Eliot House resident Michael J. Epstein '00recalls the trauma of being part of a three-personrooming group assigned to a tiny two-room suitehis sophomore year. The 11-by-14-foot common roomand 7-by-14-foot bedroom meant little privacy foranyone.

"I felt like I was going to go crazy," Epsteinsays. "I had a terrible time finding a quiet placeto work or to study."

Epstein, who now has more comfortableaccommodations as a junior and expects even betteras senior, even created a page on his personal Website comparing the floor plans of his current roomand his former home.

The Bare Necessities

As the Houses search for extra space forstudent accommodations, square footage that hastraditionally been used to house visiting scholarsand junior Faculty--not to mention space that oncewas used for Faculty offices--is increasinglybecoming the target of plans for expansion.

And as masters struggle to find space foroffices and classrooms in their Houses, it becomesmore and more difficult for the College'sresidential communities to fulfill their missionas academic communities as well.

"There are real trade-offs here," Ware says.

He says the space that might be used to bringthree or four Faculty offices into the House wouldtake up square footage that he says couldaccommodate many times that number of students.

According to Graham, Currier still offers anumber of classes in the House--including thefirst-year seminar that Graham teaches--but hasstill seen teaching and office space disappear.

"Serious numbers of [teaching fellow] andFaculty offices have disappeared from the Houseslargely under the press to open up rooms," Grahamsays.

And without the space to allow for a Facultypresence in the House, it is all the moredifficult to get professors involved in advisingresidents.

"Our students, as a result, are being deprivedof a wonderful enhancement of what the Faculty arebringing into the House," Hanson says.

The Impossible Dream

Perhaps the most mentioned solution, althoughalso the most unlikely to happen, is a proposal tobuild a 13th House, which some masters estimatewould cost about $200 million.

At a meeting of the City Council several weeksago, Associate Dean of Human Resources and theHouse System Thomas A. Dingman '67 made it clearthat Harvard has no plans to build a new House inthe near future. But Graham says he think thesolution will ultimately come down to money.