Fair Play

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Pity the poor set of "innovative" freshmen whose advantage was undercut by the publication of The Crimson's housing poll. Now instead of an immense private advantage they have only a sight strategic edge and the public recognition of how "talented," "determined," and "ingenious" they are. Never mind that this marvelous talent demonstrated itself through the wonderful practice of defrauding their classmates and misrepresenting themselves in order to obtain personal information that certainly would not have been volunteered to them.

Pity we may have for them, but for the administration's "aren't they cute" attitude and The Crimson's decision to comment on the process only insofar as the private poll validated The Crimson's own survey, another response is in order. Both of these reactions, are characterized by self-congratulation and absolute admiration for the devious, fraudulent nature of the private poll. While we may perhaps find the original deception excusable--weren't we all freshmen who thought the housing lottery was the most important event of our lives once, and would have done nearly anything to avoid the horrors of the (a) Quad or (b) River?--the public endorsement of this demonstration of win-at-all-costs, cut-throat spirit of competition can only be termed reprehensible. Fair play, anyone? Dean Spencer '78