Word: monroe
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This year, the selection decisions have been transfered from the Masters to a committee on Assignments, composed of Faculty members. Students are permitted to send letters of preference to Dean Monro, stating "substantial reasons" for seeking admission to a particular House. Masters will be able to request the assignment of freshmen falling in a category--such as actors--or of particular roommate groups who send letters requesting admission to their Houses. Assignments will, however, be based primarily on a quota system which seeks to give each house a cross-section of the class...
...ought to be investigated. The old plan provided no way of telling which students had made their first choices for strong reasons and which for weak reasons--one first choice was like any other. The first assumption of the new plan is that only freshmen with strong reasons (Dean Monro calls them "substantial") for preferring a particular House will be sufficiently motivated to express his reasons in a letter to the Committee on Assignments...
...those administering the new assignment system do not seem in agreement over how many letters the mechanism needs to function effectively. Dean Monro has encouraged letters of preference, saying the "system depends strongly on them," while Bruce Chalmers, Master of Winthrop House, has said, "The system will work well if the number of letters is small." The upshot is that the Committee will key its definition of "substantial" on the number of letters its receives, but the freshmen will remain in the dark until after they have already made the decision whether or not to write...
Getting into Lowell House just might be worth the trouble of dashing off a letter of preference to Dean Monro. Hospitable but not closing, intellectual but not pedantic, relaxing but not dull, and spirited but not rahrah, Lowell is an exceedingly comfortable and pleasant home base, and has enough certified Harvardian electics to make it interesting...
...because their "vote" was no stronger than the others, their chance of achieving their objective was diluted. Under the system that is being used this year, you are not required to express a preference, and indeed to do so requires the minor, but real, efforts of writing to Dean Monro, telling him of your choice and your reasons for it. Your letter will be a basis for assignment if it shows a "substantial reason" for your choice. "Substantial" obviously must remain a relative term until the Dean has at least some idea of how many letters he will receive...