Hear Ye, Hear Ye

To Quad or not to Quad--that was the question.

Days of anticipation, speculation and turmoil finally came to an abrupt close, as first-year housing assignments were distributed yesterday morning.

For some, the occasion brought squeals of delight. For others, the morning confirmed their worst fears.

While many first-years dealt with their disappointment through vocal outbursts, others took a more visual approach. "Hug me, I got Mathered," read one sign in Stoughton Hall.

In the aftermath of the momentous hour, first-years were left to question why they had received such a delightful--or disastrous--destiny.

According to Greg G. Lau '99, a late-night seance ritual with his blockmates may have saved a fate in the Quad.

"We sat around a candle and prayed to the housing gods," Lau says. "We were rewarded with a river house...I'm definitely down with Dunster."

Others, such as Jeff S. Gleason '99, were not able to harness such powers.

"We planned to go to the Quad for a Sunday brunch and exorcise all the Quad demons from ourselves," Gleason says.

Gleason and his blockmates, however, ended up having brunch in one of the river houses--to their dismay they were assigned to Pforzheimer House.

"We didn't use the rituals properly so it worked against us," Gleason says. "Mike's mom didn't send him the tea leaves."

While some students took the supernatural path, other first-years tried to do what they could to circumvent the system.

"Two people in my blocking group tried to get medical excuses that were kind of shady, but they didn't go through," says Sarah W. Houghteling '99.

And when the preparations were over, many first-years could hardly wait for the fateful housing notice. A sizable contingent of students even stayed up all night, lying in wait for the harbingers of housing.

Six couriers from the housing office hand-delivered the computer printouts sealed in envelopes between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.

According to one of the messengers, Bradley K. Edmister '96, his tour of duty was not completed alone.

"Everyone was up very early and a lot of people were waiting in the doorways," Edmister says. "They would follow [me] around as [I] went from door to door."

Another messenger, Jennifer P. Wood, a graduate student at the school of education, says she was amused by the response at Pennypacker Hall as residents awaited her clutching cordless phones to pass along the news to blockmates.

"Pennypacker was great, Wood says. "They were frantic. They were wearing boxers and T-shirts and had cameras."

Tension was especially high in Pennypacker, according to Pennypacker resident Tracy B. Bohannon '99, because they were one of the last dorms to receive their assignments.

A chorus of "The Yard already knows!" swept through the crowd of people waiting around the central staircase half an hour before Wood arrived.

For many other students, the process of finding out their future house was a highly anticipated event, colored with melodrama and the wails and screams to match.

Weston Eguchi '99, for example, received an unusual wake-up call.

"I woke up to my roommates and everyone else in my hall screaming about their housing assignments," Eguchi says.

The blockmates of Andrew H. Kim '99 sequestered him from the shower when the news arrived.

"We all huddled around the envelope like it was the academy awards," Kim says.

Students exhibited strong differences in housing preferences, however, even among roomates and blockmates.

Justin D. Osofsky '99, a resident of Grays, was "Quadded" into Pforzheimer House--traditionally one of the least popular houses because of its distance from the heart of campus.

"Some of us are really bummed about it, one of us is totally psyched about it and two of us are ambivalent," Osofsky said.

Osofsky's blockmate Jared Beck '99, however, says he is happy about the prospect of living in Pforzheimer.

"I'm really excited about my rooming assignment next year," Beck says. "I heard the community [there] is very dynamic. I don't see what the fuss is all about being Quadded."

Regardless of initial reactions, most students seemed content with their fate even if they did not get one of their top choices.

To help soothe the concerns of disappointed first-years, build House spirit and make the housing transition easier, each House is planning events to welcome their new members.

Most houses began the festivities by greeting their new residents in Annenberg Hall yesterday with gifts of T-shirts, posters or facebooks.