Whether we first encounter them while sweatily hauling boxes up to our dorms during move-in or at a floor meeting on the first night of New Student Orientation, our house-mates’ faces are likely the first ones we see on campus.
From the very first walk to Memorial Field accompanied by our Undergraduate Advisors and floormates, Dartmouth’s six House Communities — Allen House, East Wheelock House, North Park House, School House, South House and West House — provide a launching point for undergraduates, especially freshmen, to seek out friends, mentors and advisors.
Carolyn Bartroff ’28 met many of her current “best friends” through living in North Park.
“They lived on my floor, and the events that they hosted gave me opportunities to connect with them,” she said.
Meeghan Mahon ’29, a resident of School House, also credited her House Community with helping her “get closer with a lot of people in [her] building.”
School House UGA Brandon Han ’27 said that he feels “a closer bond” with others who live on the same floor.
“We’re often all very friendly and jovial and have a sense of camaraderie and solidarity towards our own floormates,” he said.
Although Bartroff met many friends through her House Community, she acknowledged that developing a deeper bond rests on the individual themselves.
“A house gives you the opportunity to make friends, but it’s up to you to continue that friendship or that bond you’ve created with people in your house.”
As a UGA, Han said that he feels that it is his responsibility to facilitate a sense of community on his floor, in his dorm building and in his House Community as a whole.
Han goes about this in a personal way by portraying himself as “more of a mentor, someone who guides you, rather than tells you what to do.”
As students move through their time at Dartmouth, regardless of whether they continue to live within their House Community or explore off-campus options, the sense of connection to their housing communities weakens further.
According to Evelyn Choi ’27, the absence of a distinct, shared quality within each House Community limits students’ ability to experience a stronger sense of pride.
“You don’t have a say in what house you go to, and there’s nothing really uniting the people in the House,” she said. “If West House … had some characteristic that united them, … that would [give them] a lot stronger of a bond.”
Furthermore, Choi noted that “a lot of people find the housing communities annoying” due to the limitations it places on selecting roommates, even after freshman year.
Although Bartroff said that she believes the House Community no longer “plays as large of a role for [her]” as a sophomore, working as a photographer for North Park and forming closer connections with Dartmouth employees amplified her sense of pride in her residential community.
“I do feel pride in my house because I know the effort that they put into creating these events and planning these events, which is not easy,” she said.
Each House Community has a team of administrators — the House professor, program coordinator and assistant director — who work to expand their house’s outreach and get as many House Community members as possible involved. The House Community leadership team sends weekly newsletters to its affiliates and community-based events to keep members engaged and make everyone feel welcome, according to the Office of Residential Life’s website. School House, for example, strives to involve graduate students in their activities, according to doctoral student at the Geisel School of Medicine and School House resident fellow Francois LeSage GR’27.
Although many graduate students were originally unfamiliar with the housing community system, School House has made intentional efforts to promote graduate student participation and integration into the community, according to LeSage. In light of these endeavors, graduate student engagement is now “significantly higher” than in past years.
“When School House does major community events, we send out a specific invitation to graduate students, so they know ‘you are welcome here,’” LeSage added.
The House Community system was founded in 2016, according to the South House website. Compared to schools like Yale University, which, according to the Yale College website, has spent over eighty years developing its residential colleges, the Dartmouth House Community system is rudimentary. While its relative newness might signal a need for more programming development, it also leaves room for experimentation and growth.
“Houses have existed for less than 10 years,” James Kapadia ’29 said. “So it’s not like there are alumni that talk about their houses, or that it’s a big part of other people’s experiences.”
LeSage expressed a similar sentiment.
“The housing community is still kind of in its youth, and I think there’s always room to grow.”
