Broad-based upperclass role seen

The Tilghman administration envisions the four-year residential college system integrating every undergraduate, according to a recent self-study of the plans to set up the system.

The plan highlights how the administration hopes that upperclassmen who choose not to join an eating club, as well as those who choose to join clubs, will have a place in the colleges. It is a more sweeping vision than previously revealed, not only aiming to provide an alternative to the Street but a college for eating club members, too.

Recommendations on how to encourage upperclassmen to remain affiliated with the residential college system include folding the social cost of affiliation into the University's tuition.

Also, according to the self-study — part of the University's reaccreditation process — "resident juniors and seniors will have a contract for approximately 14 meals per week. Those who join clubs or prefer independent arrangements should receive a partial rebate."

Other incentives include better food quality, extended meal hours and access to snacks to attract a wide swath of upperclassman for the four-year residential program.

Some are worried that the financial advantage of joining the four-year college system will have an adverse effect on eating club membership and social life.

"There's the potential for it to polarize the campus," USG Senator Camille Coates '06 said. "It separates those who can afford the eating club meal plan and those who can't."

Even if students wanted to join eating clubs, parents who are paying for room and board may prefer to have their children take the cheaper four-year college option.

"It may be difficult for students to convince their parents to pay two social dues," Inter-Club Council President J.W. Victor '05 said.

If a socioeconomic division is created among upperclassmen, some worry the Street's makeup will change.

"I can see the value of offering students a viable alternative and as long as the University is fair-handed about it, that's fine, but you don't want to create a situation that will make the Street an elitist institution," Victor said.

Some students feel that the administration should try to prevent polarization by making eating club options economically comparable to the four-year college.

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"In the end, I'm afraid the plan will further divide the campus along socioeconomic lines unless the University can devise a way to make the option of eating in a college financially equivalent to the option of eating at a club," Tower Club President Eric Czervionke '05 said.

However, despite concerns from those associated with the Street, the aim of the four-year residential college program is to give students more alternatives and promote integration among all types of students, President Tilghman said.

"That was one of the many motivations in creating the four-year residential college system," she said. "For those for whom Prospect Street is not an attractive option, the four-year residential college system will give students the same values that they get out of the eating clubs now: a close social group, great bands, great parties and good dancing."

However, the administration is also conscious of negative side of the four-year residential system.

"That [segregation] certainly would be an outcome that would be antithetical to what the University hopes to achieve and what the University believes in," Tilghman said. "The way to ensure that doesn't happen is to make the line between the [eating] options quite blurry."

To address this issue, the administration will set up a new committee during the academic year — led by Michael Jennings, chair of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures — composed of students, faculty and administrators. The committee will act as a task force on residential and dining life.

The committee will be charged with making a "fluid" connection between the eating clubs and dining halls.

A possible solution, according to Tilghman, may be to give students the option of having partial contracts at both the eating clubs and dining halls, so students would not be exclusively bound to one eating option.

However, a partial contract program may be difficult to implement between the dining halls and the eating clubs, Victor said.

"A partial meal contract may cause fragmentation and could take away from the character of an eating club," Victor said. "Clubs are also limited by the number of people they can house at one time and there's already a great meal exchange program in place."

But Tilghman said nothing has been finalized about the partial rebate and the rolled-in affiliation cost mentioned in the self-study.

"No decisions have been made about meal plans, costs, etc," Tilghman said in an email.

Victor stressed the importance of dialogue between the administration and eating clubs.

"Right now we are talking with members of the administration and the trustees in order to create the best options for the undergraduates," Victor said. "We really want to know the intentions of the University and figure out what their concerns are. President Tilghman is receptive to the concerns of the clubs and the eating club presidents are receptive to her suggestions."

The self-study, completed in March, was a part of the 10-year reaccreditation process and was presented to the Middle States Commission on High Education in April.