Housing shortcomings

It appears that an unusually large number of first year students were left without housing after the lottery last week. As someone who did not receive housing until the beginning of August after my first year I sympathize with them completely. What I do remember as the most terrible part of this ordeal is the complete uncertainty over whether or not I would receive housing at all or be left to live in a tent on the quad. The reality is that if students are strung out without information until August it is really to late to secure off campus housing. I hope that OCL and Residential Life do better in communicating the situation and likelihood of receiving housing to these first years. I understand that they must situate all the incoming first years BUT honestly their decisions are all made and so within the next week or so admissions and Residential Life should be able to do some simple math to determine how many additional beds will be available to those who were locked out of the lottery and inform them of that fact.
Also, as the college looks at future plans I sincerely hope that adding additional housing options is made a priority so that there are always extra beds and that everyone who wants housing can have it. I must say that as a tour guide their is usually a look of shock on parent’s faces when they ask about housing guarantees and we must confess that it is not guaranteed after your first year. Again this seems embarrassing that a small liberal arts collegel like Trinity which claims to have a close-knit campus community falls so short of giving students a basic need: shelter. And worse when leaving students out of housing does so in a confusing and indirect manor.

January Term

I wanted to congratulate Will Yale on his hard work towards creating a Trinity College January Term. Will has worked out most of the details for this wonderful addition to Trinity College’s academic climate and to make us more competive with the many of our peer institutions which have similar programs. One of the final puzzle pieces Will and the Academic Affairs committee is working to put together is the complete support and willingness to participate of the faculty. I just want to state that I fully support the idea of a January Term beginning in 2011 and hope that the faculty will work quickly and with Will in order to make this a reality.

Community Fair

Today on the Cave Patio the Campus Climate & Community Outreach Committee hosted what will hopefully become an annual Community Fair. At the fair various student groups were able to display events they hosted this year. An expert panel of campus climate judges awarded one group a $250 prize for community outreach and another $250 for a group which benefited Campus Climate. This year’s winners were M.D. Fox Mentors for Community Outreach and Trinity College Emergency Response Team (TCERT) For Campus Climate. Congratulations!

I also want to thank the other groups which came out and participated as well as my committee members and our judges!