SGA undertakes annual social house review

The Subcommittee on the Social and Academic Interest Houses is wrapping up its annual Social House Review. The current Community Council (CC) will make recommendations to next year’s council whether each of the five social houses, Alpha Delta Pi (ADP), Kappa Delta Rho (KDR), The Mill, Tavern (Omega Alpha) and Xenia, continue as organizations or be discontinued.

The subcommittee consists of the Inter-House Council (IHC) President, IHC adviser, and a representative each from faculty, staff, and students.

Molly Dwyer ‘10, co-chair of Community Council, said that she was pleased with the performance of the social houses. “The council approved each house’s report. There might be a few amendments to the process, as far as turning the responsibility over to IHC and asking them to present the reports to Community Council.”

A large focus of the review was KDR, which was suspended this current year for undisclosed violations of College social house policy. Raymond Queliz ‘11, president of Tavern next year, was optimistic about being reinstated, “Before, we never did community service at all and now we’re trying to do that more. That’s why you got Beer Goggle Olympics, that’s why we volunteer every week at the elderly home ...  and the alcohol education awareness stuff that we’ve been doing.” KDR will be meeting with the new CC this coming September to discuss plans for the next year.

Connor Burleigh ’10.5, President of the IHC, expressed his hopes for KDR’s reinstatement the following school year, “This has been a challenging year for the Social Houses, with the suspension of KDR, but we are proud to say that all four active houses are thriving, along with the growing number of super blocks. Furthermore, we hope that KDR can in the near future return to being active, productive members of the campus social scene.”

Issues with the other four social houses had mainly to do with house damage and community service requirements, but house presidents had positive outlooks for the next year.

Braden Rosenberg ‘11, current Tavern president, stated, “I would personally like to say that I am very pleased with the stability and state of Tavern. As an organization, we continue to offer events that attempt to bring the school together in a safe environment where they can have a good time.”

Josh O’Neill ‘11 of ADP said, “I’m thinking of starting a mandatory community service event for all the members of Delta ... As far as house damage goes, I hope that more house events will create a greater sense of pride in our house and organization, which in turn will result in more willingness to clean and prevent damage in the house.”

The CC also addressed growing sentiment that the quality of social life on campus has been declining.

Xenia President Zach Schuetz ‘11 talked about difficulties they had in bringing people into their “sub-free” house, “I think many students are skeptical of Xenia, either because they don’t see themselves as the social house “type” or because they think that not drinking at the House means we’re some sort of cult dedicated to eliminating all forms of fun.

The fact is that Xenia is a place where we enjoy being sober, and it’s this that allows everyone from the most outgoing members of SIM to the palest of DND nerds to come together.”

Queliz ‘11 noted, “We obviously want to have parties, and that’s something that has to happen for more social houses ... It’s kind of the job of the social house to have the parties for the campus as well, so that should happen more.”