USG input valued, Nassau Hall says

Following months of uncertainty, the future of Princeton's dining and social options is coming into sharper focus with the release of a long-awaited report last week and a presentation by two senior administrators to the weekly USG meeting Sunday.

Last week, USG members discussed their concern that the administration was not including students in conversations about the new four-year residential college system. In response, Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel and Executive Vice President Mark Burstein, the two administrators heading planning for the colleges, came to Sunday's meeting to present ideas and answer questions about the future of undergraduate student life.

Burstein and Malkiel emphasized that many decisions, especially involving the relationship of eating clubs to the colleges, have yet to be made.

Their comments were based largely on the Report of the Task Force on Dining and Social Options in the Four-Year Colleges, released by German professor Michael Jennings last week and scheduled to be presented at today's meeting of the Council of the Princeton University Community.

Student involvement

Malkiel asked for support and input from the USG to figure out "how we can make the colleges work and how we can make the colleges places were students have a good time and accomplish what they want to accomplish."

Faculty and administrators met without students this summer for brainstorming sessions outlined in "Creating a New Social Environment in the Residential Colleges," a document released to participants in late September, Malkiel acknowledged. But she said the general framework would allow for two months of student discussion this semester.

Following "broad-based meetings with students from all facets of campus," Malkiel said, committees of students, faculty and administrators will be established to guide further planning before the four-year college system is implemented in fall 2007.

She highlighted the roles that students have previously played in planning the expansion of the student body and the four-year residential college system.

Dining and social options

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The Dining and Social Options report "talks a lot about trying to use the dining experience as a way of integrating the residential colleges into the campus community," Burstein said. Major goals include extending hours of operation, serving students with dietary restrictions and improving the access, flexibility and quality of residential dining.

These changes will change the "more institutional-type experience" in the dining halls to a "restaurant, retail, homelike feel," he said.

In addition to the construction of Whitman College, the kitchen and dining rooms in Rockefeller and Mathey Colleges will be renovated over the next two summers to allow for implementation of the plan. Renovation and connection of Wilcox and Wu dining halls, as well as renovation of the Forbes College dining hall, will follow.

Burstein echoed Malkiel's reassurances that future planning will be heavily dependent on student input.

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USG leaders at the meeting were not opposed to the general promise of improving dining hall food and broadening social options beyond the eating clubs, but expressed concern about how the incorporation of hundreds of upperclass students into the colleges might change the eating clubs, a 125-year-old Princeton tradition.

USG President Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06 asked if the introduction of four-year colleges might increase social stratification, noting that the task force report barely addresses the clubs.

He read from the report: "The task force believes that a key element in the creation of this more fluid community is the establishment of close working relationships between the residential colleges and the eating clubs. It must be kept in mind that more than 70 percent of all current upperclassmen at Princeton are members of eating clubs, and that the club membership is thus by far the largest single segment of the undergraduate community. We ignore this membership at our peril."

Burstein said the involvement of the clubs in hybrid college-club meal plans has yet to be decided, acknowledging that the graduate boards of some clubs will resist or refuse cooperation with the University. He said the University will do what it can to help the colleges and clubs coexist.

Class senator Alex Lenahan '07 said that "the fear in the back of everyone's head is that the four-year residential colleges will mean the death of the Street." Students nodded in agreement.

"We're not trying to put the Street out of business," Malkiel said in response. "We don't intend to put the Street out of business and we don't see that happening."

Campus Club's future

With regard to Campus Club, Burstein said, the University is in conversation with the graduate board.

"If it works for the club that it becomes University property, then in some way the building would be used as a social space and not for administrative or academic purposes," Burstein said.

USG members applauded the statement.

"The fact that Campus won't become the writing center is good," Joseph said, noting that a space located on Prospect Avenue could be helpful in providing a University-owned social option with the convenience of the eating clubs.