GUEST COLUMNIST: Hill serves as college house model

Eric Bycer Eric BycerLast month, mailboxes across campus were filled with informational packets and applications for on-campus living in the 21st century college houses. The packet was beautiful, well thought-out and long-overdue. One major point of the new residential plan involves the intermingling of upperclassmen and freshmen. Many people have come forward both for and against this arrangement without thinking it through. Hill House, however, has proven it a great success -- especially as a means to support freshmen through their adjustment to university life. When I moved into Hill for the first time, upperclassmen helped me lug my stuff into my room; they made certain I had everything I needed and they told me how to find CUPID. Later on, when I needed advice on registration, I could seek out upperclassmen and student managers. And when I had a problem with one of my classes, I only had to go as far as the door of my upperclassman neighbor. This wouldn't last, I thought. But it did. The community aspect of the house was so enthralling and so student-oriented, that I decided to stay in Hill as an upperclassman. That was four years ago, and now I am on the house's manager board. Also like Hill, the new college houses will be self-governing and self-managing. Everything that needs to be done will be done by students. The effect: students see the implementation of programs that they desire, they influence and they control. For instance, a few years back some Hill students decided that the dormitory needed a central location for laundry, linen, mail, copying, theater tickets, SEPTA tokens and other odds and ends. All it took wa a discussion with the assistant dean before Hill's own services center came into being. The Pit, the commissary, the computer lab, the Hill House Office are also student-generated and student-run programs. This is the model the college house system is based on. If something needs to be changed, then let the students initiate it. That's what college is all about. The plan involves a paradigm shift. Under the old method, administrators handed down the law, which students then had to accept. Over the past 230 years, however, there has been a gradual shift toward more student-oriented leadership and ideals. Now, rather than dictate terms to the students, administrators provide guidance and a helping hand. Will there be problems at the outset of implementation? Yes and no. There will of course be the necessary growing pains of expanding a program across campus. But if the new college houses take a look at how Hill House runs and emulate that system, there may not need to be many modifications. Since it is a system made to be flexible and manageable -- able to change with the ebb and flow of student leadership from year to year -- it should provide an excellent foundation for all other houses.