Center of the Circle 4/15

I know that The Campus has covered the housing controversy ad infinitum, but, as the resident senior columnist, I could not resist the urge to add my two cents, or 550 words. I acknowledge that my current living situation at Middlebury is ideal. Every other week, as I sit at the school-provided kitchen table of my Atwater suite with 20-foot ceilings and listen to the input of my three suitemates as I draft my column, I feel an overwhelming sense of community. We can look out the windows to see other groups of seniors conversing in the Atwater classroom, playing cornhole on the lawn, going for runs and generally doing the same thing that we are doing: enjoying time together.

Spaces like the common rooms in the suites, the basement in Palmer and the concrete “yard” encircled by the Mods are all intended to be open, welcoming gathering places — or at least, that is how my tour guide “Peaches” — Jason Kowalski ’07 for those of you who never attended a Frisbee party — advertised them. Jason’s description of community, of the inclusive nature of the College — well, that and his striking good looks — were ultimately what convinced me to apply Early Decision. I liked the idea of residential community, of nearly everyone living on campus and eating, studying and socializing together. I also liked the idea of the Commons, of structured mini-communities within the College that would program venues through which the different mini-communities could interact. Seniors, as I understood it, were most responsible for facilitating this cross-community and cross-grade interaction.

However, as the commons system gradually degrades, as seniors are encouraged to move off campus because of room shortages and as the senior housing with large gathering spaces is allocated to groups of juniors who are supposedly interested in “art and architecture” or “community service,” this sense of open community is repeatedly squelched. Rather than creating more mini-communities in which students can revel in their shared interests and reach out to others who hold those same interests, as the super block system claims to do, this creation of special-interest group housing promotes cliques and exclusivity. I understand the merits of large-block housing and allowing 30 students, preferably seniors, to draw into a house together. However, when the College funds the insular “community” of an eight-person Voter suite so that it can cook Japanese food, the administration implies that each Mod is special and unique and need not look to the other Mods for friends, as well as that super block members are somehow superior to non-super block members. Why does my suite not receive a stipend for the evenings we cook Italian food and invite over a handful of friends? Is our mini-community somehow less valuable?

Maybe I am just bitter because I spent the first half of senior year in a tiny double in Chateau, and when I asked Tim Spears why this happened, he responded with a comment to the effect of, “Well, your Chateau double is much nicer than any apartment you’ll have in New York City after graduation.” Maybe I am also disappointed by the lack of effort by my fellow seniors to throw large, open parties this year. Still, I fear that Middlebury is becoming more and more exclusive and that drastic housing changes will further reduce the sense of community which our tour guides laud and which prospective students should expect to experience when they enroll.