<p>Of the five dorms located in the Odd Quad, two of them are freshman dorms, where students are assigned randomly. The self-selection into the Odd Quad begins with the room draw for sophmore year.</p>
<p>Even the freshman Odd Quad experience has always been a little unique simply because those were the only two freshman dorms on campus that shared a dining hall with upperclass students.</p>
<p>The self-selection into all the non-freshman dorms begins with the room draw for sophomore year--by then, people have made their own friends, and are choosing to live with them. In the Odd Quad, the mix of freshman students with upperclassmen of various types seems to be what the "anchor" housing thing is supposed to foster. It's not a geek ghetto, is the point.</p>
<p>That's the irony of the Anchor House proposal. Reading what the administration hopes to accomplish, it seems that the current Odd Quad is the dorm grouping on campus that already meets those goals. A lot of diversity. Varied dorm-sponsored activities, especially of the non-kegger variety. Interaction between classes. Etc.</p>
<p>Yet, the one thing Anchor Housing is guaranteed to do is kill the Odd Quad.</p>
<p>The hope of the administration is that the Odd Quad ethos will take root in all of the anchor house groupings. The fear of the Odd Quad opponents is that the dominant social culture will marginalize them for the entire four years as they feel, rightly or wrongly, happens now in the freshmen entry system.</p>
<p>
[quote]
That's the irony of the Anchor House proposal. Reading what the administration hopes to accomplish, it seems that the current Odd Quad is the dorm grouping on campus that already meets those goals. A lot of diversity. Varied dorm-sponsored activities, especially of the non-kegger variety. Interaction between classes. Etc.
[/quote]
Totally agree, but I don't understand the following part:
[quote]
The fear of the Odd Quad opponents is that the dominant social culture will marginalize them for the entire four years as they feel, rightly or wrongly, happens now in the freshmen entry system.
[/quote]
Did you mean anchor house opponents?</p>
<p>Yes. I mean the Odd Quader opponents of the Anchor Housing plan. </p>
<p>Rightly or wrongly, the self-selected Odd Quaders view their Quad as a haven from what they perceive as a dominant social scene on campus. By self-selecting into the Odd Quad, they have a critical mass of a several hundred students, sufficient to support a range of non-traditional social activities. </p>
<p>Although it is an imprecise analogy, think of the Odd Quad as the "substance-free" 20% of the campus and the concern those residents would have about being forced into the social scene that they don't enjoy.</p>
<p>Well,</p>
<p>I'm going to go back to the original topic of this thread, but since it's so focused on the odd quad...</p>
<p>The Odd Quad's changing. Two out of the three "odd quad" dorms aren't really odd quad-ish at all, and the other one, Currier, that does have that kind of identity, is also quite heterogeneous. Prospect, with it's new renovations (45 inch flat screen TV, new kitchen, pool table, common areas...) and central location, has many varsity athletes this year, and a mix of other people. Fitch is mainly senior housing or sophomores with bad pick numbers. However, the doubles in Fitch are huge, and the senior singles open into common rooms shared by only one other person. To me, as a person on-campus, Fitch itself doesn't really have an identity, since there's a fair amount of senior thesis kids and sophomores living there. Currier Hall, with it's fair share of WARP (Williams association of Role Players) and Elizabethans is usually thought of when people think "odd quad." However, even then, it isn't a ghetto of quirky students. It's still got it's fair share of hard-partying students and study-hardy students. I actually picked into a Currier single for sophomore housing, and not being an "odd quader" by nature, I picked it for other reasons. It has bigger rooms than Mission, thicker walls, and is also more centrally located. Students select the "odd quad" for all kinds of reasons.</p>
<p>Jessica Howard and Alex Bal, the CC Co-prez's did not campaign on a platform to "promise" to end Anchor Housing, interesteddad. You have them confused with the people they were running against. Also, she did not "roll over and play dead." The letter spoke of the necessity of CC to work with the administration towards a more agreeable housing policy, and to have administration be more upfront about their plans. </p>
<p>Back to the topic that was jacked... </p>
<p>The environment at Williams is like what others have said, very laid back and friendly. Williams is very much an intentional community; people are at Williams because they chose Williams. Also, there isn't a solid stereotype that could describe a Williams kid other than friendly and outgoing. It's not uncommon to see the bio thesis-varsity sport student or the pre-med-track-symphony student. </p>
<p>However!! The weather right now is pretty hot. I'm spending the summer here, and I never knew the temperature of the Massachusetts ice-box could get so high....</p>
<p>Dear Students, </p>
<p>Members of College Council recently met with President Schapiro, Dean Roseman, and Director of Campus Life Doug Bazuin to formally represent the student body's opposition to the implementation of the Committee on Undergraduate Life's "Williams House System" proposal. We write now to inform students of our actions and of the fact that the administration is committed to implementing some form of cluster housing in 2007.</p>
<p>In light of the limited student support for the CUL's proposal, College Council advocated against its full implementation. Instead we encouraged the administration to push forward with the proposal's most popular components --- dorm renovations, increased Co-op housing, strengthened peer and faculty advising, and a six person pick size --- but to refrain from restricting room draw to within a cluster. We also recommended restructuring ACE and strengthening the HC system as an alternative to the CUL's proposal. </p>
<p>Although we continue to believe that implementing residential restrictions is not the proper step for the College to take, it is clear that the administration is committed to establishing cluster housing at Williams. </p>
<p>Consequently College Council believes that it can best serve the interests of the student body by working with students to make the new housing system as successful as possible. We see this approach as being more productive than continuing to fight for an option we do not have and thus compromising our opportunity to have at least some role in influencing impending changes in residential life. </p>
<p>The future of Williams residential life will involve some form of cluster housing, but everything beyond this conceptual foundation is in students' hands. </p>
<p>Over the course of the next year College Council will work to ensure that whatever is implemented beyond cluster restrictions reflects student opinion and enjoys student support. </p>
<p>Please let us know if you have any ideas, comments, or questions for us to address. Information on the CUL's proposal is available at:
<a href="http://www.williams.edu/resources/committees/cul/housesystem.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.williams.edu/resources/committees/cul/housesystem.html</a>.</p>
<p>Best wishes for the rest of the school year,</p>
<p>The Williams College Council</p>
<p>To begin with, the wso blogs are actually a pretty awful place to get an idea for what Williams is like. While you will see a wide variety of opinions, most passionate, expressed on the blogs, these opinions tend to be extremely radical when compared to the mainstream campus sentiment. Reading the blogs will give you a good idea for what issues are hot because they typically reflect such issues. However, neither the tone nor the content of the blogs typically reflects that of the average student.</p>
<p>On the subject of the "odd-quad:" There are undoubtably more students who share steriotypically "odd" interests living outside of the odd-quad than within it. The "odd-quad" may have a higher percentage of students who don't drink than other areas of campus but even that's debatable; there are certainly other dorms or parts of dorms with few drinkers.</p>
<p>On the subject of Jess Howard, Alex Bal, and CC: Unlike their opponents, Jess and Alex ran on the platform of representing the students' interests to the administration. CC, led by Jess and Alex, presented their case against anchor housing to the Administration. The Administration effectively told the co-presidents "thanks, but we're going for this whether or not you're with us...although you're welcome to help if you'd like." At that point, CC was faced with the decision to continue to fight a seemingly unwinnable battle, or to work with the Administration to impliment a form of anchor housing most agreeable with majority student opinion. CC chose the latter option. Maybe you call that "rolling over." I call it smart governing. </p>
<p>On a side note I'd like to point out that the student body is mixed in their reaction to the proposal. Two polls of student opinion were conducted with the first (the Record poll) being the more scientific of the two. The Record poll showed approximately 60% of students against the proposal and 40% for. There are strong student advocates for the proposal and strong student advocates against it. Whatever poll you use, whoever you talk to about this, you'll find that there are significant numbers of well-informed students on both sides of the debate.</p>
<p>Anyways, I'm sorry that this thread has been hijacked. Renja's footnote covers the topic well--whatever the housing system, whatever the steriotypes, you'll find an incredible variety of people throughout Williams...virtually all quite friendly.</p>