Freshmen Write Evaluation of Houses

Three Harvard students have published a freshman guide to upperclass housing to help freshman choose Houses in the lottery later this month.

The guide, entitled "Where to Sleep Around Harvard," is an alternative to the housing office's guide, Elizabeth Franklin '83, a contributor to the guide said yesterday. Unlike the housing office guide, the new guide has a uniform basis of comparison and many statistics, Franklin said.

The students compiled the information by visiting the Houses and talking to residents, Franklin said. "From the very beginning we were offering our opinions and do not claim to be completely objective," she said.

Last year, B.M.C. Mavrolean '82 and Jay N. Itzkowitz '82 published a similar guide, and last week they advised the three freshman with this year's issue, Franklin said.

Some freshman said yesterday they feel the guide is virtually identical to last year's version and is misleading students in their choice of houses.

Deja Vu

Robert E. Curtin '83 and Steven J. Bernheim '83 tried to complain to Archie C. Epps III, dean of students, yesterday but were unable to reach him. Curtin said yesterday this year's guide reuses passages from last year's guide that are not applicable to the Houses this year. "So you can't trust the whole thing," Bernheim said.

"Last year's copy was used, but the content is different," Damian C. Elwes '83, an editor of the new guide, said yesterday. The reused passages that do not apply were oversights, he added.

Last year, some students felt the guide tried to direct freshman away from the House the authors hoped to live in. The only House that Mavrolean and Itekowitz criticized harshly last year was Adams House, Franklin said. Mavrolean and Itekowitz are now residents of Adams House. Elwes said that he and his roommate, Greg Scherick '83, also an editor of the guide, have not decided on housing.

The students are selling the guide for 99 cents outside the Union during meals. Between Monday and yesterday afternoon they sold 175 copies, Elwes said yesterday.

Capitalists

"It's more an amusing magazine than anything else," Franklin said, adding that the students made the guide because they wanted to draw and write creatively in a lucrative venture.

"We saw a lot of curious and nervous freshman that would demand the guide so we supplied it," Elwes said.

Several upperclassmen said yesterday they thought the guide was not completely accurate. "It is difficult to capture the spirit of a House except by living there," Amy K. Eiden '81, Leverett House committee chairman, said yesterday, adding that the Leverett analysis was partially correct.