Social Held For Floaters

Resting in the comfy chairs of Ticknor Lounge, eating pizza and drinking soda, about 20 first-years who’d never met each other before found out last night they all had one thing in common—they’re all floaters.

As the deadline for the first-year housing lottery looms and students must choose up to seven of their friends to block with for the next three years, some students find themselves going it alone.

This year tension over blocking took an unusual turn as the Bureau of Study Counsel’s Freshmen Wellness Program hosted its first-ever event for floaters—a combination information session and social mixer.

The prospective floaters heard from a variety of sources who sought to calm their nerves, including a sophomore who had floated last year, a first-year proctor and a psychiatrist from University Health Services.

As the students introduced themselves, they explained they were there to meet other potential blockmates—and some said they had come just meet new people.

“I don’t really care about floating,” said Wilham P. Meyerson ’05. “I would rather go alone and take the luck of the draw than be an appendage to a group so that I can feel like I belong.”

“The only people who seem to be putting any pressure on me to block are my parents,” he added.

Last night’s event was just one of several ways the Bureau of Study Counsel is looking to ease first-year blocking concerns. The bureau’s Conflict Resource Center has also posted information and advice on the blocking process on its website.

While some students may be looking to the bureau for help, one first-year took his blocking problem elsewhere.

Earlier this week, Arie J. Hasit ’05 purchased a quarter-page advertisement in The Crimson with a picture of himself and a blaring headline saying “I WANT YOU!”

“I need 7 people to block with,” the ad said, “and I need them NOW.”

Some of Hasit’s upperclass friends chipped in to cover the $141 cost of the ad, which featured personal endorsements from the friends saying, “If I were a freshman, I’d block with him.”

Hasit explained the ad was part of his campaign to find a blocking group.

“A couple of weeks ago, I had an idea that if my blocking situation with my friends did not improve, I would take out a classified in The Crimson,” Hasit said.

Since Tuesday, when his ad was published, Hasit said, he has received several messages from other first-years interested in possibly blocking together.

Hasit said he is looking for a blocking group so that when he gets to his House next year, he will already have a group of friends.

“It seems like you can’t just randomly sit down with someone after the first month in a House,” he said. “It’s not Annenberg.”

But he said he does not necessarily think he will room with members of his blocking group.

Even after going to all the trouble of the ad, Hasit says he might wind up going it alone anyhow.

“Blocking with seven strangers is the same as floating, so I’m probably floating if I don’t block with a friend,” he said.