Despite three years of construction and a $136 million price tag, Whitman College still isn’t big enough. Less than a year after its completion, the newest residential college will add new living space by incorporating Spelman buildings 7 and 8, University officials said in an interview last week.
Rising Whitman juniors and seniors will be able to draw into kitchen-equipped suites in the two buildings and purchase dining contracts for as few as 95 meals per semester, thus bringing together independent and four-year-college dining options, Executive Vice President Mark Burstein and Undergraduate Housing Manager Angela Hodgeman said.
Previous changes in housing have already given students the opportunity to live in four-year residential colleges and to purchase shared meal plans that allow them to belong to an eating club while they live and dine in a four-year college. The combination of independent housing and residential-college life, however, was not offered, Burstein explained.
Burstein and Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel discussed these new changes in a meeting with student leaders in January. The change grew out of student feedback during room draw last year, when Spelman rooms did not fill up during its allotted room-draw time period and were ultimately selected by non-independent juniors during regular upperclass housing draw.
Despite the fact that students who formally declare themselves as independents are not permitted to purchase meal plans, some had expressed interest in living in a residential college while maintaining access to a kitchen in Spelman suites.
While the opportunity to live in Spelman and eat meals in Whitman is intended to reflect student demand, some take an opposing view toward the change. Lauren Clark ’10, who lives in Whitman, explained that, to her, much of Whitman’s appeal centers on living in the college and the unity it offers. She said that having residents of Spelman eating at Whitman could detract from the college’s sense of community.
Part of the reason she drew into Whitman for her sophomore year was that “it was all-inclusive, and everything’s connected,” she said. “I thought the idea of a residential college was to live together and form a small social network.”
Burstein said that the new Spelman option may be the only significant change to housing and dining in the near future.
“One of the goals for this year is to not change a lot because we have a new system, and we’re really learning from that and learning what is of most interest to students, so we wanted to hold things relatively even” while still making minor changes based on student response, Burstein said.
‘Going independent’ declines in popularity
The new financial aid policy announced last year that covered part of the cost of an eating-club membership has led to a decline in demand for independent draw.
Burstein said that 84.4 percent of the Class of 2009 joined eating clubs, one of a “number of surprises” because this figure is higher than in previous years. In addition, the option of shared meal plans may also contribute to the lower interest in independent living.
Matthew Kinsey ’98, an analyst in Burstein’s office, also said that part of the appeal of the independent option is that it is relatively inexpensive compared to meal plans and eating clubs. As those choices become relatively more affordable, though, interest in being independent declines.
“It seems like there’s an overall trend away from the independent choice,” Burstein said. The trend has been several years in the making. Since 2005, there has been a drop of 28 percent in student interest in being independent. Virtually every other option, however, became more popular, Burstein said.
The move to combine independent and four-year-college options comes just one year after the University brokered deals with all 10 eating clubs to offer shared meal plans.
While all the clubs offered shared meal plans for the 2007-08 school year, the number that can be offered annually depends on internal decisions within the clubs and varies among them.
Thus, though the demand last year for shared meal plans exceeded supply, the eating clubs have decided to offer the same number of shared meal plans this year. They maintain the right to adjust this figure based on demand, Burstein said.
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