Unfulfilled promises at Whitman

The Whitman dining hall was members only once again last Tuesday evening, but it was no ordinary College Night. "Men should wear jacket or tie, and women should wear skirts or suits," read the printed invitations to the Whitman Senior Celebration Banquet. Nonetheless, it seemed that only a handful of Whitman's 500 residents heeded the request to wear semi-formal attire. Many more trickled in wearing regular clothing, surprised to find speeches from the master and deans taking the place of normal dinner conversation.

The administrators' speeches proved to be as out of place as students' jeans next to Master Harvey Rosen's tux. Addressing a largely empty Community Hall, the administrators spoke of the strengthening of the Whitman community during its first year. Director of Studies Cole Crittenden thanked the resident graduate students for their efforts, though few were present. Rosen waxed sentimental about how his worries over the formation of a Whitman community have been dispelled. Based on these speeches alone, it would seem that Whitman has lived up to Nassau Hall's promise that it would be a place for novel interactions between underclassmen, upperclassmen and graduate students. The problem is that it hasn't been.  

I've seen fewer interclass interactions this year in Whitman than I saw last year in Butler, and Butler only had freshmen and sophomores. Many of my friends in Whitman have never met the upperclassmen on their own floors. A Whitman community has indeed formed, but it centers on preexisting groups of friends and freshman friendships that likely would have begun regardless of the surroundings and the setting in a four-year college.

Given the differences in maturity and interests between underclassmen and upperclassmen, it shouldn't be surprising that few students have the initiative to interact across class lines. Zoning restrictions and Whitman's myriad dinners and special events have insured that older and younger students at least notice each other, but that doesn't mean that new friendships are forming. That underclassmen and upperclassmen share bathrooms can hardly be the hallmark of the revolution in interclass relationships that the University was hoping for.

The attempt to transplant graduate students into Whitman was perhaps even more ambitious. Though some have made genuine contributions to the Whitman community, like forming the Jane Austen Society, others have done little to dispel common grad student stereotypes. When looking at the Whitman floor plan before moving in, my roommates and I noticed a graduate student apartment a couple doors down from our room. We imagined befriending our resident preceptor, perhaps even cooking meals together in the apartment's kitchen. Now it's May, and I still have no idea who he or she is.

A Whitman community would be more likely to form if all Whitman residents felt a tie to the college. Such ties are hard to establish, especially given that most Whitman residents had prior allegiances to eating clubs or other colleges. The fault for the failure of the Whitman dream ultimately lies not with the administrators directly in charge of Whitman, but with the top leadership of the University who assumed that putting students of all ages under one roof would automatically lead to bonds between them.

More could be done to facilitate interclass relationships in Whitman. What's needed are not more large-scale events like this week's three-day Whitmania bash, but rather RCA group activities that lead to direct interactions between older and younger hallmates. Whitman RCAs should therefore be encouraged to host study breaks for all residents, including upperclassmen and graduate students.

Furthermore, Whitman should offer incentives for upperclassmen to participate in college events. Not surprisingly, attendance at Whitman events has been dominated by freshmen. If Whitman upperclassmen were offered exclusive benefits like special prize drawings, they would be more likely to participate and would perhaps even meet some underclassmen in the process.

Ultimately, the Whitman administrators' declaration of success bothers me more than the lack of community itself. The administrators apparently haven't noticed that the Whitman ideal conjured by the architects of the four-year college plan does not resemble the actual Whitman after one year of operation. Dishonesty in pursuit of virtue is still a vice.

Despite Whitman's many successes, a coherent college community has yet to form. The administrators' speeches to the contrary marked yet another example of University officials out of touch with actual student experience.

 

Michael Medeiros is a sophomore from Bethesda, MD. He can be reached at mmedeiro@princeton.edu.