Minutes of the MIT Dormitory Council meeting of September 15, 2008 In attendence were: Burton-Conner James Torres, DormCon president Kip Landergren, DormCon JudComm chair McCormick Sidra Khan, president Tiffany Lin, social chair Carrie Hagerman, social chair Sandhya Ramakrishnan, DormCon REX VP Next Wen Hui Tan, social chair Yi Huang, president Geoffrey Thomas, DormCon secretary East Campus Maggie Delano, DormCon REX chair New House Jarrell Johnson, president Senior House Keri Garel, president MacGregor Kristen Felch, president Joe Pokora, DormCon dining chair W1 Karl Wolff, president East Campus Vinayak Ranade, president, DormCon risk management chair James Ostrowski, DormCon dining chair Simmons Erin Munsell, president Random Preeya Phadnis, president, Dormcon EVP Guests: Robin Smedick, assistant director of undergraduate housing Everyone shared their favorite pudding. There were lots of mixed opinions. Some people can't eat it. Keri, who proposed the concept, actually doesn't like it. REX and Orientation Debriefing REX Survey and Housing Lottery Results: Robin Smedick showed some graphs. For first choice dorms, Baker has been the most popular. Simmons and BC hovered around the first two or three. EC has previously been in the top three, but is now fifth. 64% receieved their first choice in the summer lottery. Last year, 60% received, but in previous, more have received the first choice. Only 1% were placed in their 4th choice. Vinayak: Would you say that, except for a small subset, most rank and get what they want, and those who don't get what they want do so because of the logistics of the algorithm? Robin: If you look at the information for the past years, everyone is trying for the top 3 or 4 buildings. If someone ranks a 4th through 6th building high, they're likely to get placed in it, because we try to maximize happiness. Vinayak: Can housing do the same survey at the end of the freshmen year? I think that perceptions change over the first year, and actual freshmen happiness is not the same as gauged when coming in. Robin: We'd be happy to work with Dormcon if you want to take these questions and do a survey at the end of the year for the class of 2012. I think not all of these questions are pertinent... Vinayak: Yeah. Questions like what your first choice is. Robin: We always get feedback for why they ranked their initial preference [goes on to next graph] First preference is due to discussion with students over CPW. Good to know they value your opinions. I was happy to see the Guide to Residences and i3 were the 2nd and 3rd places, so we'll continue doing that. Geoffrey: Do you have a breakdown for students who did or didn't come to CPW? Robin: No, but we can consider doing that next year. Robin: 66% of freshmen who answered the survey wanted double rooms. Aziz: We had some groups of four in Baker who said they wanted quads. Robin: I thought it was pretty interesting that 93% of incoming students either don't want smoking anywhere in their dorms, or are okay with smoking but not in their rooms. Vinayak: This would be interesting to ask again. Keri: It does change as people get experience with how smoking dorms work, and people not smoking in common areas. Vinayak: Where did this question come from? "If you had the choice to live with an upperclass student, how would you feel?" Sandhya: We suggested that. McCormick often gets crowded and needs to put upperclassmen with freshmen in doubles, so we prefer to put freshmen who are okay with that. Preeya: It occasionally happens in Random. It's not a crowding issue, it's just an upperclassman stays in a double because they can't get a single. Robin: A larger percentage entered the adjustment lottery than in the past -- 24%. Unfortunately, we were only able to move 59% this year, but moved 74% last year. A little bit disappointed in those numbers ... our most popularly requested dorm was Baker, and only 5 students wanted to move out. Of the 41% who didn't get moved, most chose Baker, BC, and Simmons [the top three in the original lottery]. What we're finding is a lot of students who came in panicked and said they _had_ to be in Baker or Simmons have e-mailed us after a week saying "It's kinda nice here, take my name off the waiting list." Kip: Were the freshmen who got their fourth choice in the summer lottery given preference? Robin: No. James T.: How did Next House do? Robin: 45 students entered the adjustment lottery, which was great. We were able to adjust 21 or 22 of them, and we adjusted that many people into Next House. It got a little crazy for people in the advising office, but I would say that it certainly made a lot of students more happy. I would definitely support continuing that in the future. Yi: Actually, so we have a housing problem right now, that usually we decrowd triples but this year nobody wants to move out, so this year we can't decrowd as soon. Robin: Well, Next House still has a bulk of students on the waiting list. It's not just a Next House issue, it's a housing-wide issue, and there's just not a lot of space to move people right now. There's only 5 vacancies right now, but as soon as cancellations start to occur, we can decrowd. Robin: The last couple of surveys are what people thought about REX and the different DormCon events. The majority of students don't enter the adjustment lottery until Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. I know Dormcon has been not as happy if students enter before the events. Maggie: Out of curiosity, since you mentioned people enter the lottery before REX, why do you have it open that early? Robin: We don't tend to get that many. Only about 10 enter before then. Maggie: Oh, good. Vinayak: Also you can change it after you enter. Robin: I think people who tend to enter early are those who are dead set on living in e.g. MacGregor and have e-mailed us 10 times and will do anything to move. Doesn't help them, but I think they feel comforted by having that option. Robin: I don't think the number of freshmen getting in their top three has been this high before 2005. But there's the perception that if you don't rank Baker first, you won't get it. I would like to ask DormCon to demystify that. It would put students in buildings they really don't want to be in; they think that if they don't put the rankings this exact way they won't get their rooms. It really screws up the system. People think if they don't get their first choice in the summer lottery, they'll get it in the adjustment lottery. That's just not true. Please talk to prefrosh at CPW and tell them about how the lottery works. 46% of the freshmen that were placed in Baker ended up in quads, e.g. Vinayak: I think one of the reasons EC has not been as high in the last couple of years is we've done more of that. We tell freshmen who are hanging around the courtyard, "Go look at other dorms. We don't care how much you like us, look around." It turns off some freshmen, but those who really want to stay end up staying. Maggie: And then you get the people who really like EC, and aren't just like *omg hacking*. Robin: I can send you an e-copy of this, and I'd be happy to give you historical information as well. Admin Meetings: James: Today Preeya and I met with Dean Colombo, the new Dean of Student Life. We told him that we wanted him to make sure he visits every dorm, and starts to understand the concept that every dorm is different and within dorms different halls and cultures have different cultures. He worked at University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins, and Columbia. He's been to a couple of dorms, has been to some dorm events; he's got a busy schedule but presidents I encourage you to invite him to study breaks, etc. He's interested in dorms and cultures and that's a good quality I saw in him. He will be attending a future DormCon meeting. James: Speaking of which, when do we want meetings? Tuesday at 5:30 A lot of people like it Wait. If you absolutely can't make it, raise your hands. Tuesday. *3 raise their hands* Wednesday. *3* Thursday. *0... wait.. 1!* Friday. um. Maybe not. James: OK, 5:30 on Thursdays. Kip: Burton-Conner will host the next one. James: OK. October 2nd, Burton-Conner, 5:30. James: I'll try to invite Colombo to that meeting. Vinayak: How much does he know about the dorms? James: He's getting his opinions from actually visiting them. He went into dorms during REX ... I'm sure he's heard stories, but he does want to visit them. You should encourage him to visit his dorms. He is *busy*, so if he doesn't make the first appointment, don't hold it against him. Just work with him. I think it's an incredibly important thing. James O.: At his old school [Columbia], it was structured by class years.. is he thinking that our class councils are the basic unit of student organization / government? Preeya: No, he's making an effort to learn about MIT's structure. Vinayak: Has he talked to larryben? James T.: Yes. And he's talked to me and said 'Is it just me, or is it confusing? You've got the UA, Dormcon, IFC, Panhel...' and I said yes, there are a lot of student government organizations. He is trying to figure everything out. Dormitories: James: I just wrote this on the agenda. I'm not sure why. James: Actually W1. Karl, tell us about yourself. Vinayak: What input have you given the various W1 committees and how has that input been used? Karl: We have several different committees, like everything. The two main ones we've had are the W1 Renovations and the Dining Committees, two small-scale things that we talk to admins quite a bit about. they hear what we have to say, but ... They gave us a dining hall, we said we want kitchens, they are willing to give us kitchens in the basement, but we want them in the lounges ... We want singles and doubles, but they want to fill as many as we can. Right now there are no quads on the plans so I'm happy about that. Vinayak: How many students are living there? Karl: Nobody. They're currently gutting it. They kicked all the grad students out to NW35 and are turning it into a regular dorm. Aziz: NW35 is nice, by the way. Karl: NW35 is sweet. We're interacting with the grad students a little bit. The first couple of months, we're writing a rough constitution. There are only 50 of us now, but when we move to W1, I think the number is 460. everyone: 460!!!!! James: So you guys went to Cambridge [University in UK]. Karl: Yeah, 5 people went to Cambridge. larryben paid for it. We visited the different colleges and looked at how they set up the communities. They wanted us to be both a dorm and a "living/learning community". Since it's in the middle of campus, they want to attract students from all over campus, faculty, residential scholars. 5 people went to see how faculty in Cambridge interacted with the students. One college wants to be a sister of W1. Karl: Most of this residential-college stuff they want to do through Dining. They've started rethinking what they want out of the dining program. Right now the plan is for an AYCTE system with several different areas. It's very, very large. They want to serve more meals than just dinner, but they have to evaluate the market for that. One of the goals is for professors to eat meals with the students. Joe: Is the dorm floor-based or suite-based or? Karl: NW35 is suite-based. Well, more like apartments. Some people have single apartments. Joe: What of W1? Karl: It will be hall-based, if you will. It's not a suite; all of the doors look out into the hall. James O.: Are you planning on being like East Campus, with hall culture? Karl: They want us to be a more dormwide community. It's a good goal, but with almost 500 people, we'll probably self-segregate. Joe: EC is like Baker architecturally, but very different culturally. Geoffrey: Next was based on Baker, but we've started to evolve a hall-based culture in some parts. Karl: So far we've not yet decided the rooming policy; the students will be discussing this. Karl: This Thursday we have a meeting with Facilities, and we'll be looking at more free space. Vinayak: Is there documentation from when Simmons had the founders' group? Erin: Yeah, they wrote things. I'm not sure but I can definitely find out. Kip: How important is housemaster selection? Karl: We already have housemasters, Jack Carroll and Susanne Flynn. She teaches 24.900 and he's a philosophy professor. They're living with us in NW35. Once we move back to W1 we'll also be getting an associate housemaster, and students will get GRT selection. Dining: Joe: We were looking at a shuttle from EC to Star: Cambridge East has stops at EC and Random. And Cambridge West also stops at Random. So that's not really an issue, just use Saferide. James O.: We talked to Verde's about a suggestion box, but they need permission from 660. They're not 24 hours. They're closed 3:30 to 6, but nobody's there then. Joe: We'll talk with Forbes to get communication there. JudComm: Kip: We had training about JudComm with some of you guys. I'll be e-mailing presidents of dorms without Judcomms, and Judcomm chairs of the rest of the dorms. Risk Management: Vinayak: I'll be asking people about the party management system. The site doesn't work right now, although the beta worked. Kip: I got the first party registration of the semester! Student Groups: James: I don't know why I put this on the agenda. I think I copied an old one. Other: Vinayak: If you visit giving.mit.edu, there's a Campaign for Students. I don't think anyone here has heard about it, except Maggie. Maggie: They talked about it like 10 times at the UA. They picked students, and interviewed them, those students know. Vinayak: If you go to the Campaign for Students web page, they have a list of things they want alumni to donate to: arts, athletics, ILGs, fraternities... dorms aren't on there. Maggie: We talked about this at the UA. When you're going to try to get donors, you have to advertise interesting things... Geoffrey: Well, a lot of alumni lived in dorms. Preeya: Would the money go to dorms directly, or would it go through Housing? Vinayak: I'm not sure, but I think it's more important that we're on the list. We don't know about this, and dorms represent a large part of the student community. Budget Proposals Next: Bonfire Wen Hui: I'm one of Next House's social chairs. We're having a "Marshmallow Roast", we'll probably call it the bonfire. It'll be held in the Next House courtyard. There will be regular bonfire events, and other carnival-like stuff. We're making T-shirts. The event is open to everybody. Secondly, we need to pay $1000 to Grounds, but apparently we can't do that. We'll have EMTs on hand and people who know how to use a fire extinguisher. We're asking for $1000. We also applied to LEF/Arcade. Maggie: I would say that although T-shirts are cool, if you use Dormcon's money, spend it on food, not T-shirts. Erin: Simmons tried to do a bonfire on Briggs Field. We were told we need to hire the Cambridge Fire Department. Yi: That's the $1000 extra we're working on. Vinayak: Motion to white ballot. [No objections, $1000 given to Next] [James leaves, Preeya presides] McCormick: Fall Formal Tiffany: We're planning the MIT Fall Formal. It will be at the Roxy Nightclub. Sponsored by Simmons, Next, and McCormick, but will be open to everyone. Buses will stop at McCormick, and at Westgate (between Next and Simmons). Carrie: We'll have DJ, dancing, food, hors d'ouvres, non-alcoholic bar, balcony for people over 21, door prizes, favors. Tiffany: We're estimating the food catering. We're asking DormCon for $5000. It would be really nice since Fall Festival may not be able to give us $2000. Preeya: I'm confused about tickets. How much are they? Carrie: It's $8 for an individual and $12 for a couple for residents of these three dorms, and $12 for an individual and $18 for couple for other people. Tiffany: We'd like to cap it around 500 attendees. Vinayak: Last time we discussed a formal, we eventually decided not to fund transportation. Tiffany: Last time, people took the SafeRide to the Pru. The main concern is that people complained about that. You can get to the Roxy by T, but Simmons and Next are far from the T. Maggie: We could provide the money without allowing it to be used for transportation. Vinayak: Can we fund events with alcohol? Keri: You can get alcohol at the Roxy. We're not funding the alcohol. Preeya: I think it's fine, then. Kip: I think it's fine and we've done so before. Kristen: We did give a date at DormCon last term for the Halloween Party. this conflicts. Preeya: You can't move it, right? [McCormick]: No, we have a contract. Preeya: Is there a way we can resolve this? Vinayak/Maggie: Can we table this to the next meeting, or at least until we have a treasurer? [motion to table, white ballot] Preeya: Who's running for treasurer? [Who's eligible?] Vinayak: I nominate Erin. Erin: No thanks. Vinayak: I nominate everyone in the room. Everyone in the room: No thanks. someone: What happened? Kip: Anthony is moving into his fraternity. Kip: I'll take care of treasurer stuff until we find a replacement. Erin: Wait, I accept. [white ballot, Erin is the new treasurer] Geoffrey: What if we compromise, and say that we approve this because neither McCormick nor MacGregor can move, but future events are highly encouraged to contact Dormcon well in advance. [McCormick]: We e-mailed Anthony. Joe: Well, can the secretary keep a list of events? Geoffrey: I can do that. [Private discussion] [Motion passes 7-2-1 to fund $5000] [Meeting adjourns]