We have all been through it. As freshmen, we anxiously awaited that fateful spring day on which we received the judgment that could make or break our Harvard years: House assignments. This year's freshmen were especially cautious in plotting their housing strategies. Some relied on computer readouts, intricate polls and the ever-trustworthy grapevine for data on their housing game plan.

Although most rising sophomores were placed in one of their three chosen Houses in this year's lottery, there was wailing and gnashing of teeth among the 17 per cent who were destined to live in a House they fervently hoped to avoid. Many of the most disappointed freshmen were assigned to one of the Quad Houses.

Since the assignments, however, many of these students have sampled their future Houses and decided that, while there may be plenty of room for improvement at the Quad, it is not as bad as they feared.

Helping disgruntled sophomores adjust to life at the Quad is a major concern of the Quad House masters. "It's going to be very hard," Hanna Hastings, co-master of North House, admits. Hastings and co-master J. Woodland Hastings hope to sponsor more House activities and they are adding three more tutors to the present staff to cover more areas of interest. And the Hastings plan to participate wholeheartedly in House life. "We certainly will continue to be very visible and to be as active as we can," she says.

North House has a lot of good things going for it, she believes. "We've got a certain sense of community and we hope the enthusiasm of the tutors and the present North House community will be contagious," she says.

Rulan C. Pian, master of South House, is also optimistic about the feeling of community at her House. The House is quieter and more friendly than the River Houses and the masters want to keep it that way, she says.

Pian says she is glad that some freshmen living in the Yard will have a chance to come live at the Quad. Once students are settled at Radcliffe, they will grow to like it, she believes. The anti-Quad prejudice stems from ignorance of what the Quad is really like, she says.

"There are several [students] who have expressed to me that they don't want to live at the Quad forever, but they don't want to try a River House and come back. I understand that psychology," she says.

One future Quad resident, Eugene J. Green '80, says he neither expected nor wanted to live in South House next year and he was initially upset, thinking he would be isolated from an active social life at the River Houses. But he has resolved to make the most of his situation. He was pleased to find lots of friends and "rowdy freshmen" at the room selection lottery and says he anticipates more than one lively party next year.

The Quad will undergo many physical changes during the coming year, such as the construction of a South House dining hall and the remodeling of the main dormitories in North House to include suites. Other proposed alterations include the expansion of shuttle bus service to and from the Quad, the extension of open hours at Hilles Library, and the relocation of the Social Studies office to the Hilles basement.

Green feels there are many other steps the University can take to make South House more attractive. He wants to work with other students in the House, possibly through the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life, to improve and expand athletic and recreation facilities at Radcliffe.

"If I really put my mind to it, and make the most of what the Quad has to offer, I may stay here for two, three, or four years," Green said. "Just because I'm in the Quad, I'm not going to suffer."

James Mulqueeny Jr. '80 says when he first learned he was assigned to South House, he felt "screwed by the system and really shocked." He and his roommates could not believe that their carefully calculated housing choices worked against them.

The room lottery helped Mulqueeny change his mind about the House. "I love it. I didn't know I'd have a single, I didn't know there would be co-ed bathrooms or that I'd be right over Vinnie's Grill," he says.

Mulqueeny, Doug Oman '79 and Hector Terraza '78 are now searching for a new name for the House. "South House is a temporary name at best," he says, adding that "it's time for some historical names."