Changes
→Description
Currently, Williams upperclass housing is a "free agent" system. Students form groups of 4 and are assigned lottery numbers within their class. They then choose rooms on campus in order of lottery number.
Anchor housing restricts the room draw to a small cluster of dorms. Houses on campus will be divided into five 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 own cluster for the remainder of their Williams career. Students remain in the same clusterthroughout their time at Williams.
The housing system was formed with the following goals in mind, as presented by the CUL at two informational forums in 2004:
* '''Ability to live with friends, and have options within the system'''
There are big plans ideas for a "House Cup" and other inter-cluster competitions, but we have heard no definite plans yet. This suggestion has caused some students to joke about whether the clusters will be named after the houses in the Harry Potter books.
The anchor houses and their associated dorms are: