Undergraduate Council representative Randall A. Fine '96, who brought up the Yale option, said he was surprised at the response.

"I really was surprised at the amount of sympathy that was expressed for the plan," Fine said. "It immediately took on the characterization of an actual option."

"If students didn't know that they had to worry about where they live, they wouldn't worry about it," Fine said.

The Yale system assigns first-years to dormitories in the Old Yard; each dorm corresponds to an upper-class house. If students form sophomore rooming groups from more than one dorm, the group is randomly assigned to one of the students' houses.

At the meeting, one of the problems raised with a Yale-style plan was that students might not easily be able to form blocking groups across different dorms.

The meeting served more as an airing of opinion for Jewett's benefit than as a definitive statement on randomization.

Other issues raised in relation to the housing lottery included the question of adequate representation of various groups in each house under the current system and the possibility of moving the date of the housing lottery to early February. Currently, Harvard students learn their housingfate in April.

Also discussed at the meeting was modifying theinter-house transfer policy to make it easier forrooming groups to transfer together or, ifrandomization is implemented, to accommodate forthe lack of choice in first-year housing by makingtransfers less difficult.

Party Policies

Also proposed was a suggestion to change theCollege's policy on parties where alcohol isserved. Currently, only members of the house andinvited guests may attend a house party thatserves alcohol, and the party may only beadvertised in the house where it is held.

The masters at the meeting were amenable to theidea of allowing more joint-house parties wherealcohol is served, either at the house master's orthe dean of student's discretion