Although the SCA report did not specifically discuss introducing quotas on minorities in the individual houses, it compared the athlete imbalances to hypothetical gender and minority imbalances, stating, "It would certainly vitiate the Lowell ideal (and the current coeducational ideal) if any house became disproportionately male or female. The same would be true if any house became disproportionately minority or white. We believe the same is true when any house becomes disproportionately representative of either athletes or non-athletes."

College officials have said that current imbalances between minority representation in the Houses are "not statistically significant."

While administrators toyed with measures aimed at preventing imbalances in the outcomes of future housing lotteries, this year's procedure continued in its three-year-old format. Under that current system, freshmen receive their lottery numbers from the housing office and then give the office their first three house choices. The College then uses a system designed to maximize the number of students who receive their first choice.

Before 1986, students were not told their lottery numbers, and that change sparked attempts to outwit the system and calls to return to the old method or a random lottery.

"Better than ever" was how Housing Officer Lisa M. Colvin described this year's lottery, which was 10 days shorter than last year's 27-day process. Fewer freshmen called in with problems or complaints than in years past, Colvin said.

The outcome of the lottery also indicated increasing parity among the houses and equilibrium in the system. Virtually the same percentage of students received their first choice house as last year--76.5 percent--and the same number of houses were filled in each round as last year--five in round one, one in round two, two in round three, and four in the random round.

Also significant was the dramatic rise of the popularity of the Quad among students, who have traditionally ignored the old Radcliffe dormitories. The University has just spent two years and $33 million renovating the Quad. According to North House Master J. Woodland Hastings, his house was the first or second choice of as many students as any other house.

Overall, a Crimson poll showed more students picked Leverett first than any other house. Eliot, Quincy and Winthrop Houses followed Leverett. In a shake-up at the bottom of the list, Lowell House sank to 11th displacing all but one Quad House.

In other developments, the College created subsidized off-campus housing last fall for the first time ever. Designed to ease overcrowding in the houses, the "annex housing" program also benefited transfer students, who are not guaranteed on-campus housing.

College overcrowding eased this year as large classes graduated and fewer students returned from leave, so University officials decided to use annex housing primariy for transfer students. The move allowed Harvard to accept a record number of transfer students, 100, this spring for the 1988-89 academic year.