Roomdraw and the commons system, still not a happy marriage

Author: LAURA BARRETT ’06

I have paid my dues to the housing deities.

I lived in a Battell double my freshman year. On top of that, I asked to be placed in sub-free housing, and I ended up on a half sub-free hall. A half sub-free hall, I can say from experience, does not work. I ended up with vomit right outside my door more than once, and I became quite familiar with the smell of pot.

Sophomore year, I lived in a Hadley suite of three doubles with some friends. We had a lounge and a bathroom and our doubles, and it was wonderful, but it was three doubles and was definitely sophomore housing. That year I learned what it meant to be living with the people who know me best and whom I love. That year I learned to look forward with great expectations to my senior year, when I would be able to both live with the people I love and in a suite with some singles in it. It didn't seem too much to ask.

Junior year I didn't go through room draw. I lived in my social house, and it was good. Most of my really good friends were abroad in the fall, but when some of them came back in the spring I learned how important it was to our friendships to live together. Living across campus from Laura and Elizabeth meant that I didn't get to see them very much, and our friendships suffered some. We were still good friends, but we could be so much closer if we just got to spend more time together. I knew that it would be all right senior year though. In the last year that I would have with these girls, I would get to live with them. The people who know me better than anyone else would get to be my family again. I knew that it would work out, because I would be a senior, and as such I should be able to get decent housing and live with the people who matter to me.

The one flaw in my scheme was that I made friends with people outside of my commons. I was randomly placed into Wonnacott my freshman year, and I loved it, but two of my friends from my hall and I drew into Ross with some of our friends sophomore year so we could all live together. And then we became closer friends with Caitlin, in Cook, and Suzanne, in Wonnacott. So we had our points spread over many commons and no shot at any senior housing. How dare we make friends outside of our commons? How dare we flout the school's master plan to assign people their friends and make sure they never grow out of their freshman halls?

All I wanted from housing senior year was to live with my friends and to get a single. As a group we wanted some common space, where we could all hang out, and we wanted a bathroom that we wouldn't have to share with freshmen who had not yet learned the value of moderation. I did not think that I was asking for too much. Last year, juniors drew into Atwater. Surely, as a senior, I could expect to get good housing, even if my friends had points in different commons.

I learned that the commons system is not about building community. The school says this is the goal, but I am here to tell them that it is not the effect. My community has been split by the commons system. Because the people I became friends with started out in different commons, I was not allowed to live in the community I have chosen for myself. I again saw juniors drawing into Atwater, but I would have to go home to another building when I'm hanging out with my friends. The ordinary moments of living together would not be mine to experience. I would live in a place that is to-be-determined, but until we were able to work outside of the system, my home was not going to be with my family.

I thought that going to college was all about learning who you are and making those friendships that last a lifetime. I still think that. I did not think that college was another place where people would make choices for me about who could and could not be my friends. I thought that college was a place to learn to think for myself, to make my own choices and not to rely on other people to make decisions for me. The commons system did not succeed in taking those choices from me, but I know others for whom it has.

When I was a freshman, I did not understand why people protested so vehemently against the commons system. As we slowly implement the plan, I understand better why this is not right for Middlebury. My experience is that, instead of building communities, the commons system rips them apart. My community has not been scattered by the commons system, but not for lack of trying.