In order to enable FOC-in-2001, the proposed new undergraduate residence was originally intended to open by the time the Class of 2005 arrived on campus. Without the new residence, the creaking campus housing system, already over capacity, could never accommodate another 300-some students -- freshmen who otherwise would have lived in FSILGs.

Ground was supposed to have been broken on the new dorm last month, paving the way for eighteen months of frenzied building. This was an ill-thought-out strategy to start, with little margin for error and no contingency plans. Now, construction has been indefinitely delayed by a development protest -- a possibility the administration initially acknowledged but obviously failed to take seriously.

The new dorm almost certainly out of action in court, FOC-in-2001 cannot be accomplished without one or more several draconian administrative actions. Tang Hall or Ashdown House could be cleared of graduate students to make room for freshmen ‹ screwing over the grad students yet again. An epic move of freshmen into the Marriott or Hyatt hotels (a la Boston University) would cost big bucks. Houseboats on the Charles, or an Adopt-a-Student program, are politically unlikely.

Some might suggest an FOC-in-2002 policy -- giving the administration an extra year to build the new dorm. But The Tech now believes that because the Institute has demonstrated its inability to act responsibly within time constraints, a deadline for FOC implementation is a terrible idea.

Instead, we recommend a new policy: gradually increasing the percentage of freshmen on campus, year on year, until all freshmen live in dorms. The FOC goal will thus be realized without the cut corners that would result from an arbitrary deadline. In order to avoid even further overburdening the existing dormitories, the Institute will need to decrease the size of incoming classes (as it hopes to do with the Class of 2005). Shoehorning freshmen into lounges and common spaces is no answer.

A deadline for FOC should only be again considered when -- and if -- the administration produces coherent, realistic construction plans for the new residence.