Students met at Psi Upsilon fraternity last night to discuss their experiences with and opinions about affinity housing and the College's policies regarding different social spaces on campus.
More than 50 students and administrators attended the roundtable discussion on social space organized by Dartmouth United.
Members of different affinity groups discussed the difficulty of obtaining space for their organizations.
Unai Montes-Irueste '98 said it is difficult for some groups to obtain the necessary academic affiliation required by the College to grant living space.
Participants in the discussion pointed out that even among groups with a departmental affiliation, there is not enough space to go around.
Dean of the Class of 1997 Teoby Gomez stated that even Dean of the College Lee Pelton, who is responsible for allocating space to various student groups, must compete with faculty and other interests for campus space.
"A lot of it just depends on what people want," Gomez said.
Some members of La Alianza Latina described their frustration with having only office space in the Collis Center, rather than an affinity house.
Many participants said the discussion helped them better understand why groups ask for affinity houses.
"I know I learned a lot," said Katy Bieneman '98, who helped organize the event for Dartmouth United.
Although many attendees said a large number of groups deserve affinity housing, several stressed the importance of using current spaces effectively, at least as a short-term solution.
Student Assembly President-elect Jon Heavey '97 said it is important to recognize residence halls as social space.
Heavey pointed to the planned renovations of the East Wheelock cluster as a positive change in how residence halls are viewed.
Heavey asked the participants to consider how many of their residence hall neighbors they had conversed with for more than 10 minutes at a time.
Some participants said even if it were better utilized, residence hall space could not decrease the need for more affinity housing and space.
Students pointed out that residence hall buildings do not contain sufficient amounts of large meeting spaces for the College's many organizations.
One participant blamed the D-Plan and frequently changing neighbors for the difficulty in acknowledging residence halls as social space.
Gomez said the search for a new director of Collis has raised the question of why the it closes as early as it does, and many students commented that Collis does not offer enough events during later hours in the night which could serve as alternatives to the Greek system.
Becky Rottenberg '98, who also helped organize the event for Dartmouth United, said Dartmouth United chose to discuss social space because "recently with all the discussions on affinity houses and the supercluster, it's gained a lot of attention on campus."
Bieneman said this roundtable discussion is the first of many bi-weekly events.
The roundtable discussion was co-sponsored by Beta Theta Pi fraternity, Chi Heorot fraternity, La Alianaza Latina and the Women's Resource Center.
