Comments on: “4/2″ or “4/1″…?

By: S.W.

S.W. — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 18:44:46 +0000

Dear President,

I agree with the above students that a 4/2 system is a good idea. However, I strongly agree with H.S. that the second year should be encouraged rather than required. The commons are not equal, which means that, for instance, some commons do not have any available singles for sophomores. My friends after freshman year were the people I spent the most time with, as Molly suggests, but these were not people I lived with – they were people from groups I was in and teams I was on. Had I not been allowed to pull someone from another commons I would have had to live with a random roommate sophomore year and that does not seem like a fair position to put people in.

I think leaving the current housing draw system in place through two years would achieve your goals – most people would stay. I love my commons and have been very thankful for the commons staff, however, I never found a place for myself on my freshman hall, therefore forming friendships elsewhere, and these changes would have made my college experience very different and quite stressful.

By: Molley Kaiyoorawongs

Molley Kaiyoorawongs — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:55:53 +0000

President Liebowitz,

I’m sorry to hear that the meetings weren’t well attended–it was one of my biggest frustrations as an RA last year (about which you’ve already read, though, if you read the comment I left in the section about students being overly-stressed)

I was ecstatic to hear that juniors and seniors would have open draw so thank you addressing the long-overdue issue.

I completely agree with you that the 4/2 system makes more sense than the 4/1 system because of the natural breaking point. I also agree with H.S. that lasting friendships can develop during freshman year. I’d (uber-insensitively) respond that if these friendships survived despite different commons freshman year, then they could probably also withstand physical separation sophomore year and that, as I learned in Psych 105, we generally become good friends with people that we spend the most time with (i.e. hallmates, roommates, people with whom we LIVE) thus most people would choose to live with others in their commons sophomore year even if there weren’t a penalty for changing…a statistic the 4/2 policy accommodates quite nicely.

Thank you,
Molley

By: George Altshuler

George Altshuler — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:21:56 +0000

From the perspective of a sophomore feb, I really like the idea of living in the same commons freshmen and sophomore years. Many of my friends are febs who lived in my commons last year and living in the same dorm as them this year has enabled me to get even closer to them.

So I am in favor of “4/2″ not “4/1.”

This being said, I do like the idea of being breaking out of the current systems and giving more options to Juniors and Seniors.

By: H.S.

H.S. — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:34:53 +0000

You state at the end that sophomores would not get “better” housing options through open, seniority based draw, and that this is a reason to support the 4/2 program. However, as a sophomore who switched commons this year, I can assert that it’s not always about which building is “better.” Is my current building (or its commons) “better” than the building I “should” have been in? It depends what you’re looking for. My highest priority was to live with some of my closest friends. It just so happened that these friends were coming from a different commons, and we chose to do what made the most sense for us. I did so knowing that I would lose commons points, weighed my options, and went ahead with it. Encouraging students to remain with their original commons is not a bad idea, but there is an important difference between encouraging and requiring. I would have certainly resented being told that I couldn’t live with the people I chose simply because we were arbitrarily placed in different commons freshman year. As an added bonus, I find my new commons and its staff to be friendlier and a much better fit for me than my old one. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the 4/2 program discourages cross-commons friendships, but I see no reason to ignore the fact that these friendships can develop during freshman year just as they can in sophomore year, and that there are many of us who would like the option of arranging our housing accordingly.