LOST BELIEF

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Last Friday morning I lost whatever still remained of my respect for your judgment. And more importantly I lost my belief in the sincerity of your professed concern to "serve" the Harvard community.

The publication of the Freshman Housing Poll, prior to the deadline for filing house applications, seems to me to have been both irresponsible journalism and a blatant disservice to the freshman class.

A poll publicizing the projected of certain houses, especially when that poll falls far short of being either complete or representative, undermines the House selection system as it now stands. It lures freshmen into trying to make decisions based on second guessing their classmates, rather than on their own choice of House. Even if you believe this poll to be a positive addition to the system, do you think it was fair to those freshmen who turned in their forms prior to Friday morning?

I see no service that was provided for your readership which could not simply have been provided by printing the poll after all the applications were filed. In short, last Friday The Crimson irresponsibly overstepped its bounds by attempting to make, rather than to report, the news. Katherine Fulton '78