Says Roemer about Harvard students, "they look normal, act normal, just as it was 25 years ago, but they're bright as hell, which is what makes them so attractive."

Enrolled in Harvard at the age of 16, Roemer lived in Dunster House as an undergraduate. He is currently staying in Eliot House and says he is pleased about living there.

"If it takes 25 years to get into Eliot, it's worth it," he says, hastily adding "but I am planning on visiting Dunster."

Roemer, the Politician

After Roemer graduated from Harvard in 1963, he entered politics, rising from the Louisiana state legislature to the House of Representatives and finally landing in the governor's mansion. Throughout, he has been difficult to politically pin down.

At the start of his political career, he ran as a Democrat, albeit a conservative on fiscal issues. But in 1992, he switched parties and ran as a Republican for reelection to the governorship.

"The truth is I'm independent," says Roemer, adding that "parties in Louisiana don't really matter because of the open primaries. It's ideology and principle."

Roemer labels himself "a civil rights liberal, a social progressive and an economic opportunist." While the first two clearly mark him as a Democrat, the last demonstrates his strong Republican inclinations.

He gained national recognition during his 1981-1987 tenure at the House at the of Representatives, when he led the conservative Democrats, the Boll Weevils, in support of many of President Ronald Reagan's economic positions.

Despite his family background, which is strongly Democratic, Roemer is mostly known for his conservative stance on certain issues. Roemer, for example, opposed the Equal Rights Amendment and gun-control legislation.

But his stance on abortion has undergone a radical shift. Once considered a foe of pro-choice activists, Roemer claims to have changed his conservative stance an abortion.

Roemer attributes his change of faith to several factors, including reading the works of Professor of Geology Stephen J. Gould, who is also Agassiz professor of zoology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

"Reading Stephen J. Gould, I understand that there is no one point when life begins," Roemer says. "Needless to says more points are more equal than others."

In addition to grasping the complexity of defining life, he says, he says his willingness to listen to his constituents made him realize the many emotional and social facets of abortion.

"I have changed my position [on abortion] from what you may consider a classical pro-life...I'm more understanding now," Roemer says.