Two interactive student workshops conducted Tuesday by a team from a Massachusetts-based architectural design firm will inform the College’s revamped housing system, slated to launch for the Class of 2019.
In this system, freshmen will be affiliated with a “neighborhood” and stay in dorms in that part of campus for the following three years, senior assistant dean of residential life Mike Wooten said.
During Tuesday’s sessions, which will take place in Collis Common Ground at noon and 5 p.m., students will comment on what works in the current system and what features they would like to see in the neighborhoods.
The neighborhoods, a residential college system, represent the second major shift in residential life under College President Phil Hanlon, along with the living learning communities that will begin this fall, Wooten said.
Data from surveys conducted by the office of residential life suggest that freshmen are more satisfied with their residential living experience than upperclassmen are, Wooten said.
“People lose track of the communities that were so important to them in their first year, and they feel scattered through our housing process,” Wooten said.
The firm, Sasaki Associates, will focus on designing scenarios that allow students to establish roots in sections of campus and to minimize the housing transitions they face during their four years, Wooten said. The College hired the firm to help with the transition.
The Sasaki team has spent several weeks on campus developing their design and conducting research, Wooten said, adding that the team will listen to students to draft a plan that represents the student body’s opinions.
Sasaki’s research, principal architect Bill Massey said, evaluates the College’s existing structure, including the D-Plan and the first-year experience. Activities like the design workshops explore how that structure evolves over a student’s four years in residence.
Based on their research, the Sasaki team and ORL will determine by the end of the summer whether to construct new residence halls in addition to renovating existing living spaces, Wooten said.
During the workshops, Sasaki will present display boards showing existing campus spaces and designs the firm has completed for other colleges, Massey said. Students can comment on those designs.
“It’s a way for us to collect information and get some really good one-on-one feedback from students,” Massey said.
Founded in 1953, Sasaki designed the master plan for the University of Maine in 2008 and Purdue University in 2009. The firm’s website lists its involvement with the planning of 10 institutions’ residence halls.
The Sasaki team plans to finish designing the new residential life proposals by the end of September, Massey said.
The Sasaki team will also collect student information through MyCampus, software that asks students to pinpoint places on campus where they eat, interact and study, among other things, Wooten said.
Wooten said that ORL hopes to present its findings to the Board of Trustees by the end of the summer.
Students interviewed said they were happy that the workshops will give them a voice in the future of Dartmouth’s residential life.
Undergraduate advisor Chris D’Angelo ’16 said the workshops will provide insight into what students like and dislike about the current housing system.
“My biggest worry is that very few students will participate, as we saw with the ‘Moving Dartmouth Forward’ seminars,” D’Angelo said.
At the most recent event under the “Moving Dartmouth Forward” banner, seven students attended two sessions on global experiences at the College. About 30 people attended in total.
Drayton Harvey ’17 said he appreciates that the College and the Sasaki team has included students in the planning stages instead of just implementing a new system arbitrarily.
Marylynne Sitko ’16 said she hopes that the future system will include mechanisms for students to connect classroom learning to residential life.
