Harvard calls for overhauling makeshift dorm space

The university unveiled ambitious plans yesterday to overhaul its 12 residential houses, some of which have not been renovated for decades, to alleviate crowding, bolster amenities, and foster community among students.

Communal bathrooms shared by an entire hall would become a thing of the past. Dorms would feature more suites with single rooms. Those who end up in double rooms should be able to fit all the furniture on the floor, without erecting bunk beds or sleeping lofts, as many do now.

University officials have not committed to a timeframe for the project, except to say it would take more than a decade. No price tag was released. But the 110-page report makes clear that overhauling the houses, seen by some as among the most outdated dorms in the Ivy League, is a necessity. Yale has renovated most of its dorms, and Princeton recently built one.

"Kudos to the deans for taking this on," said Matthew Sundquist, a senior and former president of the undergraduate student council whom university officials consulted on the report. "The housing experience is a defining characteristic of Harvard."

The report, the culmination of a year's work, is the first extensive look at university house life since 1969. Much has changed, with more students, 99 percent of today's undergraduates, choosing to live on campus, instead of in apartments or co-ops.

To ease overcrowding, Harvard eventually plans to build housing across the Charles River in Allston. It is unclear how the economic downturn and the university's plummeting endowment, which already have slowed the school's sweeping expansion plans for Allston, would affect the housing initiative.

When the renovations are done, students would be treated to more communal spaces, such as lounges and kitchenettes, in their houses, the report said. In a university survey last fall, 66 percent of students said they wanted better connections with their fellow residents.

Harvard would also trade in the basement squash courts of yesteryear for updated fitness rooms, game rooms, and other activity spaces for artistic pursuits such as theater and pottery.

The quest for more common spaces that encourage students to interact has been a priority for Harvard president Drew G. Faust, who has formed a separate committee to look at ways to reconfigure public spaces to bring people together.

Undergraduates used to live in suites with common rooms, but many of those areas have been converted into bedrooms to accommodate more students.

The housing initiative aims to improve the layout of dorms, including elimination of "walk-through" rooms.

Yali Miao of Lowell House lived in a walk-through last year. His roommate had to pass through Miao's bedroom to reach the bathroom, and Miao had to walk through his roommate's room, which once was a common room, to leave.

"I could not get out after he went to sleep," Miao said. "He's a light sleeper, and I didn't want to wake him up."

The report does not delve into individual gripes about housing, but for years students have complained of sporadic problems.

Paras Bhayani recalled that when he was moving into Eliot House two summers ago, the doorknob to his room came off in his hand. He marched down five flights of stairs to get a housing official to let him in.

"It's something you expect to see in a cartoon," Bhayani said.

Last year, he said, friends in Kirkland House had to form a bailout line to dump water out their second-story window when their bathtub faucet would not shut off. The student newspaper, the Crimson, ran a tongue-in-cheek editorial likening other housing mishaps - showers spewing blackish water, a weight room flooded with sewage, cockroach infestations - to grandparents' tales of childhood hardships that build character.

"Given how wealthy the university is, it is surprising that it's taken them so long to focus on this problem," Bhayani said.

Harvard officials say that there are no widespread problems and that any incidents are quickly handled.

Emma Lind, who shares a common room-turned-bedroom with a roommate in Winthrop House, said water leaked through the ceiling and the closed-off fireplace of her fourth-floor room last year during a snowstorm. Another time, residents were instructed not to flush the toilets because of a flood in the basement. "It's not like we're languishing in filth," Lind said. "Harvard dorms are historic and beautiful for the most part, but reaching the age where renovations are a good idea and hopefully imminent."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.