Owen Calls for Changes In House Choice System

David E. Owen, Master of Winthrop House, yesterday called for a reconsideration of the present method of selection of freshmen for the House.

Owen said that the present system, in which each freshman applies to three Houses and the Masters make the final selection, "is definitely not satisfactory." He urged that President Pusey authorize a study of the problem and that definite changes be considered.

Although a great majority of the students are attracted by the new facilities of Quincy and Leverett House, Owen asserted that the deluge of applications for the new buildings is only part of the problem. "The major weakness of the present system," according to Owen, is "the amount of time and effort the Master must put into selecting applicants in the busiest season of the year.

Yale System Considered

Owen said that the Masters suggested possible changes at recent meetings but did not give detailed consideration to the problem. One plan that has been mentioned is the Yale system, which allows freshmen to pick their roommates but uses an IBM machine to assign them to the Colleges.

Although the arbitrary selection plan seems to work at Yale, Owen said that he would still like to see "some element of choice preserved for the Harvard Masters." He hoped eventually to see a system co-ordinating machine choice with selection by the Masters.

Elliott Perkins, Master of Lowell House, attacked resorting to the Yale system. "We should go as far as we can to preserve each student's freedom to state a choice," Perkins maintained. Although he agreed that there are weaknesses in the present system, he said that he would "hate to replace human decisions with IDM machines.'

Both Perkins and Gordon M. Fair, Master of Dunster House, said that the problem has been increased recently by the great number of applications to Quincy and Leverett House, but they expressed confidence that the situation will ease in a few years. Owen maintained that over-application to the two Houses will probably remain a semi-permanent situation.

"These are trying days with the new Houses," Fair asserted, "because we want them to develop a good group of students.' Fair asserted, "because we want them to develop a good group of students." But he said that good will exists among the Masters and there is no need to change the system now.