Living at Dartmouth has become a lot like living in hotels. We stay in some room in some dorm somewhere on campus and have no idea who our neighbors are. And there isn't much point in getting to know them either -- they are not to be going to be around for long. For that matter, neither are you. You are off next term, and in Spain the term after that. Dartmouth society has become too dynamic because of the mobility created by the D-Plan as well as by the lack of affinity to any particular geographic location on campus. I will refrain from saying anything about ending the D-Plan because enough has been said about it. Instead, I will concentrate on the need for undergraduate houses.
Few would disagree that one of the principal aims of students at Dartmouth is, or should be, to get to know a diverse group of people in order to better appreciate and be comfortable with the diversity of modern society. The avenues through which we meet people at Dartmouth are fairly limited. Most of us meet others outside of the classroom in the process of doing social activities together. But the problem with relying too heavily on this kind of socialization is that it brings the same kind of people together. One acquires a network of a certain type of friends, and this network gets expanded along similar lines. What I am suggesting is to throw in a new platform for socializing -- that of geographic location. Create undergraduate houses where students will spend all four years of their career at Dartmouth. Encourage house related social activities in order to enable people living in a house to get to know each other. Keep geographic mobility to a minimum in order to enable these relationships to continue and remain strong. I am not suggesting this in the spirit of forcing people to become friends. Rather, I am suggesting that geographic location become an additional forum for people, who might never otherwise have known each other, to get to know each other. That our current platforms for forming relationships is inadequate is demonstrated by the segregated nature of our campus. Simply add one more platform, and we should see a more integrated campus.
Another important effect of this kind of a housing situation is that it would provide an alternative to joining a fraternity. Many people who feel that fraternities encourage alcohol consumption, sexism and elitism would perceive this as a benefit. The fact is that at present, the only place which can offer some sort of a close-knit and geographically united community are frats. So people who go there to become part of such a close community are usually drawn into habits they otherwise would not have acquired. This can be remedied if we have the option of living in undergraduate houses which would offer a close-knit, geographically united community that frats currently offer, but would not have the negative aspects generally associated with the frat scene.
That people know their neighbors and are part of a close-knit geographic community is important to a healthy society. It's not just enough to be part of the big Dartmouth community. We all need a smaller, more closely knit community that we can call our home. And to this end, let us create undergraduate houses at Dartmouth.
