Stocked with Jocks

We are moving toward two separate societies, one athletic--one non-athletic...

Or so goes the wisdom of Kirkland House Master Donald K. Pfister, and perhaps some of his colleagues, who express concern that certain houses are becoming too "jocky," and therefore lack diversity. And last week the chairman of the athletic department, Jack Reardon, tried to encourage freshmen athletes to be more open-minded in their house selection.

There is nothing wrong with asking students to look beyond one or two houses in making their selection. But the question to ask is why were only athletes accused of grouping in certain houses.

Lumping students into the amorphous group of "athletes" is unfair and narrow-minded. It assumes that the essential character of an individual is defined by an extracurricular, athletic activity, and not the full range of an undergraduate's interests and studies. Is someone who goes jogging every morning or lifts weights considered a jock? Or do you have to earn a varsity letter to be jumbled in with this select group? Is an athlete still one after his or her season is over?

We currently live under a lottery system which is designed to give students a choice in where they will live for their years as upperclassmen. While not every student can live in the house of his choice and some unfortunates must be randomly assigned, approximately 80 percent end up living in their first choice house. In a student poll conducted by the Crimson several years ago, undergraduates approved of this system, and not one which placed students in houses at random.

That athletes were picked out as sounding boards for what some consider a lack of diversity in the houses appears even more arbitrary when other houses--such as Adams and Lowell House--are considered. Both houses have a well-known reputation for attracting and catering to a certain "student type," yet they go unmentioned in the recent uproar about house diversity.

If this mentality gains further acceptance, who knows how far the College administration will want to fiddle with student choices about who they want to live with. Maybe rooming groups will be next--physics concentrators, singers, and people who like the color blue next may be asked to live apart--all in the name of diversity.