HoCo Members Will Deliver Housing Letters

Beginning at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning, eager freshmen may open their doors to find themselves faced with a concrete-loving Matherite or a suburban Quadling. For the first time in recent memory, Housing Day news—both good and bad—will be delivered to the Class of 2011 by residents of their future Houses.

In lieu of volunteers from the College Dean’s office, who have delivered the letters with housing assignments in the past, student House Committee (HoCo) members will assume the role this year.

Over the past two years, several HoCo chairs have tried to convince the Office of Residential Life to let them personally deliver the letters, said Assistant Dean of Residential Life Joshua McIntosh. But he said that the administration has been weary of giving only the go-ahead without the participation of all 12.

McIntosh said he agreed to allow HoCos to deliver the letters this year after all 12 offered to take part.

Tomorrow morning, five residents from each House will arrive at Boylston Hall, pick up the letters for their Houses, and proceed to the dorm room of each blocking group’s primary contact, according to Cabot HoCo Co-Chair Thomas R. Benson ’09.

While Benson said that he thinks the new student delivery method will be beneficial for Cabot House, he predicted that HoCo members from other Houses might experience a negative backlash.

“Some Houses will like to show their newbies House spirit,” he said. “But others are concerned that freshmen might get upset at their housing assignment. HoCos do not want to see them cry. Who would be happy with getting into Mather?”

In fact, Mather HoCo Co-Chair Lily G. Bellow ’09 agreed that letters of welcome from her House might initially be met with tears. But she said the presence of enthusiastic representatives at freshmen’s doors Thursday morning would counter any negative preconceptions.

“I think Mather’s best day is Housing Day,” she said. “It might work in our favor to have freshmen see us as soon as they open their letters.”

In the past, a team of volunteers from University Hall has delivered the letters to the primary contact of each blocking group, with each volunteer covering one freshman dorm, Residential Life Coordinator Gina D. Burke said.

Many HoCo leaders said that they think the process will be completed just as quickly as in years past, despite the change.

“Everyone will get the information within the hour,” Adams HoCo Co-Chair Omar M. Abdelsamad ’09 said. “There’s a lot of freshman dorms, but really, there’s not that many letters, especially when you think of people getting broken down into groups of eight.”

Those on the receiving end—­freshmen eagerly awaiting their residential fates—said that personal deliveries will be more effective for welcoming them into the upperclassmen Houses.

“I think this will get blocking groups excited about the news as soon as they find out,” Upasana Unni ’11 said.

Sasha F. Klein ’11 said that he thinks his blocking group will receive the information without much emotion, no matter what the result.

But he added that other blocking groups with “emotions excessively wrapped up in the process” might actually be brought to tears in front of the student messengers.

—Staff writer Charles J. Wells can be reached at wells2@fas.harvard.edu.