However, he also said that it continues to be a challenge to incorporate outside faculty into House life.

Addressing post-randomization life, Dingman said that the effort might seem to "smack of social engineering," yet explained that it would be a shame not to take advantage of the admissions office's work in creating a diverse student body.

"We knew exciting things could happen," Dingman said, citing recent poll results that 11 out of 13 students felt an improvement in House life since randomization.

As for future efforts toward improvement, he suggested improving advising and outreach to students, and on the more radical side, adopting a Yale-style residential system in which first-year students are assigned directly to a residential college.

Following the panelists' presentations, discussion included dialogue about improving student involvement, increasing diversity and shrinking blocking groups.

One extensive point of discussion was the apparent conflict between the administration's desire to create diverse, heterogeneous Houses, and the students' desires to create large blocking groups of friends with common backgrounds.

Janel A. Moore '00 said she took issue with the administration's efforts to separate members of such homogeneous groups in the name of diversification.

While Moore agreed with the overall goal of making a diverse House community, she said, "It's not fair that we bear the brunt of this idea of a grand community."