Friday's Verbum Ultimum considered the lack of community in residential life. Realistically, what steps would you like to see taken to address this situation?
The Verbum was spot on. We need greater continuity in our housing. Guaranteeing students the choice to live in the same residence hall for four years would go a long way in improving campus life.Josh Kornberg '13
Undergraduate Advisors should take more initiative to implement programming that fosters a greater sense of community in residence halls after freshman year. Living on a floor for transfer students this term has really shown me how comforting it is as an upperclassman to go home and have late night conversations with your neighbors, something that is practically unheard of on most upperclass floors.Natalie Colaneri '12
Continuity of housing is the best way to build community. The College could house firstyears together in the least desirable clusters and assign upperclassmen to one cluster for their final three years at Dartmouth. Each cluster could have affiliated faculty members, intracluster events and other steps that would improve residential life and provide meaningful community outside of the Greek system.Brendan Woods '13
As a freshman, I appreciate the fact that I will be able to live in the same dorm with the same group of friends for all three terms this year. As such, the "residence points" idea for upperclassmen housing put forward by the Editorial Board last Friday is probably worth trying.Jonathan Pedde '14
The vast majority of dorms should offer gender neutral housing. Being able to room with whomever one wished, regardless of his or her gender, would help reinforce feelings of community.Spenser Mestel '11Alas, as much as I would like to see intramural sports competitions between dorms and new forms of sociability, it seems that the frats have cornered the market on fun. The only thing I can do to remedy this is graduate. There is no community here, only cloisters of hedonism and the administration will not be able to assemble one from scratch.Sam Buntz '11
Realistically, with so many people living in Greek houses and the D-plan mixing up everyone's schedules, the current residential life is as good as it can get. Other schools may be able to foster a great deal of community with their residential colleges, but that kind of system is simply not suitable for Dartmouth.Ethan Wang '12
The Office of Residential Life should eliminate upperclass UGAs and GAs, who serve little purpose, and distribute the resulting funds to support more student-initiated floor and dorm events. These would be much more productive than cookies and milk with your GA or free Dunkin' Donuts breakfast (the status quo for many upperclass dorms).Suril Kantaria '13
Creating a community is largely the responsibility of those who are its members. The Verbum suggested that people join Greek houses because they are looking for a sense of community not present in their residence halls. In Greek houses, a community is made when its members make an effort to meet and know each other. The same is possible in a residence hall whether one is living there for a term or a year floor mates just need to make an effort to get to know each other.Emily Baxter '11
There is no feasible way to make Dartmouth dorms a source of community that works with the D-plan. Upperclassmen who look for a large social structure that is not the Greek system or the DOC, for example, must continue to carve their own niches until we have enough housing to make the D-plan obsolete.Sapna Chemplavil '11
