Logical Lottery

To the Editors of The Crimson:

In an effort to improve the housing lottery, freshman rooming groups this year were given their lottery housing numbers before filling out house preference forms. Unfortunately, it has not proven to be a successful innovation, and further reform of the system is needed.

The lottery runs on a very simple premise. Because some houses are more popular than others, the preference of every freshman cannot be met. Therefore, a lottery is held to create a queue of rooming groups. By its intention, rooming group 99 in the lottery should have a better chance of getting into the house of its choice than number 100.

But the lottery does not always work this way because it requires freshmen to make clever calculations and to take risks. Number 99 may think that Adams House is out of the question or not worth the risk, while number 100 may be better at calculating its possibility of getting into Adams, or more adventuresome. In this manner, group 100 may get into Adams while group 99 does not, although both groups wished to live there. Clearly, the lottery does not live up to its intention.

The solution to the problem does not lie in returning to the old system, which also required speculation and risk-taking, but in extending the logic of the lottery. The university could call for an assembly of rooming groups after assigning lottery numbers. At the assembly, the spots available in each house would be presented on a big board, and the groups would be called in order to make their choices. After each group made its decision, the number of spots in the chosen house would be appropriately reduced. In this way, speculation and risk-taking would be eliminated because each group would know which houses were unfilled when its turn arose.

While this system may have its drawbacks, such as the logistical problem of convening the rooming groups--although not all the rooming groups would have to be assembled at one time--it would fulfill the intentions of the lottery and eliminate a lot of stress among freshman. Edward B. Lazere '86