SGA bill draws mixed response

Author: Tom Brant

The Student Government Association (SGA) housing bill passed in early November has been met with a variety of opinions by Commons staff and students across campus. Some feel that the bill would disrupt the community created by the Commons and take away the advantage in room draw for students who have remained loyal to their Commons. Still, others called the bill an effective step to address fundamental housing inequities.

The bill, passed by the SGA Senate on Nov. 5, recommends changes to the current system that would make the room draw more "open." It would allow rising seniors and rising senior Febs to obtain a room in any non-first-year housing facility regardless of its Commons affiliation, through block draw and regular draw.

Such a change may be welcome to students who live in Commons with less desirable senior housing, but opponents argue that the current room draw system already affords seniors the same opportunity to switch Commons and changes would be unfair to those students who have remained loyal to their Commons.

"We have a lot of different groups living in the Atwater suites," explained Atwater Commons Dean Scott Barnicle. "There are teams like the Frisbee team who have members living together in one suite, and there are also suites where it's just a group of friends living together."

However, some feel that the current system deters students from living with students in other Commons.

"I feel like the Commons system restricts a little bit of housing options," said Kaitlin Fitzpatrick, a Cook Commons first-year. "The current system discourages people from living with people in other Commons. Even though it's technically possible, the fact that you lose your priority discourages you from doing it."

Cook Commons Dean David Edleson, who served on the 2004 planning committee for the current room draw system, countered that room draw does currently provide flexibility for seniors.

"I think that if there's a perception that students aren't free to choose where they live, it's somewhat inaccurate," said Edleson.

The deans agreed that, if the SGA housing bill goes into effect, it makes sense to reward seniors who have stayed in one Commons for their first three years. This concern was addressed by the SGA in an alternate form of the bill discussed in November and passed on to the administration, which would factor in student loyalty to their Commons in determining selection priority. In either form, many students support the SGA bill and think it would improve the current system.

"I think it would be a great idea," said Eric Harvey '09.5, a member of Brainerd Commons. "It would really open it up. It would give more people more options about where they wanted to live."

Some students believe that the housing bill should not go into effect until students understand the changes and know what to expect their senior year.

"If they implement it now, the seniors who have a bunch of points for being loyal to their Commons and who have their hearts set on living somewhere will lose their priority," said Annie Davidson '08, a member of Cook Commons. "They need to wait at least three years."

Edleson and Barnicle both declined to comment on whether or not the changes would be beneficial, because neither wanted to criticize the decisions of the SGA or the College administration.

Edleson emphasized that he and other committee members put a lot of thought into designing the fairness of the current system, even using mathematical models to predict certain aspects of the room draw.

"We worked hard, and what we found is that the room draw process is extremely complicated any way you look at it," he said. "You could inadvertently upset a certain group of people like the Febs if you don't pay attention to details. The ripple effects are significant."

No matter what changes are made to the current system, they are likely to cause controversy because some housing is more desirable than others. In fact, according to Edleson, pleasing everyone is almost out of the question.

"I'm not saying it can't be done," he explained. "I just don't think there's any perfect way to do it."