Mather Lottery to Help Groups Stay Intact

Sophomores entering Mather House next year will likely be assigned more favorable rooming configurations because of a new housing lottery system. Mather House co-Master Leigh G. Hafrey '73 said in an interview yesterday.

The Mather House Housing Lottery Review Committee approved the changes Wednesday in an effort to create more space for sophomore rooming blocks within the House, Hafrey said.

The previous lottery system has often divided incoming sophomore rooming blocks by accommodating them only after junior and senior room selections have been made, Hafrey said.

The changes are partially aimed at "compacting the junior and senior presence in the third and forth floors of low-rise house" so that there will be enough space available to keep sophomore rooming groups together, Hafrey said.

With the old system, sophomores were often assigned to the Mather overflow housing at 10 DeWolfe St. that juniors and seniors had passed over, he said.

Sophomores living in DeWolfe have found it more difficult to become a part of the Mather House Community, said a recently released committee document on the lottery reform.

"DeWolfe is populated primarily by sophomores, who as a result tend not to integrate as quickly as we would wish with the larger Mather community," the document said.

The new system will try to attract juniors and seniors to DeWolfe by converting three of the current four-person suites into three person suites.

Hafrey said this type of arrangement has worked well for Eliot House, which assigns its overflow DeWolfe rooms to two students.

Eliot house's DeWolfe suites have proven to be popular with seniors, partially because they are "ideal" for thesis writing, Hafreysaid.

Under the new system, rooming groups comprisedof one junior and three or more seniors will beallowed to enter the lottery as a senior groupwithout penalty.

This provision will hopefully round out roominggroups and minimize the necersity of assigningfloaters to random rooms, Hafrey said.

Another change will require junior and seniorrooming groups to complete questionnaires designedto match floaters with partially filled roominggroups. These forms have traditionally beendistributed only to sophomores.

Sophomores will now be informed of their livingsituation before they arrive on campus inSeptember, so that they will know if their roominggroup has been broken up, Evers said.

The Housing Lottery Review Committee, whichincludes students, house tutors and the housemasters, was formed in the fall of 1993 to discusschanges in the Mather House lottery system

Under the new system, rooming groups comprisedof one junior and three or more seniors will beallowed to enter the lottery as a senior groupwithout penalty.

This provision will hopefully round out roominggroups and minimize the necersity of assigningfloaters to random rooms, Hafrey said.

Another change will require junior and seniorrooming groups to complete questionnaires designedto match floaters with partially filled roominggroups. These forms have traditionally beendistributed only to sophomores.

Sophomores will now be informed of their livingsituation before they arrive on campus inSeptember, so that they will know if their roominggroup has been broken up, Evers said.

The Housing Lottery Review Committee, whichincludes students, house tutors and the housemasters, was formed in the fall of 1993 to discusschanges in the Mather House lottery system