Last semester's housing debacle demonstrated the need for the University to gauge student reactions prior to announcing changes. Last year, Spelman Halls 7 and 8, dorms historically reserved for independent students, and Wright Hall, a popular upperclass dorm, were designated for relocation to Whitman College. In the face of vehement student opposition and a hasty intervention by the USG, the University chose not to allocate Wright Hall and Spelman 7 to Whitman. Instead, the University allocated Spelman 8 to Whitman and allocated part of Little Hall to Mathey College.
This year's new housing survey will allow the University to make decisions about dorm allocation that are informed by student opinion. This is a good thing. But it is not yet clear what decisions the University is considering making.
If the survey is being used to ensure that the most desirable upperclass dorms are not being allocated to the residential colleges, then the University should be commended for learning from its mistakes last semester. It would be unacceptable, however, if the survey data were to be used to allocate the dorms most popular with juniors to the residential colleges.
The University has argued since the inception of the four-year residential colleges that it is merely adding more options for students. But the University's past actions have suggested that it will favor the residential colleges at the expense of other options.
The University has used its near monopoly over student housing to steer students toward the residential colleges. Upperclassmen who stay in the residential colleges are rewarded with palatial, recently renovated rooms. Meanwhile, last year's reallocation of Spelman 8 to Whitman resulted in some independent students being placed into rooms without kitchens while some upperclassmen in Whitman now enjoy kitchens, meal contracts and eating club memberships simultaneously. And in at least one case, a prospective independent student was driven to join Whitman because she thought she would have a better chance at getting a room in Spelman by being in a college than by being independent.
It is unacceptable for the University to punish students who choose not to stay in the residential colleges by relegating them to inferior housing and in some cases, taking away their ability to live without a meal plan. The University should not use its latest survey to continue these unacceptable policies.
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