House Communities Make Their Debut

This fall students began living in a new residential system that President Phil Hanlon ’77 hopes will provide social anchors beyond sports teams, fraternities, sororities and campus clubs.

Although every undergrad is now assigned to a house community— and will retain that affiliation whether on or off campus—students will continue to live in Greek houses, affinity houses and living learning communities (LLCs), now consolidated in the McLaughlin cluster.

As in the past, first-year students will llive with classmates, either in first-year dorms or on designated floors in the Wheelock cluster or on an LLC floor. Freshman-only dorms include the Fayerweathers (North, Mid, South), Richardson, Wheeler, the Choates (Brown, Cohen, Bissell, Little) and River clusters (Judge, French).

“Students have praised the strong bonds built in their dorms during their first year on campus, but mourn the lack of continuity in housing after the first year as a weakness in their overall residential experience,” Hanlon explained in July. “With the new house communities system, we will recapture that much-needed continuity and stable community.”

HOUSE COMMUNITY: A dormitory cluster to which incoming students (as well as upperclassmen in the first three years of the new system) will be permanently assigned.

HOUSE PROFESSOR: A faculty member assigned for a four-year term to each house community—as well as to the LLCs—to offer mentoring and programming assistance. Four of the seven will live in newly constructed 3,000-square-foot residences, each of which includes a back porch and room for 20 to 30 students to visit at any time.

HOUSE CENTER: A student social space aligned with each house community that’s open to all, 24/7. All but the West House center on the first floor of Fahey will have a convenience store managed by a College employee as well as a conference room with a big-screen TV. House residents receive preference to reserve space in their centers, which can be booked by any house’s residents when otherwise available.