Students Seek House Transfers

Stephanie M. Kladakis '96 says she was devastated last spring after being assigned to live in Cabot House for the next three years.

"I cried for a week," Kladakis says. "I was completely helpless, there was nothing I could do about it for a year."

This week, Kladakis and other students who feel they were wronged by the housing lottery get a chance to do something about it. An unspecified number of students are applying to transfer out of the houses in which they currently live, officials say.

Students applying for transfers this spring turned in their applications Monday. Housing wishes will be granted or denied at one o'clock tomorrow when students are notified about the results of their transfer requests.

The process of making transfers is complicated by caps on the numbers of students who may leave or enter each house. Just four percent of students who will return for the fall term (including those currently on leave) are allowed to transfer out of their current house, according to the College's housing officer, Catherine M. Millett.

And for each house, only eight percent of the students entering the house for the first time in the fall may be transfer from other houses, Millett says.

Transfer decisions will be made during a meeting of house officers tomorrow. One house will be randomly selected and will have first choice as to which students it wants to accept, Millett says.

During the process, some houses may choose students who ultimately will not be permitted to transfer because of the exit and entrance caps.

Millett says seniors receive preference over juniors and juniors over sophomores in the transfer process. Students who have not previously transferred also are favored, Millett says, and transfer guidelines account for class and gender imbalances in the houses.

But the particulars of the process mean little to students like Kladakis, who wants to transfer to be closer to friends and extracurricular activities.

"Randomization is a hard thing to take," says Kladakis, who received a high lottery number last spring and was placed into Cabot.

"We were separated from friends...it's very unfair that they put ushere when we never asked to be here," Kladakissaid.

Kladakis says she wants to transfer to a houseby the river, preferably Lowell or Leverett.

Kladakis says this will shorten the walk to herbasketball practices at the Malkin Athletic Centerand Briggs Cage.

And by living in a "river house," Kladakis saysshe will be closer to her friends and will nolonger have to plan to eat dinner with them daysin advance.

"[In the Quad] I feel like I'm missing out on alot that I don't want to be missing out on," shesays.

Kladakis and other students consider a transferout of their current house a must.

But not all requests will be granted tomorrow.

For example, Lowell House Master William H.Bossert says more than twice as many students haveapplied to transfer into Lowell House this yearthan last year. Many more students have appliedthan will be able to transfer, he says.

These kinds of figures don't portend well fortransfer applicants.

"It's unfair for them to keep me here,"Kladakis says of Cabot House, "when I could behappy somewhere else.

Kladakis says she wants to transfer to a houseby the river, preferably Lowell or Leverett.

Kladakis says this will shorten the walk to herbasketball practices at the Malkin Athletic Centerand Briggs Cage.

And by living in a "river house," Kladakis saysshe will be closer to her friends and will nolonger have to plan to eat dinner with them daysin advance.

"[In the Quad] I feel like I'm missing out on alot that I don't want to be missing out on," shesays.

Kladakis and other students consider a transferout of their current house a must.

But not all requests will be granted tomorrow.

For example, Lowell House Master William H.Bossert says more than twice as many students haveapplied to transfer into Lowell House this yearthan last year. Many more students have appliedthan will be able to transfer, he says.

These kinds of figures don't portend well fortransfer applicants.

"It's unfair for them to keep me here,"Kladakis says of Cabot House, "when I could behappy somewhere else.