University examining possibility of more freshman-only dorms

A stream of complaints involving poor racial interactions among students directed the focus of last Thursday's open forum for the Task Force on the cultural climate into a discussion of how an intentional housing plan could create better community at Tufts.

The forum, one in an ongoing series of open Task Force meetings, followed on the heels of the recent Princeton Review evaluation of Tufts as seventh out of 345 colleges for "poor race/class relations."

A general confusion exists as to why Tufts _ a school considered diverse by most standards with a minority population of 28 percent _ has an alleged problem with multiculturalism. Students at last week's forums may have hit upon an explanation for this when they repeatedly mentioned that lack of feelings of community at Tufts.

In relating personal accounts of poor race relations to members of the Task Force, many at the forums have touched upon difficulties experienced in the transition from high school to college.

One common experience among students, Task Force member professor Gilbert Metcalf said, was the "striking differences in scale" in the move from high school to Tufts. This, he offered, could be partially responsible for the negative experiences students were reporting.

"High school is small enough [for students] to be known as an individual," Metcalf said on Thursday. "We need to develop a community where people can be known at Tufts."

The concept of community has been a theme that the Task Force has been looking at all along, according to Dean of Students Bruce Reitman. "Engagement and feeling connected are certainly central elements," he said. But Reitman could not offer any clues as to how the Task Force may choose to address these needs, as the committee is still working on its interim report, due out this semester.

Culture houses are one possible vehicle for community building, though this subject is often the focus of campus debate. A student at the forum said that the University is dependent on culture houses for multicultural interaction but that this was an unfair expectation. "The houses are not there for that task," he said.

"The pressure needs to come off the culture houses," the student said. "They should be places to celebrate individual diversity, and the University is where we should celebrate multiculturalism."

But Tufts has not seen a celebration of this sort, according to one woman. "I feel one of the problems is that there's no space for intercultural dialogue," she said.

Because often there is not space for personal exchange in the classroom, and because many extracurricular activities are based on personal interests influenced by background _ for example, membership in a culture club _ the answer may be for residential halls to create tighter Tufts communities.

Yet, in many instances, students said, this did not happen in their residential halls. The set-up of some halls causes rooms to be separated, and students often keep their dorms closed.

Oftentimes upperclassmen are not looking to establish friendships with incoming students, freshman Jeremy Konstam explained.

Logically, a bigger dorm means more people and more interaction. But students said this was not always the case. "With dorms like Miller, Haskell, South, you would think that would be the mix right there, but it isn't," one student said.

But one hall stood out as different. "I look up to Tilton as encouraging multiculturalism," the student said of her experiences in that dorm. Tilton is the only all first-year residential hall at Tufts and one of two dorms that is structured with intentional programming.

According to Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) Director Yolanda King, ResLife will look into converting a current residence hall into another first year environment. "Tilton Hall has provided a great experience for first year students," she said. ResLife would like to take steps to create more of this "collective experience" in dorm living.

Many students who lived in Tilton in previous years agreed that it had been a positive experience. Non-residents said that they had visited often for the sense of community that the hall provided.

Speculation as to why Tilton naturally encouraged this natural community led to a variety of answers. "I don't know how deep discussions were" among hall-mates on the subject of multiculturalism, a student explained. "But a great part of it was due to proximity and due to everyone being a freshman."

While RAs may help halls to bond in other dorms, this may happen more naturally in Tilton where doors face one another and students are able to form a collective identity as members of the same class. Tilton also offers special programming designed for freshman and is the only dorm to have tutors living in the building.

New students may find it easier to ask for help from a neighbor experiencing the same troubles.

"Their floor seems really united," Konstam said of his friends in Tilton this year. "It was a lot easier to bond as a floor... because they were in a common situation."

But not all freshmen have access to this situation. In fact, about 88 percent of the 1,285 freshmen are living in dorms with upperclassmen.

According Reitman, about 300 incoming freshmen request Tilton last year and only about half that number were accommodated.

If these numbers indicate an unmet desire for more freshmen housing that could improve race relations on campus, then the Task Force could potentially suggest a change in housing options, Reitman said.

The issue then falls on the ResLife's agenda _ which would cause its own complications. Creating all-freshman halls would automatically create all-sophomore ones, which could lead to the segregation of the community by age.

But mixing ages was very important to freshman April Gerry, who said it was helpful to have people who already knew the school show her around and open doors to available activities and resources. "You can establish more links that way," she said.

Even if the debate is resolved, the problem of community still persists beyond the first two years at Tufts. A junior said last Thursday that he felt cheated by the low amount of housing for upperclassmen at Tufts and asked, "What about juniors and seniors? What about our community?"

One former Tilton resident suggested that perhaps forming ties upon entry will make them last through the four years at Tufts. She said that she still keeps in touch with friends made her freshman year, an example she thought that Tufts should strive for.