Lewis Agrees to Publish First-Year Housing Assignments on Internet

When housing results are announced tomorrow for first-years, students won't need to call their friends to find out where they are living. Instead, they may simply browse the Internet to look at the housing assignments of classmates.

In response to a request by the Undergraduate Council, Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 has agreed to put a complete list of first-year housing assignments on the World Wide Web.

Students said this is just one more example of the College's attempt to increase the distribution of information by computer.

But not all first-years are convinced that the public arena of the Internet should be used to list housing information.

Maggie W. Cheng '99 said she was hesitant to praise the system prematurely. "I think they should ask people if they want to be excluded from the list," Cheng said.

Cheng also said the system seems redundant. "It's the same as a phone book. I don't think it's incredibly necessary," Cheng said.

But others are more enthusiastic at the prospect of finding out about their future housemates.

Peter S. Manasantivongs '99 said he thinks "it's a great idea.... It makes things convenient. [Other students] will find out eventually anyway by word-of-mouth."

Ratios

Just one day away from the announcement of housing results, larger issues than Web lists still remain unresolved.

The College has not yet formally addressed the issue of the distorted gender ratios that may result from blind randomization.

While Lewis expressed personal concern and has recommended that the issue be addressed by a College committee scheduled to discuss larger issues of gender on campus, he said he felt the policy would eventually correct itself.

"It can't be too dramatic [a change] because it's only one-third of the population being replaced," Lewis said.

Lewis also said he felt it was too soon to predict if the gender ratios will significantly change, since house populations will be influenced by a variety of factors. "It depends on the size of blocking groups and their [composition]," Lewis said.