Clever Freshmen Used Phone Numbers To Discover Their Rooms

When David E. Haber ’09 learned through a Yahoo group that he could figure out his Harvard room number a few weeks early by simply logging onto the student directory and tracing the telephone number listed there, he immediately opened up his Web browser to my.harvard.edu and scoured thefacebook.com for the telephone number.

Much to his delight, he found that three students had listed the telephone number on their profiles, two rising sophomores, and an incoming freshman named Dimitris Valatsas of Athens, Greece—who is likely to be Haber’s roommate next year. Since meeting in cyberspace, the two incoming freshmen have been “talking for the last week and a half,” Haber said.

Haber’s hacking habits are by no means unique—he is one of about 100 tech-savvy and impatient freshmen who have used phone numbers that were inadvertently posted at the end of July on freshman profiles in Harvard’s student directory to determine where and with whom they will be spending the next year, even as most of their classmates anxiously await the arrival of envelopes containing their fated rooming assignments, slated to be sent out this week.

“It’s kind of nice having extra time, especially if you’re an international student,” said Haber, who hails from San Diego, California. “You can kind of get your stuff together and know what you’re going to bring.”

Haber, who already boasts 241 “friends” at Harvard on thefacebook, has used his cyber connections to do more than just pack efficiently; last weekend, he hosted a bonfire for ten other incoming Harvard freshmen from the San Diego area.

“I kinda like getting to know people before coming to campus,” he said. “I’m starting to feel a sense of real camaraderie.”

The phone numbers, which appeared on the directory because of a Web site glitch, were immediately removed from the site by the Office of the Registrar on August 1 after the Freshman Dean’s Office became aware of the loophole.

“The information that they were able to access isn’t official,” said Dean of Freshman Thomas A. Dingman ’67. He said that rooming assignments were still subject to change, cautioning that “there are changes happening.”

A similar incident occurred last year, when freshmen’s suite numbers—in addition to dorm telephone numbers—appeared early on the student directory for three full days before the administration caught the glitch.

“This [time, it] was only displayed for a day,” said Registrar Barry S. Kane.

Kane added that administrators are not trying to hide rooming information, but rather waiting to release information until it is finalized. “The attempt is not to suppress secret information, it’s to prevent confusion,” Kane said.

The Class of ’09 is not only exploring Harvard’s cyber underworld to uncover secret roommate information, but also to discuss classes, computers, and college cuisine.

These freshmen, the so-called “myspace generation,” according to Troy Murrell ’09, say they believe their entry into college will be smoother, thanks to cyber “spaces” like thefacebook, Yahoo groups, and other message boards.

“I think it will make the transition [to college] easier by just eliminating some of the small talk you usually have,” Murrell added.

And despite Harvard’s comparatively late release of housing information, the freshman class has not been deprived of Harvard friends and information.

For example, word about the telephone number leak spread rapidly among the ’09 network already established by Yahoo groups, message boards, and thefacebook.

“I’ve been finding very interesting, smart, funny people, and I think that the more people I meet online, the bigger the possibilities for potential lastingfriendships,” Daniella Allam ’09 wrote in an e-mail.

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman can be reached at nsherman@fas.harvard.edu.