For the 2000 fiscal year, the Lowell Masters received $168,094 for their personal budget. That amount is meant to pay for everything from administrative salaries and office supplies to napkins for weekly teas. It can be a challenge to make the money stretch that far.

Easily the biggest expense is the Senior Common Room, which numbers more than 170 faculty members, visiting scholars and tutors. All of them are permitted to eat in the dining hall on a regular basis, courtesy of Lowell House.

"If you go to a House with a less active Senior Common Room you're likely to find more lavish hors d'oeuvres for junior parents weekend," Eck says.

She does not want to cut back on faculty affiliates, since they provide a unique opportunity for faculty-student interaction. But by the end of last year, she worried that "we'd have to feed the parents Saltines at Commencement."

Lowell residents agree that the Senior Common Room is worthwhile.

"It's great to get advice at dinner and lunch," says Fiona S. Graff '02. "The Senior Common Room members that we're paired up with, they sit down and give us advice on classes and concentrations."

Eck pulled it off this year. But she wishes there were more money for House needs.

"It shouldn't be such a big financial issue," she says. "In our first year we've been able to get the kinds of changes we want, but with a larger budget specifically targeted for faculty-student relations the Houses could flourish even more.