Community Council update: Council discusses social, academic interest house status

In the Community Council meeting on April 5, the Council reviewed the Social Houses. The Social House review subcommittee, composed of Cook Commons Coordinator Linda Schiffer, Assistant Professor of Italian Andrei Barashkov and SGA President Riley O’Rourke ’12 made a recommendation in favor of continuation of all the Social Houses after examining public safety reports, damages, programming, membership size and adherence to College policy.

It was also announced that the Redfield Proctor dining hall on the upper floor of Proctor would be open to students during lunch to create more student seating.

“This will be especially valuable during peak lunch hours when Proctor was so crowded that student had to sit on the floor, which is just insulting,” said O’Rourke.

The Council then discussed changes to the Community Council itself, such as giving full voting rights to alternates, creating an official term length for members and amending the election process for the student co-chair of the Council.

Members debated whether eligibility of co-chair should be limited to students who have previously served on the Council, concluding that they should keep the elections open.

“However valuable experience is, all students should have the option [to run],” said O’Rourke.

In the meeting on April 11, Doug Adams joined the Council to talk about Academic Interest Housing, which includes language houses, PALANA, Weybridge House and the Queer Studies House. The Council reviews these houses every other year, while social houses are reviewed annually.

Officially, Academic Interest Houses are required to have a departmental affiliation, though PALANA, Weybridge House and the Queer Studies House do not have such affiliation. The Council discussed whether there should be a separate category of housing created for interdisciplinary houses, which do not fit into the current system as neatly as language houses.

The Council also talked about the Brooker House, which recently became a permanent house with a similar standing as the other social houses. There is still debate about whether that is the right status, or whether it should belong to a separate category of special interest houses.

It was also proposed that every house be reviewed every year, but with a larger subcommittee than the current one, which has only three members. This subcommittee could incorporate members from other parts of the community, including Public Safety and the Commons leadership.

No official decision was reached. However, the Council plans on revisiting the issue before the end of the year. It must review both the Academic Interest Houses and the Social Houses next year, so any policy changes would not be felt until the 2012-2013 school year.