Word: first-years
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...winning—even in so-called “minor” sports. Harvard fencer Emily Cross just took the NCAA foil title, and her head coach, Peter Brand, was just awarded National Coach of the Year. The men’s volleyball team, under the guidance of first-year coach Chris Ridolfi, has clinched its division and won 13 straight...
Harvard-style housing has many distinct advantages. First off, it does not divide the freshman class before they even arrive on campus. Currently, first-year students can potentially be assigned to the same house as any member of their class. However, under the Yale-style system, first-year students would only live with other members of their House. This would divide the class into Houses before they have a chance to cohere as a class. The current system values class cohesion over House cohesion, a tradeoff we support. The result of the system is that Harvard first-year students know...
...then, is Harvard even considering Yale-style housing? The main argument is that Yale-style housing would improve the currently deplorable first-year advising system at the College. Yale-style housing would also, theoretically, improve first-year social life by allowing freshman more access to their upperclassmen peers...
However, these arguments are misguided. Yale-style housing would neither improve first-year advising nor the first-year social experience. Advising within the Houses is not perfect. Concentrations have shifted much of their advising duties to a limited amount of resident and non-resident tutors, leaving many students in a lurch. Integrating first-year students into the already strained system would yield no tangible positive results. In addition, those students assigned to the Quad would have a harder time accessing advising resources than their counterparts assigned to the River...
...also find no evidence that the switch to the Yale-style housing system would strengthen the relationship between first-year students and upperclassmen. First-year students would still eat in Annenberg, limiting interaction in the dining halls and continuing to separate first-years from upperclassmen. In addition, one of the reasons the Yale-style housing system works so well at Yale is the high-level of enthusiasm for College life (at Yale, Houses are called Colleges). This pride plays a large part in Yalie freshmen’s wholehearted participation in College life. Harvard sports a less frenzied House environment...