"My general view is that students used the system of ordered choice against its original intentions by flocking to the houses," said former Cabot Master Jurij Striedter.

Black student leaders said they thought the new era marked a loss of a social center for blacks, but said that the problems facing minority students remained unchanged.

"The Quad previously served as a center of minority social activity, but still was never a place where you found a majority of black students," said Black Students Association President Derek N. Ashong '97.

"Any black student is aware that by entering Harvard, he or she has chosen a majority white environment," Ashong said.

Pforzheimer House race relations tutor Elizabeth Guzenar said the new figures confirmed her worst fears of the marginalization of minority students in the eyes of the administration.

"I hope that they are committed to reviewing [randomization] and the needs of minority students," Guzenar said. "We all want to pretend that race doesn't matter, but it does. It matters to all students."

But other house leaders said that the study, while accurate, did not persuade them that the houses are the proper spot for ethnic grouping.

"I don't think the residence halls are the place to wage that issue, there are a variety of other outlets for that," said Cabot House race relations tutor Thomas H. Lee '91