If the enhanced choice system brings back stereotypes, as it might, then the administration will insist that lottery system be changed again in a few years. The administration's backlash against the failed systems which promoted choice might lead it to support complete randomization of the housing lottery.
Is this what we want? Not according to student body polls.
Randomization would be going too far with no reason. Non-ordered choice has diffused some house stereotypes. Some changes have been unexpected and even welcome to original opponents of the plan. Kirkland House has its share of Detur Prize winners now, and Adams House participates more actively in intramural sports.
Most people agree that this diversity is a positive development, although it has been achieved by reducing the integrity of student choice. This has been one of the best by-products of the non-ordered choice plan. Are we willing to give up these gains for a few years of an increased percentage of choice for only some students?
Very few people involved in this issue pretend to know all the answers. The Committee on House Life, through which all issues of residential life are debated in a group equally composed of students, faculty and House masters, is discussing a lot of related issues designed to make students happier with their living environments.
The process of interhouse transfers, intended only for students extremely unhappy with their house assignments, was made far more humane last year. And it is under discussion again now. One house master has proposed allowing students to choose whether to have three or four non-ordered choices, which would benefit students who only want to live in the Quad.
Lately I have begun to doubt whether we will ever see the old system of ordered choice, and that's a shame. But we must work within this unchangeable constraint as we try to make Harvard's houses the most comfortable communities possible.
The proposed system of enhanced choice does not seem to further that goal in the long term.
Hillary K. Anger '93-'94 is an editor of The Crimson. She is also a member of the Committee on House Life and a former Chair of the Undergraduate Council's Residential Committee.