't come to Leverett. There is no prevailing ethos here, no "stereotype," and little binding power. Each person moves in a hazily-defined clique, the core of which is usually his roommates. Not that it is at all difficult to meet your fellow residents--the organization of the dinning room promotes gregariousness. But if you do meet them, it will not be through a common interest in Leverett House per se. Leverett is composed primarily of people who have interests outside the House and want a place to live while they pursue these interests.

It is a house of professionals rather than dilettantes, and this may explain the relative lack of enthusiasm for small-scale activities centered around the House. When Leverett does something, it does it big. If it's athletics, Leverett wins the Straus Trophy; if it's drama, Leverett stages a full-scale opera. Instead of wide participation on an amateurish level, there is serious participation by a dedicated faction and relative indifference on the part of non-participators.

One of the best reasons for going to Leverett is the staff. The resident tutors simply have a lot to say to students. They don't make an effort to meet undergraduates--they just naturally fit in on a first-name basis. As for senior Faculty members, they come around once in a while and sit together at a long table for lunch, where all the undergraduates can view them. It's a real treat.

Leverett is the "open society" of the house system. You can be anything you want to be without feeling out of place. It has all the freedom that comes from impersonality, although it doesn't have to be impersonal. It's just not intrusively friendly. It has traditionally been known as the House that can't be branded. This is supposed to mean that it mirrors so faithfully the diversity of Harvard that it defies categorization. The truth of the matter is that Leverett simply lacks extremes.Leverett House