OLD DORMS vs. New Dorms: the age-old quintessential University debate that hits incoming first-year students head on when they have to check off "Alderman" or "McCormick" on the housing form. Figuring out where you are going to live for a whole year can be a daunting task for some, and one group of students at the University is attempting to alter the housing selection process as part of a broader vision for improving race relations in dormitories. Students for Diverse First Year Housing, founded last fall, held its second meeting on Monday to continue planning a strategy for changing the housing application process, gain feedback from students and discuss several other options for promoting a more diverse environment.
While the forum overall was constructive and positive, the main short-term objective of the group, to change "Alderman" and "McCormick" to "hall style" and "suite style" on housing applications, is a miniscule semantic modification that won't have a significant impact, if any at all.
The language of "hall style" versus "suite style" is supposed to erase the rumors and characterizations of the dorms. Since two dorms in New Dorms are hall style, this could improve integration, according to the executive board members present at the meeting, who also acknowledged that a change in racial demographics wouldn't happen immediately if their plan was adopted.
However, one has to step back and consider first if diversifying the dorms should be a mission that the University should actively promote, as well as examine the implications of alternative options and the reasoning behind maintaining the status quo.
At the outset of the meeting, Vice President Meredyth Haas stated that the term "diversity" was not just applicable to race in housing, but also to international students and out-of-state students. Yet, almost the entire conversation following her remarks focused solely on race, and the three members of the executive board defined a "diverse" dorm as one reflective of the racial composition of the total student population.
This vision is slightly misguided. Is achieving a specific numerical percentage of different skin colors in every dorm an effective route to truly diversifying a dorm? What exactly is diversity? The word was applied in the meeting primarily to white vs. black tensions, but this definition fails to take into account all the other facets of one's identity that bring a unique perspective to the table: religion, upbringing, political persuasion, special talents, interests, hobbies, etc. With this in mind, it is impossible to engineer a "diverse" dorm.
Additionally, dorm integration is not an issue that garners widespread support among African-Americans, a segment of the University population that the group is trying to assist.Aaron Blake, president of the Black Student Alliance, spoke with me in a telephone interview.
She commended the group for addressing diversity concerns but didn't agree with the group's focus on first year dorms. She said that the purpose was "almost like using blacks as an educational tool" and making blacks "guinea pigs for diversity." She also felt that integration would lead to more disappointment of black first years in their first-year experience, and she was "very skeptical of who's attempting to be educated and at what cost."
The idea that the proposal would take away the sense of community that African-American students share and make them feel isolated in more racially integrated dorms is one that Angela Davis, Dean of Resident Life, doesn't think would manifest itself. In a phone interview, Davis advocated "some kind of mechanism that changes the application process that may help to diversify" first year housing, hoping the process would result in a "critical mass of students of color" in McCormick to prevent isolation.
No one knows exactly what would happen in reality, but the varying opinions demonstrate that not everyone thinks dorm integration is imperative or even beneficial. Dean of Students Penny Rue noted in a phone interview, "I think the issue is a very complex one, so any simple solution is likely to be oversimplified."
Changing the application's wording slightly will have a negligible effect on dorm diversity, and sticking people in dorms based on their race to reach an artificial delineation of diversity is not unanimously popular among minorities and, arguably, for understandable reasons.
Students for Diverse Housing would be well served to re-evaluate its principal aim, because despite its good intentions, it may generate more negative feedback than worthwhile conclusions.
Whitney Blake's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at wblake@cavalierdaily.com.
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