Although the decision was not taken to a vote, Lewis and other Masters said the decision appeared to have the unqualified support of the entire council of Masters.

Quincy House Master Michael Shinagel, who also chairs the council of masters and is a member of the COHL, said this decision addresses what most concur is a glaring shortcoming of randomization.

"Our experience is that randomization has worked well, with the sole exception that we get these artificially engorged blocking groups," Shinagel said. "It's harder to integrate people into the House as a whole."

In addition, the size change will allow the Houses to pinpoint the ideal gender ratio.

"With smaller blocks, it will be possible to get the gender ratios in each House much closer to the ratio for the College as a whole," Lewis wrote.

In 1996, when the College did not control for gender in the randomization process, the rising sophomore class assigned to Pforzheimer House was 70 percent male, leading to an overall House population that was 59 percent male.

Even among those Masters who did not originally support randomization, the consensus is that the size reduction is an appropriate move.