Masters say crowding single rooms reducespersonal privacy, and others say having Houseresidents living in crowded facilities andoverflow buildings detracts from the ideal of theHouse system.
With 40 of Winthrop House's 369 residentsliving in De Wolfe, Hanson says it is the overallHouse community that suffers.
"I think it is very undesirable in terms ofHouse life to have these exilic communities," hesays.
When it had to assign some residents to theJordan overflow facility, Graham says his hope wasnot to force students to live there. Rather, theHouse solicited students and found several whowere willing to live there voluntarily, mitigatingthe issue to some extent.
Pfister says the set-up of having Kirklandresidents living in DeWolfe was less than ideal.
"I don't think any of us are happy with havingour students so far flung," he says.
And although the distance between KirklandHouse and DeWolfe is not excessive--about the samedistance Pfister walks on a daily basis to get hiscar--he says it is more difficult to get studentswho don't live in the House to stay connected.
"In terms of community, it does take a strongerdesire to get motivated," he admits, adding thatthe problem is exacerbated by the fact thatseveral different Houses use DeWolfe as overflowhousing. "Part of the question of DeWolfe is thatyou have all of this divided authority andallegiances."
Still, the solution to the problem ofovercrowding in the Houses is about as clear-cutas the problem itself.
What masters fear most is becoming the heads ofa dorm--much like the 6,000-person dormitorycurrently being built by Boston University--ratherthan heads of a House, in the truest sense of theHarvard word.
"A dorm for 6,000--the notion it conjures up isnot what Harvard housing is supposed to be,"McCarthy says. "It's intended to be differenthere."
Instead, McCarthy says House masters shouldwork together to make the space issue a priorityin the College administration.
"It wouldn't be at all unrealistic to fix thisproblem in five years," he says. "If someonewanted to find a creative solution to thisproblem, they could. But it is obvious that thisis not a priority [for the administration]."
In the meantime, the Pforzheimer House masters,like so many others, say they have to be creativewithin their own Houses as they look for any wayto gain extra space.
"Our energies are turned to doing the best wecan for our students," says Pforzheimer HouseCo-Master M. Suzanne McCarthy.