My memories from second grade are few and far between, but one episode that survives is the day my class watched a tragically bad educational video about the "essentials of living." I think the incident stands out because the video was narrated by a vaguely frightening ventriloquist's dummy that quizzed the young "contestants" on the video about rudimentary social studies knowledge.
One question asked which of these four items was not essential for human living (pictures were helpfully provided): food, clothing, shelter or pets. Even in second grade, this seemed like a fairly straightforward question, but the young contestants were stumped. So the dummy informed them, with his odd, woody arrogance, that pets -- although nice -- are not essentials of living. Food, clothing and shelter are.
A horrifying video, all told. But at least the message stuck. That's why the 200 or so students who will soon wind up on the College's housing waitlist might want to find that old dummy and bring it back for an encore performance. I'm not sure how else the College can be reminded that shelter is one of the essentials of living, but I assume Dartmouth must be a bit confused on that point. How else could the College's housing shortage be explained?
Students come to the College to live and learn -- and pay an extravagant amount to do so. In return, they ought to at least be guaranteed a place to live. If Dartmouth expects students to be able to throw themselves into their studies, then putting roofs over their heads seems like a sensible prerequisite. Considering that the price of a Dartmouth education could also pay for a decent house in most parts of this country, I don't think that a housing guarantee is an unreasonable expectation.
The bottom line is that Dartmouth's housing supply hasn't kept up with the demand. Given that these shortages trace their roots all the way back to coeducation, they can hardly come as a surprise. There are students who want to live on campus and cannot, for the simple reason that no rooms are available. The solution is simple enough: increase the supply of rooms.
I realize that housing is more complicated than that. D-Plans change, people move in and out of Greek and affinity housing, roommates come and go. But those are arguments for having a housing system with more flexibility to accommodate students, not less. The fact that housing is naturally volatile only makes the current shortage more painful.
That the College has finally broken ground on new housing is an overdue step in the right direction. But the McLaughlin cluster dorms aren't projected to open until at least the fall of 2006, and the College leaves open the possibility that more "beds will be lost to code requirements and program plans" in the meantime.
So, until Dartmouth's housing shortage is finally and fully addressed, students have every reason to continue demanding that the creation of more housing be placed at the top of the College's construction priorities. It is, after all, important to take care of the essentials first.
