Recommendations of the Freshman Housing Committee

Volume 109 >> Issue 62 : Tuesday, February 6, 1990

Recommendations of the Freshman Housing Committee

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Recommendations of the

Freshman Housing Committee

a) Freshmen would be distributed through the dormitories, so that they would live with upperclass students. Freshmen would be preassigned to a specific dormitory, room, and (where applicable) roommate.

b) Rush for independent living groups and sororities would be deferred from the residence selection and orientation period (R/O) now at the beginning of the freshman year to the spring term, with students who join ILGs moving into them at the beginning of the sophomore year.

c) Freshmen who plan to remain on campus for the sophomore year would rank-order their choices for dormitory space throughout the dormitory system, and a lottery would resolve competing choices. The system should be designed to encourage students to change dormitories (allowing them to move with one or several friends/roommates).

2. R/O would become Orientation. It is recommended that Orientation be refocused on . . . assuring a student's well-being, security, and sense of "being in the right place," the generation of intellectual excitement, an introduction to academic opportunities and the freshman curriculum, provision of practical information about student life and co-curricular activities, an introduction to community life and norms, an introduction to the larger community beyond MIT, and orientation for parents.

3. To respond to a range of problems in the present residential system, particularly in the dormitories, it is recommended that changes in programs, in faculty involvement, and in student governance in the residential system be considered and initiated. These changes should be designed to enhance quality of life and to increase support, particularly for freshmen.

4. Recommendations for implementation

a) Dormitory space totaling about 350 beds would be required to house the freshmen who would otherwise live in ILGs.

b) A transition period should be planned to minimize adverse effects on the ILGs and to smooth out the shift from freshman-year to sophomore-year pledging.

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