Not that, in the greater scheme of things, that's as earth-shattering as, say, secretly buying up large swaths of the neighborhood right under the mayor's nose or anything, but in ten years of proposing plans and canceling them, the U has never once said anything about moving the engineering school across the river and now, boom, they'll be in 02134 instead of 02138 within five years [2].
Both Allston residents and engineering types are shocked, although for different reasons.
Longtime Allston resident Harry Mattison writes [3]:
The reason I find this so surprising is that it shows how Harvard has two different planning processes - a public one and a private one - and that at any time the public plan can get thrown out when Harvard decides to unveil another piece of the secret plan.
Engineering profs, meanwhile, tell the Crimson they just don't know how they'll survive on the tundra all the way on the other side of the mighty Charles:
"I believe that should we be transported across the river, our model—our paradigm, really—cannot work," said Steven C. Wofsy, area dean for environmental science and engineering.