Responding to a view held by many University students that certain organizations are favored in the Lawn selection process, a committee of student leaders and University officials modified the way Lawn residents are chosen.
The Lawn Process Organizing Committee recommended the changes, which include overhauling the composition of the Lawn Selection Committee. The selection committee evaluates the more than 200 applications submitted each year by third-year students hoping to live on the Lawn.
The organizing committee also tweaked the mission statement of the Lawn residence program and the essay that applicants must write.
Pat Lampkin, vice president for student affairs, approved the changes Oct. 30.
"The Lawn Selection Committee was not as diverse as the larger community," said Dean of Students Penny Rue, who chaired the Lawn Selection Organizing Committee.
Prior to the modifications, the Lawn Selection Committee was composed of 25 fourth years chosen on the basis of applications, as well as 10 permanent members: the six presidents of the councils for each undergraduate school, the Student Council president, the chairs of Honor and Judiciary Committees, and, in a non-voting role, the head resident of the Lawn.
The 25 applicants formerly were selected by the organizing committee. Many of the organizations with permanent seats on the organizing committee, such as Council, Honor and UJC, also had permanent seats on the selection committee.
Now one representative from the Black Student Alliance, Asian Student Union, Latino Student Union, the Inter-Fraternity and Inter-Sorority Councils and the Queer Student Union will sit on the committee.
Also on the committee will be a student athlete, a transfer student and a Middle Eastern student.
"Perhaps people aren't feeling the most represented with a person representing their school," said Sarah Jobe, who sat on this year's Organizing Committee as a Council representative.
The changes should fight the perception that the Selection Committee is composed of "typical politicos, doing 'traditional' University organizations, choosing their friends," Jobe said.
Rue said she hopes the new permanent members will encourage their diverse constituencies to apply for the Lawn.
Only 15 students from the general population will sit on the Selection Committee now, and they will be chosen by lottery rather than by application.
Only 26 students applied for the 25 spots on the committee last year, Rue said.
The statement of the Lawn's purpose, contained in the application for residence, also will change this year. It now says Lawn rooms exist to recognize students for service not just to the University but also to the larger community.
The essay on the Lawn application also will change in response to a perception that students "retire to the Lawn," Jobe said.
This year's essay question will ask about the applicant's most significant achievement or contribution as a University student and how the applicant intends to contribute to the University and the broader community in his or her fourth year.
This month the Organizing Committee will hold information sessions to fight the perception that the selection process is secretive, Rue said. The information sessions will be open to the general public.
Both Rue and Jobe said they see ideas about exclusivity or lack of diversity in the Lawn selections process as more myth than reality.
"If you look at the Lawn residents themselves, they are a pretty diverse group," Rue said.
Michele Morse, senior peer advisor for the Office of African-American Affairs and member of the organizing committee, disagreed.
Since minorities have been underrepresented on the Lawn Selection Organizing Committee, they also have been underrepresented on the Lawn itself, Morse said.
"When you're on the Lawn you don't see a lot of faces that represent all of the University," she said.
The perception that only students in certain organizations or circles can live on the Lawn does deter some students who don't fit those profiles from applying, Rue said.
Lampkin convened the Organizing Committee last April, just before a Council ad hoc committee was formed to address the Lawn selection process.
The ad hoc committee will continue to collect student opinions into next semester and report to the Organizing Committee what students think of the changes, she said.
The Organizing Committee considered other measures, such as selecting students to live on the Lawn based on a lottery system.
The Committee decided against that drastic change, but "if the student body feels strongly about that, we'd love to hear about it," Jobe said.
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