IHC proposes The Mill eviction

Author: Brian Fung

Members of the Inter-House Council (IHC) issued a recommendation to administration officials on Jan. 8 that, if ratified, would render on-campus social house The Mill a "non-residential organization" for the spring term. The recommendation comes nearly a month after a fire with an unknown cause broke out in The Mill on Dec. 11.

The fire originated in the room of Louis Lobel '08 and Ernest Russell '09, who suggested that the fire may have been caused by electrical problems. Lobel said that this was not the first time that electrical problems have been witnessed at The Mill.

"There had been sparking from an outlet in the kitchen downstairs during a Mill dinner a few weeks before," Lobel wrote in e-mail, "so it is possible that a similar sparking occurred in my room."

But the house was empty at the time of the incident, leaving students and administrators unclear as to the fire's true cause. Meanwhile, the Middlebury Fire Department has yet to release a conclusion of its own. Amid the ongoing investigation, The Mill members may be stripped of their house if the IHC's recommendation is adopted by Dean of the College Tim Spears, Director of Campus Activities and Leadership Doug Adams and the Community Council.

Following the fire on Dec. 11, Adams conducted a spot inspection of the house and discovered four smoke detectors that may have been tampered with. While the initial discovery was unsettling enough, The Mill students were further alarmed when Adams later unexpectedly presented them with a formal list of fire code violations that included additional items other than the smoke detector infractions.

The high risk of fire disasters at institutions nationwide has pushed the College to take a stringent stand against breaches of its procedures, wrote Dean of the College Tim Spears in an e-mail.

"The policies and equipment we have in place are aimed at preventing the tragedies that have taken place on other campuses," wrote Spears. "The College takes very seriously any effort to circumvent the life-safety measures we've established."

The Mill representatives supported the administration's stance on fire safety but protested the severity of the IHC's recommendation in light of the fire code violations' limited extent.

"We are unclear just how many members of the residency may or may not have tampered with their smoke detectors," said social house member Xander Manshel '09, "but that [number] is a small fraction of the larger membership of The Mill."

The IHC's recommendation has yet to be considered by other administrative bodies charged with overseeing the College's social house system. While the measure may ultimately be defeated in the coming weeks, formal ratification of the proposal would force The Mill's nine residents and more than 30 non-residential members to search for a new space in which to prepare meals, screen films and share College life, according to Manshel and Jay McDonald '08.

"We want to do everything we can to work with the administration in order to keep The Mill part of the social community," said Manshel. "It would be great if we could do that with a residence associated with the organization, but if they present that as something that is not a possibility, then we will have to push forward without a house."

President of The Mill Willie Orbison '08 sought to strike an optimistic note as his organization prepares to come under review by the Community Council this month.

"We're going to be fine, I think, in a lot of ways," said Orbison. "But we just want the administration on our side."

Additional reporting

by Jaime Fuller