Visiting Students as Campus Commuters?

“We will meet tonight at7 p.m. Don´t be late!” I am sure all members of Harvard´s student organizations have been in a situation like this before: a message in your inbox alerting you of the next meeting only a few hours before the time stated in the email.

For most College students that might be annoying and quite inconvenient. But there will be no problem getting there on time, since all locations on campus are only a few minutes away from student rooms, regardless of which of the 12 Houses they live in.

But this is not the case for 55 other members of the Harvard Community—including me. I am a Visiting Undergraduate Student and as such I am not eligible for Harvard Housing. The little-known VUS Program allows students from other universities to study at Harvard for one semester or one academic year. VUS are full students here in every aspect but one: housing. That should change. VUS should not only take the same classes, write the same exams, eat the same meals, and engage in the same extracurriculars as every other undergraduate: They should also live in the same Houses.

All the VUS belong to Dudley House, which is different from all other Houses, in that nobody lives there. Apart from that, Dudley offers plentiful resources: academic advisers, a library, a dining hall etc. It is the perfect place for all non-residents, like Graduate Students, VUS or regular undergraduates that decided against normal residential housing.

“The VUS were an active presence at the events we hosted at Dudley,” notes Eric Malczewski, the VUS Coordinator, in an email. Dudley offers them a community and that should not change. But apart from the VUS, every other Dudley House student is offered housing from Harvard.

The chief problem for a lot of VUS is proximity—or lack thereof. Proximity to each other and to Harvard Yard is what makes the community of Harvard College a community. Harvard College functions on the assumption that during the semester everybody is always on campus or just a few minutes away. This assumption often renders VUS out of sync with the rest of the social and study patterns on campus.

For us, a trip from our apartments to the Yard and back again often takes more than an hour. Yesterday at 1 p.m. I got a message from a Harvard-affiliated organization telling me to be at the John Harvard Statue in cocktail attire by 9:15 p.m., and not to be late. Luckily I was not yet in the Yard when I read this message, otherwise I would have had to take the 66 bus to Allston and back again just to change my clothes.

Since the 66 is quite erratic such a trip can easily take between one and two hours. The MBTA’s lack of late-night service also contributes to the mobility problems of non-resident students. And problems predicting bus arrivals can significantly mess with your midterm plans.

The VUS could be better integrated into the Harvard community. If Harvard is really committed to securing the diversity of its student body it should stop treating its VUS like campus commuters.

Some might argue that the goal of creating a welcoming culture should not convince Harvard to bear the cost of additional housing. But VUS could also pay for this and 100 percent of that money would go directly to Harvard since VUS are not eligible for financial aid from the university. That means that all the VUS either have secured scholarships from outside sources or have to pay the rent for their rooms out of their own pocket, regardless of whether Harvard supplies housing or if they have to find housing elsewhere, as is the case now.

A room in one of Harvard’s dorms currently costs a student $8,667 for one academic year. Since on short notice it is nearly impossible to find acceptable housing near Harvard Yard for less than $722.25 per month—the monthly cost of housing for resident students—most VUS´s would probably choose to pay that. All others can still try their luck finding a place of their own.

Asking the VUS to pay for housing would suit both Harvard´s need for funding and fulfill the wishes of VUS to become full members of the community.

Of course there might be other (solvable) problems. Karen Flood, Resident Dean of Dudley House, who is aware of the VUS’ wish for on-campus housing, writes in an interview, “the issue is really one of space.” Nonetheless there is reason for hope, since Flood and her colleagues are “also exploring longer-range plans to potentially secure housing specifically for the VUS.” That is laudable and would circumvent the problem of integrating the fluctuating number of VUS into the housing lottery system.

But even if nothing else could convince the Harvard Administration to change their ways, maybe plain rivalry can. Columbia University has a program for visiting students just like that of Harvard. But Columbia provides housing to many of them!

Certainly if Columbia can find a way to provide housing for its visiting students, so can Harvard.

Lukas R.C. Leucht ’14, a Crimson editorial comper, is a Visiting Undergraduate Student from the University of Munich.