Pity the Poor Senior

From Dunster to Lowell there were shouts of glee and a gnashing of teeth when the lots were drawn and football seats were parcelled out in September. Probably the loudest gnashing came from the Seniors in Lowell House, who for three years had wormed their way slowly towards mid-field, only to be thrust rudely back to the 20-yard line in their last year. Behind this disruption was a decision by the H. A. A. to experiment with an undergraduate suggestion that seats be proportioned by Houses rather than by classes.

With this decision one of the last cherished luxuries of the Senior year went out the window. Even if seat choices are rotated with this year's listing as a starting point, there is no chance for a Sophomore in Winthrop, which was third from the bottom, to get anything but worse seats for the next two years. If lots are drawn every year, the risk is even greater. A long-term law of averages is small consolation to a student who is only in a House for three years.

On the basis of the individual student's preference, there is no more justification for handing out seats by Houses than by classes. To say that the average undergraduate has more friends in his own House than in his class is both an unprovable and arbitrary statement. A return to the old system of distribution by classes should be given serious consideration before the experiment has a chance to become permanent.