Kathryn Walters |
For many UP students, February is not just the season of rainy days and valentines, but also the annual housing selection. The options can be overwhelming: on or off campus? Traditional dorm or Haggerty/Tyson? UP or non-UP rental?
But students who planned to live in the various on-campus theme houses now have some big changes to consider.
The four theme houses - the International House, Faith and Leadership House, Green House and Honors House - will no longer be housed in the Haggerty and Tyson apartment-style residence halls. Instead, in collaboration with the International Student Services, Campus Ministry, the theology department and the Moreau Center, the Faith and Leadership House and International House programs will be reorganized into “faith and formation ambassador” and “global ambassador” programs. Students who are interested in faith or international issues can live in the traditional residence halls and promote these topics within their own halls.
Residence Life is also interested in creating a sustainability ambassador position for each dorm in the future. Meanwhile, the Honors House will move off campus.
Christopher Haug, director of Residence Life, said these changes are meant to foster community and cohesiveness across all the residence halls.
“I found that a lot of the folks that are invested into the theme housing were so invested in the theme housing that they maybe didn’t have as much time to devote to the other halls,” Haug said. “So how can we be thinking creatively about making sure that the good work that is happening in the theme housing, is happening around campus?”
Although some details have yet to be ironed out, according to Haug, the global or faith and formation ambassador positions will work similarly to the student justice coordinator position in each residence hall. Students would apply to be a faith and formation or global ambassador and one of each would ideally be placed in each residence hall. Even though they are on their own in their respective dorms, ambassadors would still convene and collaborate with the other ambassadors across campus.
“We’re helping to build more leaders, and the goal is to build more leaders across campus, always,” Alex Hermanny, associate director for housing, said.
Beth Barsotti, assistant director of faith for Campus Ministry and an adviser for the Faith and Leadership House, said the new ambassador format will allow faith-minded students to be a support and resource for their dorm.
“If we want these students to help create a Christian culture on campus, being off campus would make it hard to be leaders,” Barsotti said. “In the halls, there’s more chance for social networks and creating community.”
According to Haug, the units vacated by the theme houses will be made available to other students.
With the support of the Office for Student Affairs, the decision to enact these changes happened late last semester, which compressed time considerations for some students who had planned to continue living in theme housing in its current format.
Junior Kim Turner, who currently lives in the International House and had planned to continue living there next year, found herself and her friends unexpectedly faced with the option to move off campus. Although Residence Life offered the International House the use of two University-owned houses next door to each other, one of her main concerns for the future of the International House was that having an off-campus location would make it harder to students to access.
“I think it’s a lot more uncomfortable to walk up to some house and knock and ask if this is the International House, whereas on campus it’s a lot more comfortable for people to come,” she said.
Michael Pelley, director of International Student Services and an adviser for the International House, said he would have liked the International House to stay in Tyson Hall but realizes that Residence Life should make changes when it feels they are necessary.
“We would have preferred to stay in Tyson, absolutely. However, at the same time, residentiality is a really big part of our campus and it has to grow always. And if it doesn’t grow it can get real stagnant,” he said.
In the end, some of the current International House students decided to apply for two separate units in Tyson/Haggerty, while other students in the house decided to move off-campus independently. Two units were necessary because only theme houses are allowed to be coed, and since both male and female International House students wanted to stick together in Tyson/Haggerty, the men and women had to apply separately.
However, others see theme housing moving off campus as an opportunity. English professor John Orr, director of the Honors Program, said having a large off-campus space to host events in the Honors House will help bring all Honors students together.
“I think this is in some ways a great opportunity for the Honors Program, because one of the things we have not had is a space,” Orr said. “I don’t want to suggest that that will be an absolutely public space, but it will be a space where we can host events and do various things which will be good, I think, for group cohesiveness.”
Junior Stefania Hajnosz, a current resident of the on-campus Honors House in Tyson Hall, plans to live in the new Honors House next year and thinks the new off-campus location will be good for hosting more events, something she thinks Honors could improve on.
“I think that’s the goal of having a theme house and I don’t think we’ve done the best job doing that. I think we have some plans for this semester so we’ll see how it goes, but for next semester, we’ll have more events,” Hajnosz said.
Although the theme housing changes are significant, Haug said theme housing is still an important part of campus life.
“In no way we’re disbanding the themes. We’re rethinking it,” Haug said. “We’re rethinking how they fit in line with our Holy Cross approach to residence life, and we’re really excited about the new leadership opportunities that we’ll be able to help support.”
