"Tight groups of 16 made no effort to branch out," says Thomas A. Dingman '67, associate dean of the College for human resources and the House system. "The masters felt there was so little inclination to meet new people, so we shouldn't make it so easy."

And without any single theme for residents to unify around, there is less of a basis for coherent community."You have to have something around which you create this community in the Houses," says Gary J. Schwarzmueller, the executive director of the Association of College and University Housing Officers. "If there isn't a theme, there's less likelihood of people finding something that's common to connect."

Absent any theme for students to rally around, the creation of cohesive residential communities is left to the talents and efforts of the individual adults in residence--in Harvard's case, the House masters.

"On the masters will depend, more than anything else, the success of the project. The atmosphere, the aspirations, the enjoyment of the Houses, will take their tone from them," President Lowell wrote in 1929.

Today, this has become a gargantuan task. While other schools' moves toward House-like communities might prevent special interest balkanization and allow for greater supervision of drinking, at Harvard community spirit has proven more difficult to build.

Students, to say nothing of faculty, have far more commitments than they once did, and precious little time to devote to the life of the House.