Four-year roommates discover friendship in luck of the draw

When they first met, Jesse Liebman '03 thought his roommate Tyler Crain '03 was just another high school quarterback from Atlanta, Ga. Crain imagined the typical New Yorker.

"I figured he would have a thick New York, Bronx-style accent," he said.

First impressions were quickly dispelled and the two have since become best friends. Liebman said the two are almost like brothers.

At 1:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, Liebman and Crain high-fived after drawing into a room in Dod Hall. But the enthusiasm extended beyond square footage or proximity to the laundry room. Liebman and Crain were excited about signing a contract to live together for the final year of their college careers.

As juniors finish room draw today, only a handful of them — like Liebman and Crain — will have lived together since freshman year.

Since they had been through the room draw process for two successive years, Room Draw 2002 was a breeze for Liebman and Crain. They ignored the frazzled discussion of groups around them, the frequent, "What's left?" and "What did they take?"

Game theory

Liebman and Crain were unfazed by the tense atmosphere in the Frist Campus Center that afternoon as juniors competed for the spacious rooms in newly renovated buildings and tried to anticipate which rooms preceding groups would draw. It was like a game requiring strategy and planning.

Research mathematician John Nash — while drinking a cup of coffee in Small World — acknowledged that game theory applied to the competition of drawing the best rooms.

"It might apply, but I don't want to talk about it," he said, returning to his coffee.

For Kristin Roper '03, room draw is very much a game of strategy and planning. To secure the best room, she camped out an hour and a half before her draw time to monitor which rooms were crossed off the list of available rooms.

Like Liebman and Crain, Roper and Annelise Gerland '03 will have lived together since freshman year — except for this semester while Gerland is abroad in South Africa.

Though they seemed at ease, Liebman and Crain recognized the tension that Roper and many others felt minutes before drawing.

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"This is the worst part, just figuring everything out," Crain said.

Liebman flipped through floor plans, listing possible rooms and scouting for prime real estate. Arguing for a three-room double that was up four flights of stairs, Liebman said, "It's got a balcony. That's got to be good."

Crain passed up living in a single this year in Charter Club, where he is an officer, to live in Henry Hall with Liebman. They lived in a double in Forbes College freshman and sophomore years.

The two said a healthy relationship depends on the ability to joke around, communicate grievances and tolerate each other's preferences and schedules.

"We're not extremely different or the same, we just get along really well," Crain said.

"That initial experience of respecting one another sets the tone," Liebman continued.

Similarly, Eliza Gregory's '03 roommate since freshman year, Josephine Decker '03, is a familiar comfort.

"The great thing about living together so well for so long is that I don't even have to say anything when I walk in the door, and she already knows how I'm doing," Gregory said. "She makes the room feel like a home."

Liebman and Crain said they cannot recall ever having a serious argument. However, they do have minor disagreements.

"Tyler always leaves the seat down," Liebman joked.

Though Liebman and Crain have already roomed together for three years, they place a premium on a degree of privacy and personal space to maintain the positive dynamic.

Though some freshmen are lucky in finding a perfect match in their first-year roommate, the University's assigning process is brief. Residential college deans and administrators take five days to assign freshman year roommates based on information students provide through activity interest questionnaires. That is all it is, Mathey College Administrator Pat Byrne said.

"It's fate why some kids stay together for four years, and many others don't," she said.

Post-graduation

Some even live together for more than four years. Roper and Gerland plan to make the transition into the real world together by sharing a house or apartment after graduation.

"She just said to me one night before we fell asleep, 'New York or Boston?' " Roper said. "I said, 'Boston's nice.' "

Liebman and Crain do not know if they will live together after they graduate.

But after four years, Liebman and Crain have advice for first-year roommates. In addition to simple respect, Liebman and Crain suggest "bonding over a late night pizza and Conan O'Brien" for bringing roommates together.