To bring together students separated by vacant rooms and empty hallways, many Houses have held events to foster community, ranging from the large home-cooked meals in Adams House to Master’s open houses, smaller dinners, and study breaks.
House gatherings over J-Term largely centered around food, catering to upperclassmen tired of walking to Annenberg for each meal. As House dining halls are closed, Currier and Leverett Resident Deans each organized a House dinner. Cabot, Kirkland, and Lowell held s’mores study breaks.
Even at movie nights, many students came for the food. Winthrop House’s showing of the film “Star Trek” attracted 10 to 12 students, but a few just grabbed pizza and left, according to Nkuebe, a Winthrop resident.
“I thought it was a lot of fun, and it’s a lot better than trekking to Annenberg to get dinner,” she said.
But even with the prospect of food, not all of the events attracted many attendees.
Olmsted planned a movie night with snacks, announcing the screening of “The Proposal” over the Mather list three hours before the movie began. Only four people attended.
Mather hasn’t had any other planned events, so Olmsted has seen few students, she said.
“Supposedly there’s 80 to 100 students, but I’ve seen like 10,” she said.
LEADING THE PACK
While the majority of Houses offered one event at most, Adams House and Winthrop House both held at least three.
Each Wednesday, Adams House held weekly dinners. On Thursdays, Sifuentes organized a series of weekly dinner and movie nights, watching “Up” the first week after serving his Bolivian stew. The second week, they watched “The Bourne Ultimatum” after sharing a meal of lentil coconut soup, Chinese potstickers, and apple crisp.
Corriel also invited all Adams residents to watch the 20th anniversary episode of “The Simpsons,” though he said only two students showed up.
Winthrop residents watched “Good Will Hunting” and “Star Trek,” and feasted on Noch’s, Oggi, and Crazy Dough’s pizza at a “Symphony of Pizza” dinner night on Tuesday.
But even Winthrop resident Nkuebe said she wished there had been more J-Term events.
She mentioned MIT’s “Independent Activities Period,” their equivalent of Harvard’s J-Term. During the four-week period in January, MIT offers a mix of activities—including science fiction marathons, whisky tastings, and tango workshops—and a few classes for credit.
“When I think about J-Term, I think about my friends over at MIT who have a very well structured IAP,” Nkuebe said. “So comparing the two is easy to do. But I think Winthrop is doing a great job.”
—Staff writer Danielle J. Kolin can be reached at dkolin@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.