Choosing Dudley

Esposito ended up an off-campus Dudley affiliate almost by accident. He said he was planning on living in the Dudley Co-op, but an unexpected shortage of spaces led him to take a semester off. He lived in Cambridge, worked at Harvard, and got used to life outside of a house.

When he started his next semester as an off-campus student, he already had a Dudley affiliation from his aborted move to the Co-op, he said.

Many others specifically sought Dudley out.

"As soon as I left Lowell House, I found out that Dudley House was specially geared to off-campus undergraduates," Cohen said. "I thought that living in a house where everyone was in a similar situation to mine was more of a natural environment."

"I had concerns about being affiliated with a house that was made primarily for resident students," he said.

Not Choosing Dudley

Tears, who was lotteried into Mather House, took his sophomore fall semester off, then lived that spring at Mather. He moved off campus starting the following fall, and now lives at the Sigma Chi fraternity house at 30 Bow St. with nine other fraternity members. He has kept his Mather affiliation rather than choosing Dudley House.

"I knew the people in Mather House pretty well, and so I didn't want to change," he said. "It was easier for me to stay with Mather House."

He says he meets with the Mather pre-law tutor about once a week. For convenience, he uses the five-meal-a-week board plan at Mather, he said.

Julie I. Thwing '97-'98 also kept her Lowell House affiliation.

"I'm pre-med, I'm applying to medical school this year, and I love the [Lowell] pre-med committee," she said. "I wanted to keep those relationships."

Thwing also praised Lowell House masters William H. Bossert '59 and Mary Lee Bossert, who last week announced that they will retire at the end of the academic year. "I love the Bosserts," she said, repeatedly.

Cohen suggested that the demographics of non-Dudley affiliated students might show that most of them moved off-campus late in their college years, when it would not make sense to change affiliation.

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