Campus Council presented a draft of a resolution at its meeting Thursday night that would abolish the existing linking system and significantly modify the current blocking model for Fall 2006.
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In an effort to better the sophomore residential life experience, the council has proposed a two-tiered change to West Campus housing: First, instead of a link from a dorm on East to a quadrangle on West, there will be a proportionally equal distribution of sophomore beds across all six quads, and second, the size of beds in a block will increase from eight to 16.
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The council, after discussions with administrators and quad councils, concluded that the current linking system was 'solely a real estate grab' and could not properly establish community within the confines of the current West Campus dormitory architecture, according to the resolution.
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Eddie Hull, executive director of housing services and dean of residence life, told The Chronicle Thursday afternoon that discussions were still very preliminary. 'There has ben no official decision made about the future of linking,' he said.
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The proposed process would allow students to block with friends outside their freshman dorms without being penalized, making all sophomores equal in the housing lottery. 'We realized that the best residential communities are communities of people who want to live together,' said senior Anthony Vitarelli, Campus Council president.
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The proposed new residential model would give housing priority to juniors and seniors who want to return to the same quad--a move that promotes a dedicated presence of upperclassmen in each quad. New hybrid blocks of juniors and seniors will be allowed but will have a lower priority than all-senior blocks.
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Several council members took issue with assigning housing priority to upperclassmen returning to their quads on the basis that it would give an unfair advantage to those in favorable housing. 'This is locking out people who have gotten screwed over the year before and who now want good housing,' senior Ryan Kennedy said.
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Other members argued for the change, claiming that upperclassmen"s presence would help develop an independent identity for each quad as well as help make the residential experience more consistent.
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The new residential process will help meet the goals of the quad model by creating an individual character for each quad, members said. 'This is our first big step toward finally accomplishing the quad model,' sophomore Ben Rubinfeld said. 'We need to keep upperclassmen to get that sense of history.'
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The name of the process will also be changed from 'blocking' to 'sequentializing,' in order to emphasize the fact that only sequential lottery numbers will be guaranteed, not room adjacency.
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The council discussed increasing the size of blocks from eight to 16 to empower independents and provide them with a stronger community network. Singles and triples will still not be allowed in a block.
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Council members considered the possibility of allowing co-ed blocks. Mixed gender blocks would allow all members of the group to pick housing together, while gender-specific halls would continue. 'I don"t see why not,' senior Mike Lamb said. 'Friends should be allowed to have that opportunity.'
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In lieu of a formal assessment directed to the whole student body, quad councils will discuss the proposal and return a formal response to the council next week.
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