Trustees detail new four-year college system

The University moved a step closer this weekend to opening four-year residential colleges and began a discussion on how best to implement the new system that will take place this fall.

A 21-member planning committee presented the board of trustees with recommendations for advising and staffing, programming, housing and dining in the new four-year colleges. The University this weekend also clarified its plans to renovate Butler, Forbes and Mathey colleges.

"This will just provide students with another choice. It is meant to broaden options," President Tilghman said in an interview. "The idea of having a four-year option is not under debate — it is how to execute it."

The opening of Whitman College in the fall of 2006 will coincide with the first phase of the Wythes plan that calls for a 500-student increase over a four-year period. Beginning in 2006, 125 additional students will be added to the freshmen class.

In addition to building Whitman College — which will be constructed in collegiate gothic style and likely with the same type of argilite stone used in Cuyler Hall — the University will renovate several buildings in Butler, Forbes and Mathey.

The University will have three pairings of a two-year college and a four-year counterpart. Whitman College, which will be built on the tennis courts below Dillon Gym, will be paired with Forbes. Butler and Wilson colleges will be paired as will Rockefeller and Mathey colleges.

When Whitman College is complete, the University will be free to close parts of Butler and Forbes for renovation.

Because the 125 new students would not fill all the rooms in Whitman, the University will close rooms in Butler and Forbes for renovation and use the rooms in Whitman instead to house the displaced students.

In 2006, the first year of the new college system, there will be two four-year colleges open. University Vice President and Secretary Thomas Wright '62 said he expected Whitman and Mathey would be the first four-year colleges to open, and Wright said he expected all the rooms to be occupied.

"Renovations to Mathey are less significant than [to] Butler," Wright said. "We don't foresee single buildings being removed."

Wright did not say which buildings in Butler would possibly be torn down or rebuilt. However, Tilghman said the renovations to Butler College were more substantial than recent renovations to Dod and Little halls.

In addition to the cosmetic changes that took place this summer in Forbes, Wright said he expected "parts of the annex will be pulled down."

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Wright said discussions were underway to forego rebuilding in the annex area and instead constructing new rooms to the north of the main building.

When the construction is complete, each four-year college will house about 500 students and two-year colleges will house roughly 475. About 10 graduate students and possibly faculty members will also live in the new four-year colleges, according to the committee report.

To create a greater sense of community at the University, the report recommends that students have a stronger affiliation with their colleges. "There are a lot of perks that come with being in a college," said Sonya Mirbagheri '04, USG vice president and a member of the committee. "You can take advantage of a lot of resources that you wouldn't be able to otherwise."

In addition, the report calls for associating all academic advising with the college system, including advising juniors and seniors who have entered departments. The assistant master and senior fellow positions may be eliminated in lieu of a new "director of residential life" position for each college.

The committee traveled to Harvard and Yale universities, and Tilghman said the committee was lucky to be able to select what aspects of each system it liked.

The report lays the foundation for broad campus discussions with students, faculty and the eating clubs this fall. USG President Nina Langsam '03 said the four-year colleges would benefit undergraduates and not hurt the clubs.

"I think that the student body will really benefit from the under-upperclass bonds that can form in the residential colleges," she said. "Most of the clubs are filled to capacity at this point, and with the increase in the number of students, the clubs would have to turn down even more potential members."

As the University proceeds with the four-year college system and all the associated renovations, Wright said the University would have to seek additional funds.

Meg Whitman '77, the president and CEO of Ebay Inc, gave $30 million last spring that enabled the University to proceed with a sixth residential college.

However, Whitman College will cost between $90 million and $100 million, and the University continues to seek funds for the new college.

In addition to discussing the four-year colleges, the trustees also saw preliminary plans for the new science library near Fine Hall that will be designed by Frank Gehry, the internationally-renowned architect of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.