With each passing fall, more and more students choose to rush and ultimately join Greek organizations ("Sororities see increase in PNMs," Oct. 15). The numbers alone prove that the majority of the student body craves something more than what they can receive from academics and extracurricular activities. Despite its flaws, the Greek system is currently one of the best places to find community both physically and emotionally. With over 65 percent of eligible students joining Greek letter organizations, it is clearly a common experience students are seeking.
But there ought to be other places to find that sense of community, and that place could be residential life. For years, the College's residential experience has been, for upperclassmen, lackluster at best. While students often bond strongly with other members of their first-year floors, accommodations in subsequent years are little more than a place to rest one's head after hours spent elsewhere.
The College must create a cohesive, long-term vision for residential and social life two parts of the student experience that must be simultaneously considered. Thus far, due to factors that range from students' D-Plans to a lack of participation in existing programming, residential life has been an underwhelming experience for most upperclassmen. This is a far cry from years past, and the reminders of these times still hang on the walls of many of our old dorms in the form of intramural sports scores.
Put simply, upperclassmen need their residences to be spaces where they can socialize a place over which they have ownership. As dorms continue to be renovated, the College should exchange reconstructing singles and doubles to constructing apartment-style housing. These apartments would provide alternative areas for entertaining that would be a far cry from the currently cramped dorm rooms or the dilapidated physical plants of fraternities ("Alumni report addresses issues in Greek system," Sept.27). The sense of ownership they would convey would similarly promote greater sense of commitment to one's residence hall.
Building community requires a certain element of continuity. While freshmen live on campus for three terms in a row, upperclassmen who switch accommodations every term as a result of their D-Plans or their roommates' lack any connection to their residence halls. Clusters could award "residence points" so that returning students would have first choice of the rooms available within their previous cluster. This system could help clusters build their own identities and give students cause for joining and devoting energy to them. With the reintroduction of intramural competitions, the solidarity and team spirit that students can only currently find on Webster Avenue would be fostered elsewhere.
As the College looks past the current budget crisis the endowment rose 6 percent during fiscal year 2010 and plots priorities for construction and improving campus life, it must remember that student social and residential life is critical to the undergraduate experience. The Greek system already gives us a model for establishing fellowship among students. Residential life should do the same.
