Students looking to live in Harnwell College House next year will face a new room-selection process based on a lottery giving preference to current residents.
The system has been modified since it was first formally introduced five weeks ago and now includes the possibility of room retention.
Students may retain their rooms if the room has not already been chosen by another student with a higher lottery number.
Lottery numbers are based on a point system; for each semester Harnwell residents have lived in the building, one point is awarded to them.
Harnwell Faculty Master David Brownlee said he likes the new policy because it rewards those loyal to Harnwell, specifically the students who have had to endure renovations to the building this year.
It is only fair that the "people who lived through the mess and noise of it have a chance to choose first," he said.
Mario Lozada -- a College freshman and member of the Harnwell Senate, the representative student body for Harnwell -- said that residents have been generally supportive.
"The greatest negative reactions to the new policy have come from upperclassmen who hoped to retain their highly sought-after rooms," Lozada wrote in an e-mail interview.
"The primary goal of the new in-house lottery process was to foster a sense of community within the college house, while maintaining a notion of fairness."
Officials from other college houses said that they are waiting to see how successful Harnwell's policy is before considering implementing something similar.
Tabitha Dell'Angelo, the Hamilton College House dean, said she feels that a similar project would require a full-time team in order for it to be implemented.
"Harnwell is pioneering this extremely time-intensive project," Dell'Angelo said. "If it works out well and the students push for it, I will consider it."
Harrison College House Dean Frank Pellicone said that Harrison does not currently have the resources to install a lottery system but that he is supportive of the idea.
"I applaud their efforts to create greater housing unity," Pellicone said.
Phil Nichols, the faculty director of College Houses and Academic Services, said he is confident that Harnwell residents will cope well with the policy change.
It is "a very interesting approach to being fair to their living community," Nichols said. "They are smart people -- if there are a few bumps along the way, they'll be able to clear it up."
Ware College House Dean Nathan Smith said he has no plans to implement the lottery system.
"We have no problems with competition for rooms," Smith said. "Ware has an 80 percent turnover rate."
Brownlee said that the idea for the lottery has been around for a number of years and that he is optimistic about the future of the program.
