Vegetarian co-op takes control of 2D room draw

This year, the draw will be controlled by the 2D vegetarian co-op, which cooks and eats meals in the house.

The co-op hopes to fill the house — which has 17 singles — with members. In previous years, members of the co-op would get to draw into the house in the first-round, after which non-members would have the opportunity to draw into any unfilled rooms.

Non-members who live in 2D were often attracted to the house because of the chance to live in singles.

“It was one of the last singles available at my room draw time, and being a solitary creature, I decided to live there out of necessity,” Sean Paul Ashley ’13, who is not in the co-op, said in an email.

This year, the application to join 2D has an additional housing section. The application deadline is March 7, the same date as that for the regular housing application. The draw times for the co-op will be posted around the same time as well.

With the new system, students will have the opportunity to view their draw times in the independent or upperclass housing draw and then confirm whether they would like to remain in the 2D draw.

Current members will draw into 2D first, similar to how current juniors have earlier draw times than current sophomores in the room draw for independent and upperclass housing.

Samantha Ritter ’13, the co-op’s draw manager, said she did not expect the house to fill up with rising seniors.

Prospective members will then get to draw into the house. As an incentive to get more prospective members living in the house, the co-op will automatically add students who live in 2D into the co-op.

Students on the waitlist will have the opportunity to join the co-op if they draw into the house.

The draw will be weighted, with current members receiving more points than prospective members and rising seniors entering with more points than rising juniors.

“What we hope will happen with the new system is that by weighting it ourselves and having more of an incentive for prospective co-op members to draw into the house that we can fill it with co-op members,” Ritter said.

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With only co-op members in the house, members hope to create a stronger sense of community. Evan Warner ’12, a member of the co-op, lived in 2D this year as a senior after spending his junior year living in upperclass housing.

He said that he has found it more convenient to live in 2D this year due to the proximity to the kitchen and the sense of community.

With the new draw system, Warner said that he expects an even greater sense of community.

“It’s nice to have a living community as well as an eating community,” he said. “I can wander downstairs at really random periods of time and find someone to talk to that I know really well.”

The co-op has capacity for around 50 members every year and will decide membership after the room draw.