The Currier House Image

To the Editors of the Crimson:

I was very disturbed by the insensitivity of your choice of the photograph to accompany your March 21 story, "Freshmen Get Housing Lottery Results."

For too long has Currier House been portrayed by the campus media as the one House whose residents are trapped for three years in some sort of purgatorial prison. Your photograph undoubtedly cemented this misconception in the minds of a whole new generation of students so that next year, too, there will be freshman who end up with an "anywhere but Currier" attitude from talking to upperclassmen who hardly ever set foot in the Quad

The fostering of such an attitude is unfair to the students currently living in Currier who have been amazingly successful in maintaining the House's morale in the face of an unremitting barrage of negative publicity.

It is inconsiderate of those freshman recently assigned to the House who are indeed distraught over not receiving their first choices.

It is a disservice to the freshmen to come who will make their housing decisions in an atmosphere poisoned by prejudice.

Finally, it is insensitive at the worst time to the minority students at Currier who undoubtedly (and probably accurately) perceive that a large portion of the bias against Currier is caused by their presence in such large numbers in the House.

Whether we like it or not, twenty-five percent of us are going to live at the Quad. It is everyone's responsibility to help those students who are disappointed by being assigned there feel as comfortable with their new situation as possible. Andrew B. Herrmann '82