Housing Problems at Harvard
I got married during my sophomore year
at
Harvard. Even without adding a child to the mix, this caused
serious
problems. I was on almost complete financial aid (I think before
that
point, I paid around $1000/year for tuition/room and board).
This was around the middle of the academic year -- my husband
and I lived apart until the following fall, when he started grad
school in the area.
During that one year, I was told by
the Senior Tutor of my house
(university housing) that he could not visit me there, because
it would be
inappropriate to have conjugal visits, and unfair to my roommates.
This
despite the fact that I had my own private bedroom in a 4-person
suite,
and that my roommates had not complained. I'm still not sure
what she was
thinking -- that undergrads were generally not having sex in
the dorms?
And having other visitors was always fine.
Subsequently, I had to move out of university
housing. As you already
describe on your website, I was neither allowed in undergraduate
housing
or in graduate housing, so I had to move off campus. As you also
note,
this was financially ruinous -- especially given my situation,
where I was
already on almost full financial aid. I did get checks from the
university
each semester for the difference between my total financial aid
package
and tuition, this difference to be applied toward my off-campus
housing
costs. Obviously it was insufficient, and also the check was
never once
issued on time. For each of the four semesters that I got it,
I had to go
to the office that issued it multiple times
until they would finally
disburse it.
Whew. I am now in graduate school at
MIT and had a baby in July. This was
only months after MIT introduced its first parental leave policy
for
graduate students. Before that, the only way to have any leave
was to go
officially on leave from the university, resulting in loss of
university
housing if you had it, and also loss of health insurance coverage
from the
university. Obviously one doesn't want to lose health care immediately
postpartum for oneself and the baby! But it is great progress
to have the
new system in place, even if amazing that it took so long.
Thanks again for your efforts and best wishes,
Mary Ann Walter
Dept of Linguistics and Philosophy, MIT another testimonial
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