John M. Harrington ’03 said that after receiving the e-mail, he and his roommates discussed whether it was appropriate for the masters to take their political stances to their students.

“They’re effectively the first line of the administration we have to talk to,” he said. “Whereas college deans are removed from us, our House Masters are supposed to be our personal deans. Hearing that sort of passed down as the party line can be taken as the word of our administrator—not that that’s what we’re supposed to believe, but that’s the acceptable opinion.”

On the other hand, Harrington said that he, like Nicholas, appreciated that the masters were taking part in the intellectual life of the House.

Lowell Master Diana L. Eck said she considered “engagement on the issues of the day” an important contribution to the Houses, and said she and Lowell Co-Master Dorothy Austin participated in a discussion of the State of the Union address on Tuesday.

“I think both the Palfreys are sensitive enough to community dynamics that [the e-mail] will, in fact, facilitate discussion,” she said.

Leverett Master Howard Georgi wrote in an e-mail that he preferred not to take public political stances, instead opting for individual discussions with students, but he added that this policy was “purely a matter of personal style.”

While Sean and Judy Palfrey said several students have approached them individually to thank them for the e-mail, it has not sparked discussion over the Adams Schmooze list.

“I think that it was essentially a non-issue,” said Adams resident Joshua A. Barro ’05. “They didn’t spur a debate about it, and they didn’t stifle people.”

“Did it produce an overwhelming outpouring? No, and in fact that’s fine,” Sean Palfrey said. “We wrote it very carefully so that it was not contentious in any way.”

Harrington said he thought more people might have responded if the Palfreys had sent the e-mail over the Schmooze, where their opinions “would have been thrown up just like any other student would have expressed an opinion.”

The choice to send the e-mail to all residents, Sean Palfrey said, came because he knew that some students who had asked about their participation in peace marches were not on the Schmooze list.

—Staff writer Nura A. Hossainzadeh contributed to the reporting of this story.

—Staff writer Elisabeth S. Theodore can be reached at theodore@fas.harvard.edu.