<p>My S will be in a freshman in Archibald House of Keeney Quad. Any info or suggestions that would be helpful to know in advance?</p>
<p>It’s been completely redone this summer, so I have no idea if it’s going to be a different vibe this year. Keeney is usually the most charming dump on campus. My friends and I used to call it the projects of Brown (lol). I lived there two years (freshman and sophomore year) and I absolutely loved it. It was very wild and disgusting, but that really brings out the charm in the place. It’s such a perfect first year experience, holding about a third of the entire freshman class in a single building. Hopefully, your son is very open minded since there will be a lot of drunken freshmen running around the halls with a consistent ganja aroma.</p>
<p>Thanks swim2daend. I guess he may have to become more open minded if he isn’t already. His floor is supposedly substance free. Whatever that means at Brown. Where there substance free floors in Keeney previously? As to the renovation, my understanding is that it was extensive. To the degree that walls came down to reconfigure some rooms and rooms were renumbered. I hear that is why the room viewer does not work for Keeney right now. Is that correct?</p>
<p>I believe that’s correct that the renovation was relatively extensive - it did take all summer. I would expect that most rooms are the same from what I’ve seen from the outside, but the former triples and singles have been renovated. I’ve also heard that they tried to separate the six different parts of Keeney in order to create smaller freshman units instead of one huge dorm.</p>
<p>Keeney doesn’t usually have many sub-free floors; they’re often in other smaller dorms. I like this move, but he’ll have to realize that though his floor is sub-free (and yes, that’s a real thing here), the ones around it won’t be.</p>
<p>Well, that’s interesting, making some of Keeney substance free. TPTB must think that will help tone down the partying. Wonder if it will work.</p>
<p>As an alum who once lived in Keeney (back then it was called West Quad), I’m sad they put up walls to separate the sections. One of my most favorite things to do was to wander around the entire building. </p>
<p>Keeney rooms are pretty spacious; most have nice-sized closets and built-in bookshelves. The other furniture can be moved around easily (at least, I hope that didn’t change) so students can be creative in how they arrange the room. He’ll definitely need a lamp because the lighting is pretty poor. Keeney is a great freshmen dorm.</p>
<p>Wait, Keeney is subfree? what…??? I think Brown’s totally going to regret that decision. You can’t control 500 freshmen and make them behave… this is going to be very interesting</p>
<p>Not all of keeney will be sub free, just certain hallways.</p>
<p>On top of that, if they have completed the planned renos, Archibald and Bronson would basically be quarantined off from Poland and Mead, which are separate from Jameson and Everett (I’m trying to remember back now 7 years to when I lived in Bronson 411).</p>
<p>I’m not happy about the changes, and I doubt many former Keeney residents would be, but they should make the space more amenable to sub-free housing.</p>
<p>Essentially, Keeney used to be where the largest concentration of freshman existed on campus all connected in a very accessible way. As a result, it was one of the most socially active dorms, and by that I do not limit it to raucous partying with lots of drinking. However, Reslife and the administration, now dominated by newer admins who didn’t experience Brown has undergrads or have a long history with our culture as well as folks who studied higher ed at the master’s level, now are trying to follow the advice given to larger state Us in a way that doesn’t apply well at Brown. Essentially, following the advice of research, “connectedness” (social integration) into the university is a major determinant of happiness and completion and they are driving toward creating more, smaller residential communities for first years to avoid them getting “lost” or feeling the sophomore slump if they come back and find they did not have such strong connections to anyone. So freshman units are being further segregated from upperclassman and getting smaller both in number of students and through physically restricting the space to avoid 500 person dorms. Sophomores are also being more uniformly housed to maintain a community.</p>
<p>I get why they’re doing it and I get why it would work at Big State U, but I think it’s wrong for Brown.</p>
<p>Side note, Archibald is still generally cool. My unit was Bronson and Archibald floors 4 and 5 and we all loved it and were generally happy with our pretty big rooms and closets, even if they were older dorms. Great kitchen access, at the time, but I don’t know how that’s changing.</p>
<p>That’s all very interesting, modestmelody. </p>
<p>I think there is a kernel of truth in there – it IS very important for freshmen to have smaller communities within the larger campus. And Brown was very successful in doing that when I attended many years ago. The difference – our residential units had about 30 kids in them, with one RA for every 10 kids, while today the units are between 50-100. If Keeney units still have 80+ kids, as far as I’m concerned they haven’t solved the problem. 80 kids can’t eat together in the Ratty or have a pot luck supper, while 30 kids can.</p>
<p>(Welcome back, Jason!)</p>
<p>Thanks fire. I think that my unit (which was about 80) managed to do a good job anyway on the small community thing because we had one RC per floor (in addition to the WPC and MPC), so we had a 20:1 ratio. Having a different C on each floor made them feel like their own unit a bit. It wouldn’t have made a difference if the 5th floor was a separate unit from my perspective-- each floor largely kept to itself.</p>
<p>I don’t think physically separating the spaces and removing upperclassman from freshman housing areas (and moving the freshman spaces that were outside of Pembroke proper and Keeney) was required to build smaller, tighter communities.</p>
<p>BTW-- there’s a thread about offering vocational training on the Brown Alumni Association Linked In you may find interesting.</p>
<p>Sorry if I caused any confusion. I did not intend to imply that all floors in Keeney are now substance free. I only know that one floor in Archibald/Bronson is substance free and the floor right above it is all girl. I do not know about any other floors in Keeney this year. Thanks for all the comments. You have been helpful.</p>
<p>They are obviously trying to “quiet down” Keeney! I too lived there my freshman year when it was West Quad and we had a very cohesive unit. I think the main thing that creates that is the students themselves (in which case architectural dorm divisions help a little) and the RAs. We had fabulous RAs. My student was in EWMC for Frosh year and had a cohesive floor (not so much the unit as that involved multiple floors, and said RAs are much more “uninvolved” now.) Brown should go back to smaller “units” if they want to create that group dynamic, and invest more in the RA process than making it a way for some students to get better rooms. The minority/diversity peer counselors etc are a relative joke. Most do not interact with any of the freshman living around them. There are some exceptions of people who do it because they really like being a counselor but not most. Maybe this too will change and since they won’t have other upper classmen living on their halls, it will help select for students who really want to be counselors, however the lure of a single for a sophomore I think is still the main motivation. It will also be interesting to see how the dynamic of “Keeney is the freshman place to be” will chance to a North/South competition between Keaney and Pembroke since Pembroke as a whole will be freshman central. (Poor Perkins still is the lost step child this year).</p>
<p>PS In Keeney, I suspect that if a student is in a dorm room that was a double in the past, it likely has the same configuration.(which should be about anywhere from 50-80% of the rooms) Although if they have renumbered everything, then I guess there is no way to know where it is.</p>
<p>R.I.P Keeney.</p>
<p>Keeney renovation is slated in stages over more than one year, so they may have not completed the separation of areas. This summer was supposed to be mainly or just the converting of singles to doubles and some more handicap accessible rooms. The next summer phase is supposed to be adding some elevator access and segregating sections.</p>
<p>I also just saw in Facebook that some of the renovations included making the kitchens really nice. I’m jealous.</p>