By Allison Mongan
Writer
Next fall, four small houses on the downhill part of campus will become themed student residences.
Students applied this spring to live in Edwards House, Hulley House, Galloway House or 23 University Ave and make the house a themed residence depending on their specific interests. Applications were due at the start of this week and a panel will choose from the applicants and make the decision by next Monday so that the students who do not get it can be eligible for the lottery number housing process.
“Themes will change from year to year depending on what group will be living in the house,” said Grant Hoover, assistant director of residential education for diverse communities.
Each of the four small houses will be open to any students that are able to fill them. The house sizes range from 12 to 28 persons able to live there, and the applicants had to be able to fill the entire house in order to apply.
Each applicant group had to determine their specific theme and explain why they wanted to have a house dedicated to their specific topic.
“Living on hall with people of similar interests has been very cool and it is nice to have that strong common thread. This program is great because it gives this unique opportunity to more students on campus,” Isabelle Catalano ’12 said.
Next year all small houses will be required to have one campus-wide program and one community service program, in addition to at least two other programs over the course of the school year. Every house will also have a faculty or staff member who will serve as an adviser and who will attend programs and interact with the residents. The adviser component is to help strengthen ties between students and the faculty and to help them build more personal relationships with each other.
“For the houses without resident assistants there will be house leaders. These leaders are in charge of meetings and programs and any administrative things,” Hoover said.
The Small House Program also includes the “Making a House a Home Program.” Student groups that continually occupy one specific house can apply for updates that can be made to the house. The Galloway House has been occupied by C.A.L.V.I.N. and H.O.B.B.E.S. for 13 years and has been able to apply for certain updates.
“Making a House a Home” includes being able to paint the interior and exterior after occupying the house for a set amount of years. C.A.L.V.I.N. and H.O.B.B.E.S. is a substance-free house and is one possible theme, among others, for a house next year.