The former Turath House

It’s official: ResLife is looking to create new program houses. This happens every couple of years, for one administrative reason or another. In 2008, ResLife called for proposals for new houses, and in January of 2009, Music House and Farm House were approved. Calls for proposals also occurred in the Fall of 2012, which led to the creation of Art House.

Lizzie Shackney ’17, chair of the WSA Student Life Committee and co-chair of the Undergraduate Residential Life Committee (URLC) explains the general process:

Students or groups of students will fill out a proposal that includes a series of questions that we’ll all approve ahead of time. They also submit a list of 30 potential residents with contact information.

After that, URLC reviews the proposals, and students will have the opportunity to present their house ideas to the committee. We then deliberate and come to our decisions, which are informed by conversations with students and an understanding of the role that current program houses are playing on campus.

Additionally, current program houses will be given the opportunity to move to new locations. Program house proposals, for the most part, should be open to any potential residence and there’s no option to specify location.

Not that, in this process, completely new houses can be formed and existing houses can move to new spaces. The addresses being opened up for this round of proposals are 202 Washington Street (currently Recess House), Turath House (on Pearl St.), 34 Lawn Avenue (formerly Chinese House), and 230 Washington Street (currently Art House).