Last summer, while the Class of 1978 recuperated from its first two semesters at Harvard, five administrators sat down at a series of meetings to study why over 130 members of the freshman class were assigned last spring to a Quad House they had listed among their last three choices.

This week the results of those discussions began to emerge, in one case arousing heated debate within the generally sedate Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life.

Early in the week the administration revealed it is spending almost $1 million to renovate North and South Houses in order to attract students. The renovations include major electrical rewiring and heating conservation measures in South House and new painting, carpeting, roofing and bathroom refinishing in both North and South Houses.

Several days later, at the CHUL's first meeting of the semester, the administration announced that the summer study group on housing had asked for a study of the educational effects of the 1-1-2 housing plan, which would shift all freshmen into the Quad and all sophomores into the Yard.

The proposal provoked immediate objection from masters and student representatives on the CHUL who fear that emphasis on the highly controversial plan would undercut other housing options that the committee finds more palatable.

After overriding procedural objections from its chairman, the CHUL voted to ask Dean Rosovsky to direct the coordinating committee of his educational task forces--which was to make the original 1-1-2 review--to study four other plans also. CHUL asked that the analysis be completed in January.

Those studying Harvard's housing system generally agree that physical improvements like those planned for South and North Houses are crucial to reversing the decreasing popularity of the Quad.

But what other steps are needed remains a subject of sharp debate. Quad House residents oppose moves to alter the class balance or sex ratio at their Houses or to move out all upperclassmen. Many in the University also oppose the radical 1-1-2 plan, which would dissolve the Quad House and alter the class makeup of the River Houses.

And as administrators, faculty members and students spend this fall scrutinizing the five housing options, members of the new freshman class will slowly be piecing together their rank list of upperclass Houses for use next spring.