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→Description: typos and added voting on cluster names
[[Image:clusterMap.jpg|right|thumbnail|Map of the four clusters.]]
Before the start of "Neighborhood" housing in [[Fall 2006]], Williams upperclass housing was a "[[Free agency|free agent]]" system. Students formed groups of up to 4 four and were assigned lottery numbers within their class. Individuals then chose rooms on campus in order of lottery number, from lowest to highest.
Anchor housing restricts the room draw to a small cluster of dorms. Houses on campus will be divided into four clusters, each containing approximately six houses and one "anchor" house chosen to serve as the social hub of the cluster. Rising sophomores will form groups of six, and each group will be randomly assigned to a cluster. Upperclassmen will choose rooms in a lottery exclusive to their own cluster. Students remain in the same cluster throughout their time at Williams.
* '''Ability to live with friends, and have options within the system'''
There are ideas for a "House Cup" and House IM teams, cluster-associated faculty and informal events with them, designated bulletin boards in the [[new BaxterParesky Center]], and cluster outings, but plans are not definite yet. Some students (and CUL members) have joked about whether the [http://wso.williams.edu/discuss/comments.php?DiscussionID=140 clusters will be named after the houses in the Harry Potter books]. As it turned out, the clusters ended up being named after their anchor houses, though some other sets of four names were available for voting.
The anchor houses and their associated dorms are:
The houses [[Chadbourne]], [[Doughty]], [[Lambert]], [[Milham]], [[Poker Flats]], [[Rectory]], [[Susie Hopkins]], and [[Woodbridge]] will remain (or become) [[co-ops]].
[[Dodd Annex]] will become Economics Faculty Officesfaculty offices.
For the CUL's complete description of anchor housing, see the [http://www.williams.edu/resources/committees/cul/reports/2005.pdf full proposal]. It is fairly detailed and includes a history of housing at Williams, though it perpetuates the misconception that the change from House Affiliation house affiliation to [[Free agency|free agency|Free Agency]] was driven by the administration and was "accidental." In fact, students were freely swapping rooms well before the official switch to Free Agency, thus a de facto free agency system existed at the end of the House Affiliation period.
==History==