To the Editor:

Re: “Find Transfers a Home,” Opinion, Sep. 30

THANK YOU. The housing situation here is pretty terrible and the transfers here have had many more challenges to face than necessary considering we are already attempting to acclimate to an entirely new school. The first article did not represent the way the people living here truly feel and the consensus among the people living in Schuyler is that this article could also be worded more strongly.

The newly formed Committee on Transfer Affairs presented an extensive survey to the Student Assembly three weeks ago, detailing their findings that an overwhelming proportion of transfer students feel that their first-year living situation hindered their transition to Cornell. This survey is now being used as the backbone of the committee’s efforts to convince C.U. administration to reinstate an optional transfer program house.

Before the West Campus initiative was completed in 2006, transfer students had the option of living in the Transfer Center Program House in the Class of ’17 Hall. The survey, which was open to all transfer students, received 527 respondents, including many current seniors who experienced the transfer program house before it was dismantled.

I transferred to Cornell in the fall of 2006, and like many transfer students I had the privilege of living in the Class of 1917 Hall. It was certainly not the prettiest building on West Campus, but it was nothing short of home. It was the Transfer Center — it was the reason I fit in at Cornell, it was the reason I survived at Cornell.

The Transfer Center provided a network of transfers who were in the same situation as I was — the limbo of not wanting to be treated like a freshman, but not quite knowing how to make it at this school. We had resident advisors who understood the process of transferring and an resident hall director who led the hall council and his staff on how to build a community amongst such an incredibly diverse population.