Word: jewett
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Dean of the College L. Fred Jewett '57's decision to randomize the housing lottery for the class of 1999 is highly problematic, and its implications for both the House system and the College are deeply troubling...
first, neither the administration nor the House Masters have demonstrated any attention to students opinion. The Undergraduate Council has found that 81 percent of students oppose randomization in its recent poll; the Independent survey found an even higher number opposed; and over 200 students signed a letter asking Jewett, incoming Dean Harry Lewis, and the house masters not to Insititute this plan. None of this seems to mean anything to the administration, which has a foolishly single-minded commitment to diversity...
...timing of Dean Jewett's decision is wrong because it appears geared toward silencing student protest. Rather than facing a series of potentially escalating protests, the dean watches as his opponents leave for the summer two weeks later. When they return, tensions have cooled and there are new concerns at hand. And a new dean...
...Jewett's impending retirement suggests another wrinkle for conspiracy theorists to latch onto. Incoming Dean Harry R. Lewis '68 favors randomization of the housing lottery process. In fact, he endorsed it as co-chair of a faculty committee that reopened the debate on the housing lottery last fall. Isn't it just possible that the outgoing Jewett made the decision so that the incoming Lewis would not have to anger his students in the first year of his term? It's a classic maxim of The Prince for the ruler to separate himself from the executors of unpopular policies...
...saying that this conspiracy theory is any more true than one of Oliver Stone's, but in political disputes the appearance is often as significant as the reality. Dean Jewett's claim that he delayed the decision until the end of the semester in order to listen to as many voices as possible may be entirely true. But that won't help relations with students who feel that the administration deliberately suckered them...