"Your lifelong friends become the people you'velived with for three years. You recognize thosepeople more, and they are the people you tend tosit with in your classes," says Johnathan O.Williams '88, house committee chairman of CurrierHouse. "You identify more with your house thanwith your class."

Student praise for the community aspect ofhouse life is a return on the College's heavyinvestment in the system both in terms of moneyand personnel.

Substantial Financial Investment

Following the student activism of the late1960s, the University decided to increase thefunding for house activities in an attempt to makethe houses more appealing. The house masters nowshare $98,654 from a special endowment fund,$289,860 from a "house fund," and $220,000 forhouse libraries, Gefter says. The money is dividedon the basis of house populations, Gefter says,except the Quad houses, which have use of HillesLibrary, receive a smaller proportion of thelibrary fund.

In addition, each house receives its share ofthe meal pool and $6000 apiece for improvementsand alterations, except Dudley which receives only$3000.

House masters use the endowment money "largelyfor special dinners and events," Gefter says,adding that the "house fund tends to be used foradministrative costs such as the housenewsletter." But within these very generalguidelines, the masters are free to spend themoney as they see fit.

All of this money has led to a dramaticexpansion in house facilities and house-basedactivities, with the result that the socialaspects of the community have been enhanced, housemasters say.

The houses have been able to keep pace withstudents' new interests--adding community serviceprojects and weight rooms--while maintaining oldtraditions including house libraries and dramasocieties.

The College has further increased the houses'importance by centering many administrativefunctions there, including student housing andgraduate school recommendations. In particular,the establishment in the 1950s of the Allston Burrsystem of senior tutors in effect created anindividual dean for each house and moved personalcounseling out the University Hall and into thehouses.

Adminstrators say the house-based advisingsystem works well. Senior tutors say that becausethey generally know students informally, they canbetter advise the students and represent them tothe Administrative Board.

Student Center Would Add to House Life

"Resident tutors can keep an eye on thestudents around them in an unobtrusive way,"Dowling says. "We're quite successful at pickingup problems as they come along. We know that atany one time there are 12 students out of 450 inthe house that we are very concerned about.

Despite the widespread praise of houseresidential life, undergraduates say the system isfar from perfect.

Sophomores in particular--even those whoreceived their first choice house--say the housessometimes fail to be sufficiently welcoming. Eventhough most houses hold sophomore dinners andother welcoming events, many of the sophomoresinterviewed responded that they knew few residentsof their house and even fewer tutors. "We don'tknow anybody," says Eunny P. Lee '90 of QuincyHouse. "It's hard to meet people because they tendto stay with people they know."

A sizable minority of the students interviewed,including some who generally praised the housesystem, criticized the University for emphasizingthe houses to the exclusion of events andfacilities for the entire student body. The focuson smaller self-contained units often preventsundergraduates from meeting people in otherhouses, these students say.