By June of 1989, the housing administration resolved that they had to adjust the lottery system, and the non-ordered choice system, in which students could list four choices but not rank them, was implemented on a trial basis. The new system was the result of a compromise among some students who wanted to retain ordered choice and many House masters who insisted on fully random housing allotments.

HOUSING TODAY

In 1993, the House masters noticed that the Houses were continuing to have imbalances under the non-ordered choice system, and three years later, in the Spring of 1996, switched to complete randomization to promote greater diversity.

When the new procedure was first announced, 82 percent of the student body opposed the change. Dingman says that in the year following the transition to complete randomization, “it was problematic, because if you were a House that prided yourself on being athletic, then those rising sophomores that now had no interest in athletics felt it was a funny fit.”

In quick order, however, “it was not a problem,” Dingman says.

House surveys showed that House system satisfaction rose in the years after the shift to random assignment.

“I think it’s a much better system,” Dowling says.

—Staff writer Joanie D. Timmins can be reached at jtimmins@college.harvard.edu.