Finding community in the colleges

While the administration's plan to increase class size has been much debated, little has been said about the proposal's other half, currently under review through Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel's office: the establishment of four-year residential colleges. This system is designed to offer an alternative to the eating clubs, which the University views as dominant in student life. However, if the administration is not careful in its implementation of this plan, it is likely to strengthen the very divisions it seeks to eliminate.

Current practices allow upperclassmen to draw back into the residential colleges only if they carry a meal plan. If this policy is applied to the four-year residential colleges, however, upperclassmen who join eating clubs will find themselves essentially barred from this option by the prohibitive cost of carrying two meal plans. Given the enduring popularity of the Street, forcing students to choose an exclusive affiliation will ultimately undermine the campus-wide appeal billed as the four-year residential college's defining feature. If the University wants to make this experiment viable, it needs to find a way to include those students who join eating clubs.

The key is to create a four-year community for all students, whether in the form of a four-year residential college or the traditional two-year college with increased emphasis on outreach to its formerly-resident upperclassmen.

Simple ways exist to keep upperclassmen involved after they've moved elsewhere, and many residential colleges have already begun to employ these strategies. Invitations to attend study breaks and alcohol initiative events, lectures and residential college trips — combined with gifts of college gear — will encourage upperclassmen to return physically. Expanded residential college councils should include the positions of junior and senior class liaisons specifically responsible for planning events aimed at eliciting the participation of no-longer resident upperclassmen.

One of the two-year college's best resources is its upperclassmen "alumni." For freshmen and sophomores seeking advice, these students represent literally hundreds of unofficial RCAs, peer advisors and big siblings. Relationships with these upperclassmen will also help balance the influence of Greek organizations on campus, since many students who join fraternities and sororities do so in order to meet upperclassmen.

A four-year connection would also benefit upperclassmen. When freshmen or sophomores get into trouble, the residential college staff is there to help; juniors and seniors currently have no such familiar safety net. Having the same director of studies from freshman year to graduation would introduce continuity to students' academic programs and allow them to seek advice from people who know them personally.

If colleges are wondering how to encourage their upperclassmen to stay involved, they need only remember that food is a strong motivator. If the eating clubs would close their kitchens a few times a month and encourage their members to take that night's meal in their former residential colleges, freshmen and sophomores would have a chance to mix with upperclassmen. Having juniors and seniors eat occasionally in the dining halls, the most social of Princeton spaces, would allow underclassmen to ask important questions about choosing majors, clubs and internships. Although this proposal may not be feasible, the University can certainly take advantage of the period before fall classes begin, during which time eating clubs are closed, to invite upperclassmen to meals.

The best way to offer an alternative to the eating clubs is not to pit the residential college system against them but to create a space in which the two can coexist. This already exist for those students who choose to serve as RAs and RCAs every year, but a broader community built around the four-year residential colleges can make this a reality for all upperclassmen. The expanded residential community could even break up the eating clubs' exclusivity by encouraging upperclassmen to maintain connections with friends from freshman and sophomore years. The popularity of the eating clubs stems from the community they create; the four-year residential colleges will be viable only if they create a community as well. If the administration wants to offer a real alternative to the eating clubs, they should welcome all upperclassmen into expanded residential communities, regardless of where those students take their meals. Emily Stolzenberg is a sophomore from Morgantown, W. Va. She can be reached at estolzen@princeton.edu.