Yale Housing System Enhances Social Life

To the editors:

As a Yale first-year, I have to agree with the position of Judd B. Kessler ’04 on assigning first-years to houses (Column, “Living It Up, Yale-Style,” Oct. 22). Two months into the school year, I have friends and acquaintances from nearly all 12 residential colleges despite my affiliation with Morse College. I have also met numerous Morse upperclassmen, most of whom are eager to show a green first-year the ropes. Assigning us to residential colleges does not diminish our opportunities to meet each other—we still live together as a class; rather, it enhances our integration into the greater undergraduate population. While breaking tradition is always difficult, affiliating Harvard first-years with upperclass Houses would provide them with better social opportunities and would also help to rejuvenate the Houses.

Douglas M. London

New Haven, Conn.

Oct. 29, 2002