This latter change was glossed over until the impact hit this spring, and it has still been given little attention. In part, it means the problems that FAS and the College could have forseen two years ago have now grown to the point where DeWolfe is a certified Harvard-sized mess.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Two changes that have been waiting offstage through all this will, I imagine, become the star housing attractions in the next couple years.
1. Randomization.
With housing authority more firmly centralized in Jewett's office, the institutional mechanism has come more in line with what he has wanted for several years. The immediate placement of transfer students weakens the element of housing choice even further. And the withering away of house vitality as a result of DeWolfe makes a proposal for change seem more attractive to masters and largely irrelevant to more students.
2. Expansion of the undergraduate population through an increase in the number of international students.
No one talks about a 200 student increase in undergraduate population anymore, largely because of the furor the plan raised when Dillon Professor of International Security Joseph S. Nye put it forward for discussion by the Faculty Council last October.
And no one--Nye, Jewett, Dean of Admissions William R. Fitzsimmons '67, or Nancy S. Pyle, associate director of the Harvard Institute for International Development--has plans to start the expansion and add 50 first-years anytime soon.
But that doesn't mean that it couldn't (or won't) happen anytime soon. After all, it only took two years to invert the composition of DeWolfe, and only one year to reverse the status of Dudley House.
The mentality is there: Fitzsimmons has the power to let the number of international students "creep up" (Nye's phrase) as he finds more "excellent candidates," (also Nye's phrase). And the space could be there as soon as the affiliated housing near the Quad is renovated.
Nye, however, says the use of DeWolfe "is unrelated to the number of international students," and is "a poor example" of a way to accommodate the expansion.
Well, how poor an example is it? DeWolfe, as it so happens, can house 280 undergraduates if fully occupied. Subtracting out the 120 newly affiliated transfers leaves just enough room to house the 150 upperclass students that the major international expansion would require. A nice fit.
But this would mean, in all likelihood, recrowding the Quad, putting increased pressure on the river houses, leaving those junior faculty facing high rents and long commutes back at square one and magnifying all the problems DeWolfe has now.
Be that as it may, an administrator could say in the spring of 1994, 'imagine the benefits.' First, we have decidedly enriched the Harvard experience by increasing the international population, a move DeWolfe facilitated. Second, we have nearly equalized house populations, a long-sought goal. Third, we have preserved one of Harvard's age-old traditions. We have made a mess.
The DeWolfe St. building will not be popular with students......And it has fast become an administrative nightmare.