"I think the best way to do it is the way theydid it last year," Goldfarb said. "There's a lotmore anxiety with this year's system," he said.

But other students defended the new system,saying it gives students more control over theirhousing assignments and encourages students toinquire about houses in which they might nototherwise be interested.

"Under the new system, people were much betterinformed about the houses," said UndergraduateCouncil member Robert H. Greenstein '89, the otherfreshman who oversaw the computer assignments."People were actually traveling out to MatherHouse and the Quad" to get information abouthouses, he said.

Eisert supported the new system, saying that inthe future, freshmen would benefit from thelessons learned this year. "This year peoplepanicked if they had number 350. Next year they'llrealize that with that number they still have achance to live in a house they find desirable,"Eisert said.

"When 80 percent get their first choice houses,and you also hear grumbling, you wonder what'sgoing on. Eighty percent is remarkably high,"Eisert said.

In past years, an average of about 70 percentof freshmen were assigned to their first choicehouse. Observers of this year's lottery havecalled the 80 percent figure misleading becausestudents did not necessarily list their trulypreferred house first