Many students agreed that not having a place to stay over the holidays could be emotionally upsetting.

"I'm sure it's difficult psychologically," Voutilainen said. "If you haven't made good enough friends [to go home with] I'm sure you feel very lonely at that point."

Andrea G. Cid '01, whose parents are Chilean and Equadorian, said she thinks the dorms should remain open during the holidays to give those whose homes are far from Boston the option to remain on campus.

Cid said last week she feared that she would have to stay in Boston for the holiday and would not have a place to go. She had a emergency appendectomy at the end of the week and thought she might not be able to leave the dorms when they closed on Wednesday night.

Cid said the FDO proposed sending her to a bed and breakfast. She said she was worried she would have to recuperate where she did not feel comfortable.

"I'd rather have been able to stay in my dorm," she said.

Zoran Martinovis '01 said he is not returning home for the holidays because he has too much work and is instead visiting a friend in Connecticut. However, he noted he would have preferred to stay in the dorms if it were an alternative.

Other universities leave their dorms open for the holidays or provide alternatives for international students.

Phyllis L. Dodill, contract coordinator for the housing department at Princeton University, said, "We never lock the doors."

Students at Princeton can stay in their dorms during all holidays and international students can spend the summer as well at the college.

Cornell University shuts its doors during the entire winter break for safety reasons, according to an employee at the Housing Office.

But the International Living Center on campus provides accommodations for any international students who must remain on campus during the break.

At MIT all undergraduate dorms and graduate houses remain open for the Christmas break, according to Lawrence Maguire, director for housing and food services at MIT.

Susan Hauser, assistant dean of Yale College, said that there, although the dorms close for the holiday break, masters, deans, the New Haven Center for International Students and the Yale Club of New Haven help international students find housing.

"If they needed a place we would help them find it," she said. "There does not seem to be a problem for most of our students.