House Talk

To the Editors of The Crimson:

"And according to the Dean, the houses with comparatively low participation in nonathletic activities are the same as those in which athletic participation is very high" (The Harvard Crimson, 11/15). Although intended as an indicator of house homogeneity, this statement, in a uniquely inane manner, merely acknowledges the rigorous time demands of athletics at Harvard. The vacuity of this "discovery" reflects the humorously ineffectual manner of publication of the recent house survey. Although the survey did not name the houses, the published results did.

Dean Jewett apparently published the diversity data anonymously in order not to perpetuate house stereotypes, while still preserving the educational integrity of the survey. Yet the survey, in its anonymous form or not, indicates that these stereotypes are no longer caricatures but facts. For the reader, the numbers themselves rendered the caricatures real and the houses obvious. Dean Jewett's omission of house identities is a fleeting salve on the painful reality which his own results have made plain. This method is self-defeating. Craig Katz '91   Steven Kawut '91