Activity is just one of the many different factors that each senior adviser weighs in creating the rooming groups in his or her section of the freshman dorms. Karen L. Heath, senior advisor for the Union dorms, says she places a lot of emphasis on keeping night owls and early risers apart, while Stubbs says that she considers musical tastes to be particularly important.
"You are constantly aware of 9000 different factors," Heath says. But she adds, "The system is as successful as it can be. [The senior advisors] have to make a lot of decisions with only limited information. There is no such thing as a perfect system."
Some students actually work to prevent the system from working by providing less than accurate information. Rather than admit their faults, some freshmen write "idealized versions of the truth" on their housing forms, she says.
"I'm very disappointed in people who lie [on their rooming forms]," says Worth, adding that the FDO is most concerned with freshmen who are less than honest in writing about their smoking habits. Harvard guarantees all non-smokers a smoke-free room if they so request. But with only "idealized" information on which to base rooming groups, this is a hard promise to keep, she says.
Michael C. Zweber '91 says he requested a smoke-free room on his housing application form, but one of his four roommates smokes. The FDO "should stress the smoking situation more. Second-hand smoke really bothers me," says Zweber, who says that four or five people in his assigned smoke-free entryway smoke on a regular basis.
The FDO is also hampered because its information often becomes outdated. "People change, too. We try as hard as we can to get a sense of a person, but sometimes you can't predict how this place is going to affect someone," says Worth, adding that these changes can often cause a great deal of stress in a rooming group.
Because the roommate matching system has its flaws, the FDO makes an effort to help freshmen deal with their roommate troubles. "Most problems can be solved by mediation. We avoid a lot of problematic situations that Way," Worth says.
Worth says she advises freshmen who have problems with their roommates to try to work things out within the room. If this does not work, freshmen should arrange for their proctors to mediate the argument, she says. And, as a last resort, the senior advisor can be called in to deal with the situation.
Room changes are an option only if the senior advisor cannot help the roommates work out their differences, Worth said. "There are times where it is just impossible for people to coexist. But we really discourage [rooming changes]. We just don't have enough rooms. People should negotiate with their roommates, and learn to have a little toleration."
Last year, two groups of roommates in the south Yard arranged conferences with Worth about rooming problems, but none of them changed rooms, she says.
Harvard maintains several unoccupied single rooms which can accommodate freshmen unhappy with their roommates. While Worth would not say exactly how many rooms are so reserved, she says there are "very few spots available," and that they are mostly first-floor rooms needed in case of medical emergencies.
Despite his complaints about smoke, Zweber says he will not ask for one of these singles. "I have a hard time finding a common bond in our room. But [the FDO] succeeded if they were trying to be diverse. We're learning to deal with each other's space and how to put up with each other. We're growing. I can't complain."
Zweber is not alone in his search for the elusive common bond. Peter H. Gray '91 also says that his roommates had trouble finding features that they shared. "At first we couldn't find the common bond. Then we realized what it must be. We're all very skinny. We must have the lowest body-fat ratio in the entire building," he says.
Other freshmen say they have also found they share interesting qualities with their roommates. Wigglesworth says she does not think all of her roommates share a single characteristic, but they each have something in common with her. One roommate is "strange" in the way she is, Wigglesworth says, adding that another shares her temperament. Most important of all, she says, is that she and one of her roommates are both convinced that Richard III was the greatest English king of all time.
men say the FDO did a good job with her rooming group, they still have some criticisms of the process. Freshmen suggested several alterations to the housing application, including the elimination of the neatness scale and the addition of space where incoming frosh could request certain physical characteristics for their rooms, such as fire-places or private baths.
While the senior advisors say they are always happy to listen to constructive criticism, they add that they have no immediate plans to change the rooming system. "It's tough for an 18-year-old to know what is best. We take the harder route, not just listening to requests, but trying to stretch the person," Worth says.
And if all goes well, nobody gets bent out of shape.