The "Supercluster" took a step closer to becoming a reality this week when 100 upperclass students received notification that they will live in the East Wheelock cluster next fall and become the first students to experience the Dartmouth Experience program.
Associate Dean of Residential Life Bud Beatty said 183 upperclass students applied to live in the cluster and that pool was then narrowed to 168, after improperly filed applications and students who became UGAs and ACs were weeded out.
There are 235 beds in East Wheelock. Beatty said 100 beds were designated for upperclass students and 135 for first-year students.
Upperclass students were selected randomly from the final pool to live in the cluster but were kept in their housing groups, Beatty said.
"We wanted to make sure [students] had the opportunity to live with the people you selected," Beatty said. "We didn't want to solve one problem of getting you into East Wheelock and then having you live with people you were incompatible with."
Students who wanted to live in the cluster were required to fill out an questionnaire, which asked them about their interests and why they wanted to participate in the program.
"We didn't use the applications to select people. It was to see what they were thinking and what they had to offer," Beatty said. "No one was denied a chance to live in East Wheelock based on what they wrote on the questionnaire."
Members of the first-year class who express interest in the dorm will also randomly be assigned to East Wheelock cluster.
Dean of the College Lee Pelton, who chaired the Committee on the First-Year Experience, which wrote the original proposal for the program, said "I am very pleased with the numbers of students who have expressed interest in the program."
Pelton said there are still many questions about the way the program will work.
Beatty said some people may have applied to the East Wheelock Cluster program because it is in the new dorms.
"I am sure that people applied for a variety of reasons," Beatty said.
Pelton said he thinks students applied to the East Wheelock Cluster for a wide variety of reasons.
The East Wheelock cluster is a "nice place to live, it is close to the athletic facilities. Other students were really interested in the programs," Pelton said. "That is perfectly fine and that it is the way it should be."
Pelton said the main emphasis of the selection process was to ensure a student population that broadly represents the entire student body and has an interest in giving some shape and direction to the cluster.
"I don't want that residence hall to be identified with a different group. Its success depends on it being identified with all Dartmouth students," Pelton said.
