"I think athletes have a unique lesson to teachHarvard students--that you don't get a 100 percentwinning season," says J. Woodland Hastings.

Although some raise the question of studentsinterests, most agree the administration's goalwith randomization is to distribute members ofethnic minorities throughout the housing system.

Blocking groups, Jewett has said, are oftenmixed by race and activities, and so would stilllikely be fairly diverse.

The question remains: should members of certainethnic groups, such as Blacks, Asian Americans andLatinos, be allowed to group themselves in certainhouses through the non-ordered choice process?

President of the Civil Liberties Union ofHarvard (CLUH) E. Michelle Drake '97 says shebelieves the administration has one purpose inpromoting randomization.

"I think the University's main reason [forpromoting randomization] is to get rid of thesegregation going on in the Quad," says Drake, whosays she is speaking for herself and not for CLUH.

Those interviewed tended to agree with Drake,although they differed greatly on the solutions.

Master of Currier House William A. Graham Jr.says randomization is the best way to preserve thediversity the admissions office carefullycultivates.

The admissions office does "a terrific job ofmixing a class of diverse backgrounds of allkinds," Graham says. "Randomization gives theclosest chance to mirror that in the houses."

One Lowell resident says the effects ofnon-ordered choice sadden her.

"For a school such as Harvard that's supposedto be a bastion of knowledge to be segregated theway it is between the river and the Quad is a bad,bad thing," says Lowell House resident Alexis A.Topjian '96. "The number of African-Americans in ahouse [like Lowell] of 400 people is maybe four orfive."

A Stanford transfer student says he likesliving in Cabot House because of its mix ofpeople.

"I transferred from Stanford, where they had anAsian-American house, an African-American house, aHispanic house," says Crowan J. Roberts '97. "Ididn't really like that. I like it at Cabotbecause you have a sense of community. I think ifI had been in Eliot I might not have felt thatway."

Shinagel says that Blacks who choose to live inthe Quad "ghettoize" themselves.

"I don't think ghettoization is what theHarvard experience should be about," Shinagelsays. "You sort of engage in an implicit contractwhen you come to Harvard, it seems to me. Ifyou're African-American--one doesn't go to HowardUniversity, one goes to Harvard University."