Keeping it TOGETHER

Breaking up is not so hard to do. Even after sharing a phone, a shower and a common room for a full year, Jacob S. Honoroff '01 sees his first-year roommates only on rare occasions. Like many sophomores, Honoroff and his three roommates from Weld went their separate ways last May.

"We had no hard feelings but we didn't have that much in common, "says Honoroff, who does not keep in touch with his ex-roommates.

For many sophomores, the people with whom they shared their first Harvard experiences--from Ec 10 problem sets to late nights at Tommy's--have now become mere acquaintances.

The process goes something like this: each spring, first-years from what the Undergraduate Housing Office calls "lottery groups" of up to 16 students. Lottery groups are then randomly placed into one of the 12 upperclass Houses.

The Housing Office says it does not keep track of how many first-years enter blocking groups with their roommates.

For some sophomores, keeping in touch with estranged roommates usually entails lunch-dates, shared activities and more than a little effort.

Christian J. Westra '01 currently lives in Dunster House with Jon P. Williams '01, a Crimson editors, who is one of his original four first-year roommates. He says he has kept in contact with Sultan S. Yassin '00 mainly through common extracurricular activities such as Model United Nations.

"We actually also write letters to our fourth roommate from last year, who is in Japan on a mission," Westrasays.

Catherine B. Cogley '01, who lives in Lowell House, agrees that keeping in touch with former roommates takes a little initiative. Although Cogley lives with four out of her five original suitemates, she says she frequently meets the fifth roommate, Holly E. Fling '01, for lunch in Kirkland House.

The Freshmen Dean's Office (FDO) creates roommate groups for the entering class but has no control over the upperclass lottery, which is run by the Housing Office. Dean of Freshmen Elizabeth Studley Nathans says in a recent e-mail that first-year roommate assignments are created without upperclass housing in mind.

"First-year housing groups are not assembled with any expectation that students will block together for their upperclass years," Nathans writes. "We are of course pleased when students form first-year friendships that carry over into upperclass blocking groups."

Nathans says classes and extracurricular activities bring many first-years into close friendships with students outside of their dorm. "Harvard students form friendships well beyond their first-year suites, entries and dorms, and because blocking groups can be as large as 16, there are multiple factors that bring groups together," she writes.

Some sophomores disagree with Nathans, saying blocking decisions would have been easier if their first-year rooms were more cohesively constructed.

Emily Y. Yang '01, who lives with three of her four roommates from last year in a Mather House suite, says that the FDO should group first-years who share interests and seem likely to live together in upperclass houses.

"I think it's really important to have a group of people you're compatible with," she says. "It's not like we all had a lot in common. Our living habits worked pretty well and our personalities didn't conflict."

The fourth roommate that didn't join them in Mather, Yang says, left because she had made many close friends beyond the dorm.

"She kind of chose herself, so it wasn't a decision--it was just understood," Yang says.

Jane A. Lindholm '01, who lives in Quincy House, disagrees. She chose to join a lottery group with only one of her four first-year room-mates from Pennypacker Hall.

"One of them we just weren't close friends with, but we liked her fine," she says. Her third roommate moved out last January. "We had problems with her," she says.

Despite the difficulties in her room last year, Lindholm says she doesn't think the FDO should group first-years together under the assumption that they'll block together later on.

"For some people it's a nice idea to meet other people that you won't usually be friends with," she says.

Many first-years are already considering the perils and possible ego implications of their spring decision. Alexander P. Ogan '02, who lives in Stoughton Hall, says he doesn't plan to block with his current roommate. He adds that most of his future blockmates aren't roommates this year either.

"There's a group of about six or seven guys that I'm going to [block] with and two of them are roommates and the rest of them are not," Ogan says.

His friends haven't discussed it at length yet, he says.

"I think it's a little early and most people haven't started to talk about it yet," Ogan says.

John, a first-year living in Weld, is not going to join a lottery group with his current roommates. He spoke about his housing plans on the condition that his last name not be used.

"[My blockmates] are not going to be my roommates," he says. "I've gone outside the realm of my roommates and tried to find other friends."

John says his roommates haven't talked about their blocking plans yet. "It hasn't been brought up in my room," he says. "I guess people are more prone to talk about it if they know they're going to block with each other."

First-year concerns about upperclass housing will begin to surface soon. The introductory housing meeting for first-years will be held during the first week of February. Some proctors have already announced the housing meetings and deadlines for the coming semester.

Olivia Verma '00, a prefect in Mower Hall, anticipates first-year concerns cropping up soon. "I'm sure it'll start to come up a lot more as the second semester dawns," says Verma, who was also a prefect last year.

Verma says that only about half of the students in her first-year prefect group last year blocked together for sophomore housing.

"It's probably 50-50," she says.

Joshua L. Passman '02 says he knows little about the actual process of blocking. He says his friends have just started talking about the process this week.

"People have been starting to talk about in the last few days, though I don't know if people have set anything up," he says. "Most of us have a general idea of what we're going to do."

Passman, who hopes to room with his current roommates, says that many of his friends that will block together are also roommates. "I know quite a few people who have become really good friends with their roommates," he says. "I think in general Harvard did a really good job in terms of blocking."