Posting a variable in a Struts html:option tag.

Greetings,
 
I have issue I would like to see if anyone has run into.  I am using Struts
1.1b3 and  I am trying to load an array list as an html:select.  I also want
to default a value based on the user sign -in.
 
When I execute this code, 
 
<bean:define id="claimSysID" name="culb" property="claimSystemID"
type="java.lang.String"/>

<bean:define id="claimName" name="culb" property="name"
type="java.lang.String"/> 

<html:select property="coordinator" size="1">

    <html:option value="<%= claimSysID %>">

        <%= claimName %>

    </html:option>

    <html:options collection="claimsCoordinatorList" 

        property="coordinatorID"

        labelProperty="coordinatorName" />

</html:select>

 
 The user name  <%= claimName %> is displayed correctly but I get the
literal value  <%= claimSysID %>  back as the selected option.  How do i
display a variable in the html:option  value  attribute?  If I select a
value from the list (from the html:options portion) everything works as
expected.  culb is the bean in the session that has the name and ID of the
logged in user.
 
Thanks,

Stephen Gibson 

Lees Carpets - IT Department 
A Division of Burlington Industries 
3330 West Friendly Avenue 
Greensboro, NC 27410 

Phone 336.379.2728 
gibson.stephen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx