Upperclassmen May Live in Yard

Signaling a possible change to what current undergraduates have come to see as a fixture of Harvard life, Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 said that a handful of upperclassmen may join freshmen as residents of the Yard next year.

In an interview on Friday, Gross restated that Mass. Hall’s incarnation as a freshman dorm is likely at an end. Instead, he said, the residential part of the 286-year-old building will probably be used for overflow and emergency housing for upperclassmen.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), to which the College belongs, will continue its new arrangement of renting space in Mass. Hall from the University’s central administration. Until last summer, when FAS sold the building to the central administration, the University rented the first, second, and part of the third floors of Mass. Hall for the offices of the president and provost. The third and fourth floors house freshmen, along with the other 12 Yard dorms.

While Gross did not know for certain whether freshmen or upperclassmen would live in Mass. Hall next year, he said that his “suspicion is that it will be upperclassmen, because we have accommodations for freshmen.”

To current undergraduates, the Yard is seen as the exclusive residential domain of freshmen, with students moving into one of 12 Houses after their first year. Harvard currently places some upperclassmen in overflow housing outside of their assigned House, but all of those residences are located outside the Yard.

But Gross suggested that those overflow residences—including Jordan, Claverly, and DeWolfe—may not be enough for next year.

“We are very tight in the Houses at the moment, which is why we need to reduce the number of freshmen entering next year (as well as the number of sophomore transfers), and why we need to find overflow space,” Gross wrote in an e-mailed statement.

While the size of next year’s freshman class is not yet fixed, it is expected to be 1,675, down from 1,690 this year, according to Gross.

The stage appears to be set for another chapter in Mass. Hall’s long history.

According to “The Harvard University Campus Guide,” the red-brick colonial was completed in 1721 as a dormitory for 60 students and tutors. The building was also home to the first experimental physics laboratory in the United States, later barracks for Revolutionary War soldiers, and, since 1939, the Office of the President.

The number of freshmen living in Mass. Hall decreased from 24 last year to 18 this year, according to its proctor, David J. Meskill ’88.

Gross said he spoke to University President-elect Drew G. Faust about the issue of sharing Mass. Hall—which has a reputation as a residence for studious students—with undergraduates.

She jokingly requested students who liked to party all day long, he said.

—Staff writer Brittney L. Moraski can be reached at bmoraski@fas.harvard.edu.