Students, Faculty Debate Diversity

Race, quality of student life, community building and identity formation at Harvard are hardly unfamiliar topics. These and other issues were on the agenda as more than 100 students and members of the faculty and administration convened in Sanders Theatre last night for a discussion on "Randomization and Self Segregation at Harvard."

Co-sponsored by Diversity and Distinction Magazine and the Minority Student Alliance, the event was designed to spark debate on campus about the controversial three-year-old system of House randomization.

This system uses a computer lottery to place first-year blocking groups of up to 16 members are computerized into one of 12 residential Houses.

According to students attending the panel, randomization and self-segregation are at the heart of the student experience.

"Where we live is probably the most important aspect of our life at Harvard," said Susana E. Canseco 01.

Eliot House Master Stephen A. Mitchell, professor of Scandanavian folklore, like other members of the seven-person panel, expressed ambivalence about the current state of randomization.

Mitchell differentiated between the intended ideals of randomization--creating an education in the diverse and randomized Houses as students of diverse backgrounds interact--and the often more difficult practicalities of the process.

He, along with fellow panelist and Undergraduate Council President Beth A. Stewart '00, highlighted the lack of personal autonomy in choosing where to live as a serious flaw of randomization.

"I don't like Harvard's assumption that 18 and 19-year-olds cannot make their own choices," he said.

Members of the panel also agreed that the purported aims of randomization, such as obliterating exclusionary House identities and fostering racial mixing between and among all houses, has produced mixed results.

Students searching for an artsy, preppy or athletic environment, not to mention a dinner table with members of their racial or ethnic category, are often frustrated.

In defense of the racial self-segregation that accompanied the previously unrandomized House system, panel member and Eliot House resident Charisa A. Smith '00 recognized the "taxing effect" of being a student of color at Harvard.

"Harvard and its pressures necessitate the presence of a safe place where people feel at home and engaged," she said. In addition, Smith said the friendships formed over lunch in Annenberg end after the first year.

Smith also echoed other critics of randomization, calling self-segregation a positive, community-building experience.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Karen Ruggiero, also a panelist, confirmed what Smith and other students described as a gut intuition: the natural propensity to search for people like you when entering the dining hall.

Through a series of slides, Ruggiero explained that the law of interpersonal

attraction predicts that like will attractlike, not only in the dining hall but also atevents sponsored by a racial or ethnic group withwhich one identifies.

Although this identity group formation isnatural and nurturing in the shortrun, Ruggierowarned that "in the long run, self-segregationwill help maintain stereotypes [about otherraces]...during and after college."

However, students affected by randomization,especially those who feel that their tightcommunities have been destroyed, said they takeissue with Professor Ruggiero's suggested "levelof optimal distinctiveness," the balancing ofidentity-preservation with interaction withothers.

"It is not our role to be seasoned rice, tokenambassadors of our race throughout Harvard'sHouses," said panelist and Senior First MarshalBaratunde R. Thurston, speaking in defense ofself-segregation.

"At the end of the day, I am tired of racialstuff," said Thurston, who is also a Crimsonexecutive.

"When I go back to my dorm, I appreciate seeingpeople who have experienced similar things," hesaid.

For most students, however, the issue at theheart of randomization is the difficulty ofsearching for and creating community at Harvard.

Mitchell acknowledged that community buildingwas a positive aspect of the former housingsystem.

Other students charge the administration withthe responsibility for fostering House life in theera of post-randomization.

According to Lori E. Rifkin '00, who lives inQuincy House, the onus of creating community,whether that be an artsy Adams House or moreathletic Mather House, has shifted onto thestudents.

"The Masters and House tutors should be forcedto follow up on randomization," she said

attraction predicts that like will attractlike, not only in the dining hall but also atevents sponsored by a racial or ethnic group withwhich one identifies.

Although this identity group formation isnatural and nurturing in the shortrun, Ruggierowarned that "in the long run, self-segregationwill help maintain stereotypes [about otherraces]...during and after college."

However, students affected by randomization,especially those who feel that their tightcommunities have been destroyed, said they takeissue with Professor Ruggiero's suggested "levelof optimal distinctiveness," the balancing ofidentity-preservation with interaction withothers.

"It is not our role to be seasoned rice, tokenambassadors of our race throughout Harvard'sHouses," said panelist and Senior First MarshalBaratunde R. Thurston, speaking in defense ofself-segregation.

"At the end of the day, I am tired of racialstuff," said Thurston, who is also a Crimsonexecutive.

"When I go back to my dorm, I appreciate seeingpeople who have experienced similar things," hesaid.

For most students, however, the issue at theheart of randomization is the difficulty ofsearching for and creating community at Harvard.

Mitchell acknowledged that community buildingwas a positive aspect of the former housingsystem.

Other students charge the administration withthe responsibility for fostering House life in theera of post-randomization.

According to Lori E. Rifkin '00, who lives inQuincy House, the onus of creating community,whether that be an artsy Adams House or moreathletic Mather House, has shifted onto thestudents.

"The Masters and House tutors should be forcedto follow up on randomization," she said