Senate ponders theme houses

A small informal gathering of Senators met this past week to discuss theme housing. The theme house proposal is currently being discussed by Residential Life and Services and the Housing and Dining Committee.

Theme houses would essentially entail a section in a residence hall devoted to a group of students who would like to form a living arrangement based on, but not limited to, broadly conceived interdisciplinary academic interest in the arts, science and international affairs beyond the classroom; local or national community service and social or political interest of a wide variety, including gender and sexuality issues and sports or substance free living. In developing and administrating the programs, groups would be encouraged to involve faculty, staff, local organizations or townspeople.

Some possible responsibilities of the advisors would be to represent the group in the event that a conflict should arise between the individual group and the larger campus community, explain the College's policy and how it relates to the group's program, aid in theme house evaluations and renewals and to help utilize resources efficiently. At the end of the theme house's first year in existence, the group would have to apply for a renewal in order to obtain permission to run the house for three more years. The theme house proposal is loosely based on similar programs at Union and Wooster Colleges.

Various senators are also working on other areas of student concern. senator Erika Hansen said, "I'm currently working on the mailroom problem (inefficiency and orders of prioritization) and problems with the student finance committee - the burden of the slow and arduous reimbursement process. I still plan on organizing student forums dealing with issues such as the student finance committee, program houses and the sexual offense policy."