The SA Senate’s Housing and New Construction Committee is ready to unveil a new section of the prematriculation web site designed to help admitted students with their Allston-area housing searches.
The new site will contain data about the lottery process and a given student’s odds of getting the housing they want, as well as variety of tools for evaluating different housing options. The tools will range from maps and floorplans of dorms and other Harvard-owned housing facilities to student-assembled profiles of different Boston-area neighborhoods that are popular among MBA students, said Senator Chris Grosso (OH), the committee’s co-chair.
Finally, the site will provide information on benchmark rents and a bulletin board where current and prospective students can exchange tips about housing. In addition, Grosso said the committee is trying to negotiate preferred rates with local apartment brokers.
Grosso also reported that Harvard Planning and Real Estate, the university division that owns housing complexes like Soldiers’ Field Park and Peabody Terrace, will be changing its procedures for assigning apartments from its “immediate occupancy” list. The new policy will allow prospective renters to call in for information about the available apartments, rather than having to line up outside HPRE’s Cambridge offices each morning.
Hollidazzle a Holli-Hit!
SA Social co-chair Marci Walner (OA) reported that almost 1,600 tickets were sold to the Hollidazzle ball, an increase of roughly 200 from last year, when the first-year class was smaller because the January Cohort had not yet arrived.
Early Start on Orientation
The orientation planning committee has expanded to 15 people, and is launching a section-by-section effort to gather feedback on past orientations from both EC and RC students.
The committee is considering a wide range of alternatives for future orientations, including introducing field trips, and the potential for a separate orientation fee for students.
