With last month’s announcement of the Lawn Selection Committee’s decisions determining Lawn room residency for the 2015-16 academic year, the representation of the student body in the 47 selected Lawn room residents has come into question. In next year’s class of residents — at least separate from the seven rooms whose residents are to be determined through separate processes — the majority of students identify as white, and there are no black students at all. Additionally, particular University organizations such as the University Guide Service and Honor Committee have significant representation, whereas fraternities and sororities under the National Pan-Hellenic Council have none at all.
Students may be quick to criticize the Lawn selection system for the disproportionate representation of particular groups, or stigmas surrounding particular extracurriculars, or even the diversity of the applicant pool itself. But the homogeneity of Lawn residents, though impacted by many factors, is due to what we have made the space of the Lawn — an accolade for high-achieving students, a reward by which we can (imperfectly) measure individuals’ achievements, and not necessarily a space where our whole community can gather.
The Lawn carries with it at once a heavy and moving legacy. This space was created with the use of enslaved labor; every room in which the next class of residents will live was built by slaves. At the same time, the Lawn has been a space of social change; it has been a gathering place for students to make themselves heard, including in 1969 when 1,000 students gathered on the steps of the Rotunda to protest the “racist atmosphere” at the University, in 1970 during the Vietnam war and as recently as 2012 during President Sullivan’s ouster. For these reasons, living on the Lawn is not just an achievement but a deep responsibility to understand that space and its role at our school, as well as to make the space as inclusive as possible.
The symbolism of the Lawn cannot be overstated. First-years face the Rotunda at Convocation, one of their first introductions to the school as enrolled students, and graduate in that same space. Incoming students are taught to see the Lawn as a special place, the original part of our University, rich in history — and a space where all are welcome. If the Lawn is intended to be a welcoming space, then the process for selecting Lawn residents should focus on making the Lawn a communal area, not on rewarding students for their achievements. It is worth noting that such goals are not necessarily mutually exclusive: high-achieving students are plentiful at the University, and can be found in a diverse range of groups. But our overriding aim when contemplating each year’s class of residents should be to best represent the wide range of student experiences at the University. If the Lawn is truly a shared space, students from a broader intersection of the University should feel a connection to it, not just students from particular organizations, and certainly not just students of a particular race.
Think, for a moment, about Lighting of the Lawn — especially last semester, when our community so desperately needed the kind of solidarity such an event provides. For many, the ability to visit friends in their Lawn rooms and to feel confident in knowing their small corner of the University world is represented there makes such events all the more meaningful. Next year, if no one on the Lawn has a direct connection and therefore reason to open his room to an organization like the Black Student Alliance, can we expect members of that organization to feel like the Lawn belongs to them as much as it belongs to students whose organizations are represented by 10 or more residents?
Of course, there are only 47 non-endowed Lawn rooms, and there are far more than 47 communities at our University. Representation across the board is an unachievable goal, but a better distribution of representation would still make the Lawn a more communal area. But beyond that, students who have no personal ties to Lawn residents should still feel like the Lawn belongs to them as much as it belongs to any individual Lawn resident or group represented by that resident. Such a feeling can only stem from a Lawn made up of students from a wide range of student groups, with the guiding philosophy that the Lawn exists not as those students’ reward for achievement but as our shared space.
The Lawn should ultimately serve as a place for the integration of all parts of the student body. Above all, no student should feel like a space so integral to our school is inaccessible.
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