Charles Gray | Buying into the House

There is no doubt that the College Houses are 11 distinct houses with different personalities. But there is no reason we should accept that some are characterized by a strong sense of community while others are condemned to be impersonal.

Ever since being admitted, I've been told that students looking for strong and close living experiences should choose low rises or the Quadrangle, instead of the high rises. The typical explanation provided is that there are just too many people in the high rises.

"The physical structure of the high rises is an obstacle we have to overcome. These buildings were not made for true community living," Rodin House Dean Kenneth Grcich said.

But Grcich agrees that the sense of community in the high rises could be improved.

In many college houses, including Rodin, much of the discretionary budget for the school year is given to RAs and GAs to spend, and students have little say in what does or does not happen in the house. This does not breed active participation from residents.

Maybe the other Houses should take a page from the playbook of Stouffer College House.

Last Tuesday, 23 Stouffer residents and I gathered to allocate the House's funds. Two representatives from each floor or section are elected to a committee, and representatives take their roles seriously enough to show up to nearly every meeting. Stouffer is the only house with students distributing 100 percent of their discretionary budget, which is given to each house solely for programming and non-fixed costs.

Every college house does have some form of a house council, but attendance and excitement is not widespread. At one point, attendance at Fisher-Hassenfeld House Council last year fell to as low as three.

The problem is that students know that money is power. When most of the discretionary budget is given to RAs and GAs, they don't feel that a council is worth their time. People will only participate when the house councils have more power than their advisors.

RAs and GAs are given a budget - and the sole responsibility for it - every fall, according to Grcich.

Some argue that this method works because "students don't always know what they want. What's crucial is for someone to be there to help articulate what it is they want," Harrison College House Dean Frank Pellicone said.

That is where the empowered steering committee comes in. Consistency is what the unsure student is looking for when he or she is trying to schedule programming. During Stouffer College House's Tuesday meeting, all house leaders had to come and ask for funds for any house-wide programming. For example, we debated whether it was wise to allocate $25 more to the Super Bowl party for extra wings. Even the two faculty fellows came to the committee to ask for event funding.

As a result, the committee serves as a source of leadership in Stouffer. When the house won $100 last semester for having the best showing at the College Houses 10th Anniversary Celebration, House Dean Alison LaLond knew exactly who should decide how to spend it.

When every member of a community needs to go through one source for all programming funds, participation and organization is realized.

We must get out of the mind-set that not all of the college houses are built to create a sense of community. We all could use camaraderie in our day-to-day lives. There is nothing in the DNA of Stouffer College House residents to make them closer to each other than residents at other houses.

Having a student-run steering committee in charge of the discretionary budget is the first step in making students feel that they have a stake in the development of their college house. Instead of finding ways to say that house councils will not work, it is time to give representative democracy a chance.

"I don't know who the students would say the leader is. They might say it's a faculty fellow, the RA/GAs, me or the cool guy down the hall," Fisher-Hassenfeld House Dean April Herring said.

And that's what is concerning. There is no community if there is no sense of any leadership organization. That is what a strong steering committee could provide.

Charles Gray is a Wharton freshman from La Crescenta, Calif. The Gray Area appears on alternating Tuesdays. His email address is gray@dailypennsylvanian.com.

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