Early Move-In Blues

It was almost as if we had been thrust back in time to when English aristocrats pioneered their way across the Atlantic, returning to the supposedly established Jamestown Colony. Expecting to find a thriving community of their fellow kinsmen, the travelers were instead confronted with an all-but-dead village, ungodly weather conditions, a scarcity of food, and a longing to return to civilized society. And for those of us who returned to campus on September 10, when the College was gracious enough to open the upperclass houses, we can empathize with the British colonists of days past.

But first, we commend the College for their decision to allow upperclass students to move into their houses a full week before registration. We appreciated the temporary housing provided for various student organizations, the two dining halls accessible for breakfast and lunch and the flexibility of a full week to move into our dorms--a consistently horrific experience that guarantees a few battle stories each year. Unfortunately, though, the horror stories from this year's move in will be a bit more copious than in years past.

There are colorful stories about starving undergraduates queuing up in lines that extend from the swiping station in the dining hall to the Quincy House gates on Plympton Street. Musicians lugged their cellos to practice rooms hoping to prepare for auditions, only to find ridiculous and limiting hours of service. Quad residents trekked through wind and rain, thanks to Hurricane Floyd, because of the disengaged Harvard shuttle service. Athletes faced a particularly difficult task--practicing across the river, eating in Dunster and living in the Quad, all without shuttle service. Students who took advantage of temporary housing before Sept. 10 made themselves comfortable in the Quad only to transport their belongings to the River Houses a few days later, and some Quad residents were assigned, appropriately enough, to live in Mather House

The annual excuse for temporary housing--that the other Houses must be cleaned before students invade--still leaves us wondering why students must be housed on opposite ends of the campus without regard to the location of their activities or their ultimate place of residence.

Most ironic about these complications is that of the students who moved into school early, and were punished as a result, most returned to Cambridge because of their commitments to the school by means of extra-curriculars or sports. The ones scrounging for food and sleeping on bare mattresses were also the ones drilling for the fall sports season and organizing campus activities to prepare for the school year and for the incoming first-years.

By now, all storage boxes have been made accessible, every dining hall is serving three hot meals a day, and the shuttle service is escorting all quad-dwellers to the heart of Harvard Square and back home. The worst is clearly over and we have survived. But let the College take note: sustenance is a good thing, as is access to bedding and transportation during brutal hurricane storms. We look forward to returning to campus early again next year, getting the wheels of our student organizations churning well before the academic year begins, and welcoming the Class of 2004 with open arms.

This year's early move-in for upperclas students was an experiment for the College proving that because students are eager to return to school, Harvard needs to be prepared for them.