UA votes not to endorse assigned housing recommendation

By a vote of 20-9 with one abstention the Undergraduate Assembly voted last night not to voice support for the Commission on Strengthening the Community's recommendation on "randomized housing." College freshman Adam Strunk proposed that the UA adopt a letter advocating section D.1 a-e of the Commission's report, which discusses assigning housing for first-year students, to the extent that they would not be able to participate in living-learning programs. "We are concerned that currently freshman housing is segmented along racial lines," the letter stated. "This detracts from race relations on our campus because a community is founded on people sharing common experiences." The UA vote determined not to endorse the letter which was addressed to Gloria Chisum, chairperson of the Commission and vice chairperson of the University's Board of Trustees. UA Chairperson and College junior Seth Hamalian, along with Vice Chairperson and College senior Scott Sher, passed control of the meeting to Treasurer and College sophomore Ashley Magids during the randomized housing discussion. "I feel so strongly about this issue that I'm not sure I can be impartial," Hamalian said. "I also want to speak for my constituency." The last time the gavel was passed from Hamalian to Sher to Magids was in the fall when the UA debated the Racial Harassment Policy. After some discussion about the Commission's definitions and the addition of two amendments to the letter, the floor was opened to four pro and four con arguments. College sophomore Mike Nadel, who is not a member of the UA, spoke about his experience as a member of the Commission's Communications working group, which proposed the idea of randomized housing. "You have a window of opportunity to take a firm step to improve race relations," he said. "You should give freshmen the opportunity to be diversified and not segregated." "This is the most important issue that this UA will deal with," he added. Speaking against the motion, College freshman Mosi Bennett said the UA was really debating the existence of W.E.B. DuBois House. "I think that comfort level is very important," he said. "You can't force integration and besides, changing where people live does not necessarily change attitudes." Engineering junior Ha Nguyen, said there are other outlets for ethnic groups to stay together and randomized housing would allow them to mix. Sher, who spoke against randomized housing, argued that because five freshman classes would have to deal with randomized housing, it was not such a temporary issue. "Students are paying $25,000 a year to come here, so they should have the choice as to where they want to live," he added. "People in exercise videos say 'No pain, no gain,' " said Wharton sophomore Dan Debicella. "If we're all comfortable living in each of our communities, diversity will not occur." Hamalian said this is the wrong approach for Residential Living to take. "The environment that students are going to have to go home to? is not going to be hospitable," he said. "Most minority students dealt with white people all their lives. They don't need to learn from us, we need to learn from them and I don't see them being paid for that service." Strunk said the nine members who endorsed the letter would send it to Chisum with their signatures.