Superblock decisions released

Residential Life released decisions on Monday, March 7 announcing the groups to be located in Superblock housing for the 2011-2012 academic year. In addition to Superblocks in the five Mods, the committee also approved applications for groups to be housed in Jewett House, Munford House and Palmer House.

Doug Adams, associate dean of students, explained that administrators worked hard to include student feedback before beginning the application process.

“We pitched the idea to Community Council, some of the existing Superblocks, the [Student Government Association] (SGA) and asked for their feedback,” said Adams.

Dean of the College and Chief Diversity Officer Shirley Collado also solicited feedback from all students on campus in her blog, One Dean’s View.

However, after the Campus printed an article announcing that Superblocks would only be located in the Mods, Adams said that the committee decided to clarify their message.

“Given the feedback, we wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to apply could,” said Adams.

“It did become more confusing because we did pitch one thing and then we pitched a broader message,” added Adams. “But we did it to be responsive.”

Despite these good intentions, student applicants expressed frustration over the mixed message.

Brian Clow ’13 applied along with Olivia Noble ’13 for a Superblock entitled “The Dog House,” which proposed a community to raise a shelter dog through a foster care program. Although the group was eyeing Meeker House, they were not awarded a Superblock.

“They didn’t really stand by exactly what they wanted,” said Clow. “They came out saying ‘seven person Superblocks’ and then they backpedaled on that and said, ‘This isn’t exactly what we want — we have flexibility.’”

Noble added that the announcement “definitely came out of left field. Especially since we started working on our Superblock really early, we weren’t expecting that at all.”

Residential Programs Coordinator Lee Zerrilla explained that administrators hoped the focus on smaller Superblocks would strengthen adherence to the groups’ themes.

“The idea was by using the five Mods we could create a themed community — a neighborhood,” said Zerrilla. “We really want to give groups with common interests an opportunity to live together to really be able to capitalize on their interests and goals. They needed to have strong ideas about what they wanted to get out of the block and demonstrate [how] they could give back to the College community.”

Five groups will be housed in the Mods next year. Local Living will emphasize working with local producers in all industries and the Green Mountain Lodge group will focus on empowering students to explore greater Vermont. The Good Vibrations Superblock will focus on the study and appreciation of different genres of music, while the Pick Up Games group will maintain ongoing drop-in board game hours and game tournaments. Finally, Global Gatherings will provide both residents and other students a space to share their experiences abroad.

In addition to creating a focused community, housing Superblocks at the Mods will also solve housing problems Residential Life has experienced with the spaces in the past.

“[Last] year, when some seniors complained, ‘We have to have the Mods for seniors!’ only two of them were actually [chosen by seniors] in open draw,” said Adams. “So we put them into summer draw, and there were random groups of students that were placed down there.”

Both Zerrilla and Adams cited the success of the programming of the small Superblocks currently housed in Voter Hall as a primary reason for wanting to keep next year’s blocks smaller. They particularly praised the Katsuhama group, which focuses on Japanese cooking. The group re-applied for a Superblock this year and was awarded Jewett House, which will support 12 student residents.

“They came forward with really a fantastic presentation and application that showed growth from their current model,” said Zerrilla.

Adams added that Jewett fulfilled the group’s “specific needs [of] a larger kitchen and a larger social space to be able to host more people to feed them.”

The second larger block will house 26 students on the top three floors of Munford House. The group is called Intentional Living, and the students in it will center their efforts around community living and common ownership.

Palmer House was awarded to a group of students with the theme of Ethical Issues in Sports.

Grace Doering ’13 and Luke Dauner ’13 worked to organize the Palmer block. The group includes athletes from varsity-level to intramural as well as non-athletes. The mission of the group is to explore the ever-prevalent athletic culture at the College while simultaneously working to include those not on a sports team.

“We’re just trying to minimize any type of negative attitude toward athletes —” said Doering,

“— and at the same time make non-athletes feel welcome,” finished Dauner.

Both Dauner and Doering expressed enthusiasm for the programming they hope to bring to campus. In addition to a “Palmer Olympics” in which students across campus could compete and enjoy participating in sports, the group also hopes to hold a lecture series addressing issues common in the athletic community — hazing, gender issues, racial issues and recruitment policies, among others.

“We really want to emphasize transparent lines of communication with the administration that have not been existent in the past,” said Doering. “We want to set the precedent.”

“We really want to hold ourselves accountable to our goals,” added Dauner.

Administrators also hope all applicants will stick to their plans for programming. Each group will be assigned a Commons Residential Advisor (CRA) to oversee their block.

“They will establish a relationship, so hopefully groups won’t get off track,” said Adams.

This year also saw a change in the decision-making process for Superblocks. Instead of a committee comprised solely of administrators, applications were reviewed by an eight-person committee featuring students, faculty and staff. In terms of staff and faculty, the committee was comprised of Adams, Zerilla, Residential Systems Coordinator Karin Hall-Kolts and Dean of Brainerd Commons Natasha Chang. Students from the SGA, Community Council, a representative from the Inter House Council (IHC) and President of the IHC Ken LeStrange ’12 also sat on the committee.

Each Superblock is awarded a budget for their activities, using funds from the SGA Finance Committee. Although the final decision is in the hands of the students on the Finance Committee, Adams estimates that next year’s budgets will reflect those awarded this year, which was $1,000 for the larger blocks and $500 for smaller groups.

Meeker House will be included in regular room draw, as well as both the eight-person and six-person Voter suites. The five-person block in the basement of Munford will also be available.

The fluidity of this year’s Superblock process reflects the relative newness of the program — the 2011-2012 academic year will only be the College’s fourth year offering Superblocks.

Adams explained that the program was created originally to utilize the houses in the Ridgeline Woods, which remained unused after the Greek system disappeared from campus. In the first year of the program, both Brooker House — which was originally built to house KDR — and Palmer House were offered as Superblocks. The second year saw the addition of Fletcher House. Last year, the program took on enormous popularity, and Residential Life saw 14 Superblock applications.

“One of the great advantages of the Superblock system is we’re using existing housing in a focused way and if we don’t get good applications, we’re able to just put it back into regular [room draw],” explained Adams. “But if we do get a great idea, and we do have a group that seems like they’re really going to be focused and able to do a theme-based house, this would give them a place to do it from.”

“The consideration was given based on programming,” added Adams. “This is not about living with your friends, it’s not about avoiding room draw — it’s about having a legitimate program.”

Despite the workload of managing the application process, Zerrilla spoke of the program with a smile.

“It shows a lot of insight as to what students are interested in here,” said Zerrilla. “It’s really neat to see the process go from start to finish and watch as students formulate and solidify these ideas.”