The SEORT Scheme: Serial MIT Residence Selection Jeremy Brown and a cast of thousands Last updated: 10:43pm, Sep. 16, 1999 1 Introduction This document presents the SEORT Scheme for scheduling the residence selection proces for frosh. SEORT stands for ``Summer, Explorations, Orientation, Rush, Term'', which are the five sequential phases of the scheme. The SEORT scheme is up for grabs -- anyone writing a proposal, policy, etc. etc. is welcome to grab any part or the entirety of this scheme, with or without attribution; it's not necessarily intended as a standalone scheme. Note that SEORT contains a lot of ideas suggested by other people in various forums; we apologize for the lack of detailed accreditation. Specific thanks go to Jessica Forbess, from whom I have stolen a sentence verbatim. The key philosophy of SEORT is that by making each phase of the process of arriving at MIT a distinct phase, not overlapped with any other phase, we reduce the peak stress applied to the frosh at any given time. The design goal of this scheme is to incorporate the motivations and constraints underlying the scheme proposed in the RSSC final report while improving upon that scheme in several key areas. Most notably, FSILG rush is moved out of the term to a distinct slot succeeding Orientation, but preceding the Term, in part so that the stress of rushing does not overlap with the stress of classes. Additional benefits of this scheduling are listed in the section on Rush. The remainder of this report is structured very simply: after this introductory section, there is one section for each of Summer, Explorations, Orientation, Rush, and Term; finally, a concluding section provides a brief recap of the benefits of SEORT and a possible SEORT schedule. 2 Summer Frosh get a CD-ROM and/or other literature educating them about the various dormitories on campus. Visual and audio may be censored by the institute, but text is uncensored. After reviewing the material, frosh send housing preference cards back to MIT, and receive their dormitory assignments by mail a week or two before they travel to MIT. The material sent to frosh may contain images, audio, and/or text. The Institute may censor the images and/or the audio, but will leave the text entirely up to the submitting living groups. 2.0.1 Design Rationales The goal here is to give frosh as much information as possible in making their initial dormitory decision, and to give those that want it the option of a stable place to move into. The goal of the limited censorship is to allow dormitories to textually express anything they like, without allowing offensive images or sounds to be sent to every frosh home. 3 Dormitory Explorations 3.1 Explorations Proper Up to three days before the formal Orientation program begins, frosh may show up for an optional, but highly recommended, period of time in which dormitories put on events for residents and frosh. 3.1.1 Design rationales First, encourage frosh to mingle with people in other dormitories, both frosh and upperclass, and otherwise break down insular dormitory barriers. Note that in the absence of some mechanism for encouraging frosh to travel to multiple dormitories early on, the current "insular" state of inter-dormitory relations will look positively gregarious compared to what will evolve. Second, provide people with the chance to identify dorms they'ed prefer to the one they're in; although the summer lottery may do a reasonable job of placing most people in tolerable dormitories, many people may discover that there are dorms they would prefer. MIT would do these frosh a disservice in not providing them a convenient avenue for migration before classes have started. Finally, we note that the Explorations are optional simply because they precede formal orientation, and some frosh might prefer to spend a couple more days at home or working before coming to MIT, feeling confident in their preference-card based choice. 3.2 The Dormitory Swap At the end of Explorations, frosh may optionally enter the dormitory swap lottery. A frosh provides a list of dormitories they would prefer to the dormitory they are currently in. There is no order imposed on the list -- i.e. a frosh may choose to list a set of dormitories they would prefer to the one they are in, but there is no precedence given to one or the other of those dormitories. A computer lottery attempts to swap people around optimally. Frosh who choose not to enter the dormitory swap are guaranteed to remain in the dormitory to which they were assigned over the summer. 3.2.1 Design Rationale The swap provides an opportunity for frosh who are unsatisfied (or even actively unhappy) with their summer choice to move to a more satisfying living environment, while not displacing those frosh who are satisfied with their assignments. By requiring frosh to give all alternate dormitories equal weighting, we avoid the phenomenon of the pursuit of the "one true dormitory"; obviously they could still list only one dormitory, but in doing so they reduce the overall liklihood of moving out of the (presumably unsatisfactory) dormitory they are initially assigned to. Similarly, by calling it a lottery-based swap, rather than a general lottery, we make it clear that there isn't an expectation that people move if they don't want to -- it's a swap, it happens only if other people also want to move. Plus, ``dormitory swap'' is a better name than ``correction lottery''. 3.3 Dorm Day On dorm day, all frosh must arrive on campus. Those who entered the dorm swap lottery must move to their new dorm. In-dorm orientation happens today to introduce residents and frosh to one another, and to do in-dorm room assignment. Upperclassmen aren't allowed to have any say as to where frosh go, except that they may be allowed to name frosh they *would* like to live with in doubles or suites (or designated "suite-like areas" as some dorms already have.) Frosh are also allowed to name people *they* would like to live with in doubles or suites. 3.3.1 Design Rationales Currently, only a few hours are dedicated to in-dorm orientation and room assignment. By assigning an entire day to the process, we reduce the high-stress of the decisionmaking, and increase the ability for people within the dorm to meet one another. This period is also essential for those students who did not take advantage of Dormitory Explorations to meet the residents of their dorm. By making this day the first day of required attendance, we insure that by the start of the MIT-Orientation process and subsequent FSILG Rush, frosh already have a stable place to live, eliminating the stress of housing uncertainty. It is important that upperclassmen be able to exert positive influence over which frosh they live with in doubles, suites or suite-like areas; otherwise, upperclassmen will tend to avoid leaving spaces in suites and doubles, leading to frosh "ghetto" doubles, suites and suite-like areas. With the exception of that caveat, however, we are following the RSSC's goal of preventing upperclassmen from ``judging'' frosh at during the very first days of their MIT experience. Finally, regardless of how much of a voice the upperclassmen have in rooming, letting freshmen choose to room with other frosh they meet and like can be even more important than the dorm in terms of personal happiness, so it is essential that they explicitly be allowed a role in determining their roommates. 4 Orientation Orientation consists of four days dedicated entirely to official MIT programming. Academic orientation, advanced placement tests, swim tests, writing tests, etc. all fall into this time period. FSILGs are encouraged to help set up and run various events. 4.1 Design Rationale There is no need to overlap formal MIT Orientation and academic events with any part of housing or FSILG affiliation selection. During Orientation, frosh have already determined their dormitory room for the year, and can begin the process of joining the dorm community while they are introduced to the larger MIT community. However, since prior to Orientation, the frosh experience has been focused on dormitory culture, FSILGs are particularly encouraged to help out with Orientation events in order to introduce the frosh to FSILGs both as organizations capable of participating in MIT's community, and as individuals with whom to form friendships. This also reduces the hastiness of decisionmaking in the Rush process that follows the conclusion of Orientation. 5 Rush (FSILG Explorations) After the conclusion of Orientation, frosh may optionally participate in a five-day FSILG Rush (perhaps better called FSILG Explorations) for delayed- and non-residential affiliates. Frosh will be encouraged to explore the FSILGs even if they don't have an interest in pledging. Bids may be offered on day 3, and ``must'' be accepted by the end of day 5. Accepting a bid for a delayed-residential affiliate slot is a promise to move out of the dorm system at the end of the frosh year. 5.1 Design Rationales Having acquired a safe space in a dormitory, and completed their pre-term academic and MIT community introduction, frosh are ready to face a process in which they might face rejection by upperclassmen. It is better to make this process short and pre-term because it's a lot worse to get strung along for an arbitrary length of time before getting ``flushed'' during classes than it is to get the entire process out of the way before classes start. By placing FSILG Rush near the beginning of the frosh experience, we allow frosh to determine early if they intend to move into a specific FSILG, and thus build ties with that FSILG's members in parallel with the ties they build with their dormitory neighbors, thus avoiding the tendency to form a single set of ties with dormitory neighbors and be disinterested in moving out. Since FSILG members have helped out with Orientation events for several days, even though the formal period of Rush is only a few days, the information-gathering period leading up to frosh decisionmaking is much longer, reducing the need for these decisions to be ``snap'' decisions. By encouraging even frosh who are not interested in FSILG living to engage in the FSILG activities, frosh are encouraged to further diversify their contacts with different communities on campus. Additionally, some frosh may discover, much to their surprise, that FSILG living does, in fact, appeal to them, a fact which may never become apparent to them under either the current system, or under a system which overlaps rush with classes (thus making rush secondary to all but the most FSILG-oriented frosh.) The requirement that bids be accepted at this stage allows the Institute to judge very early the success of Fall rush, and if necessary, support an IAP rush (of equally limited duration) to encourage further migration of frosh to FSILGs at the end of the year. Additionally, by getting the Rush information this early in the game, the Institute can tailor the number of frosh admitted in order to avoid crowding or the need to force ``excess'' sophomores to move out of the dormitories. Finally, by asking people to decide at this point, we discourage people from ``keeping one toe in the water'', leaving both FSILGs and dormitories unsure as to whether or not they need to plan for more people or more beds in the next year. (Parenthetically: When the transition to all frosh on campus happens, the number of undergrads housed in any given FSILGs will drop about 25, as seniors graduate and no frosh enter. However, under any scheme which allows MIT to dynamically adjust the number of admittees based on the available dorm space, the FSILGs can build their undergraduate population back up over the course of time with good rushes -- MIT will admit a few extra-large classes since extra-large numbers of beds will be available in the dorms, and then as the FSILG bubble works itself out, class size can go back to close to normal -- ultimately 350 more students in the system total, to cover for the new dormitory, or less than 80 more per class, once equilibrium is achieved.) Note that saying bids ``must'' be accepted by the end of day 5 does not exclude handling exceptional cases; we need 95 of the population to accept bids on time for the system to work well, so we say ``must'' and handle the other 5 on a case-by-case basis. Similarly, while acceptance of a bid is a nominal promise to move out of the dorm system, obviously exceptional cases in which people change their minds can be handled by the housing office on a case-by-case basis. 6 Term As usual, the MIT Term begins with Reg Day. In all liklihood, a day or two of completely unscheduled time between the end of Rush and the beginning of Term would be a good idea. 7 Conclusions We believe that the SEORT scheme successfully incorporates all of the major constraints and design motivations of the RSSC final report, but improves on the report in several ways. In particular: - We avoid overlapping the stress of Rush with the stress of classes (and even December finals!) - We encourage the early formation of strong ties between frosh and FSILGs by allowing early bid extension and acceptance, thus increasing the desire of frosh to move into FSILGs at the end of their frosh year. - By encouraging FSILGs to help out with several days of Orientation before Rush, we strike a balance that gives frosh a lot of time in which to gather information about FSILGs and their members without dragging the FSILG rush process out into the term. - We provide Rush staticstics to the Institute early for the solution of a variety of logistics problems without resorting to ejecting sophomores from the dormitory system involuntarily. One possible schedule for SEORT follows. Note that it is roughly two days longer than the current O/R process, but that the initial couple of days are optional. day 1: Frosh may start arriving day 2: Dormitory Explorations begin (optional/highly recommended) day 3: day 4: Dormitory Explorations conclude by 5pm. All frosh arrive by 5pm. Dorm swap entries due by 11pm. day 5: Dorm swap results returned by 9am; intra-dorm moves from 10am to 12pm. Afternoon: in-dorm orientation and room assignment day 6: Official Orientation begins day 7: day 8: day 9: Official Orientation concludes day 10: FSILG rush begins day 11: day 12: FSILG bids may be offered day 13: FSILG bids may be accepted -- simultaneously you indicate intent to move out at end of Sophomore year. day 14: FSILG must be accepted by 5pm day 15: unscheduled time day 16: Reg day day 17: classes start