Following Harvard's Lead

It's taken three decades, but the rest of the Ivy League is finally ready to follow Harvard's move to the residential House system.

While student independence was the watchword of the 1960s, many college officials say that the recent trend is to bolster student-faculty ties.

"There is a big concern among some colleges to insure that the living facilities are more than dooms--that they are not places for students to retreat from academic life, but that they serve as bridges to the [academic] departments," said Associate Dean of Housing Thomas A. Dingman '67, who recently attended a series of meetings at the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford to discuss aspects of residential life with officials of other colleges.

"In the late '60s and early '70s there was a more lively curiosity on the part of students to play around with new ideas, and to experiment intellectually. Now the tendency is to look for more secure learning situations," said Norman W. Robinson, associate dean for student affairs at Stanford University, who also attended the meeting.

"I remember living in the houses when you couldn't come to dinner without a coat and tie," recalls Stanley N. Katz '55, now a professor at Princeton University and a master of one of the residential colleges. "One day a guy came into the dining hall wearing a jacket and tie and nothing else. I knew then that they weren't going to be able to keep that standard any more," he says.

Now the goal is to try to "stimulate students" by making the residential colleges places "conducive to lively debate and intellectual discussion," Robinson says.

While Harvard in 1930 was the first American university to institute the Oxford-Cambridge system of smaller colleges within the university--each with its own master, resident faculty members, and advisers, many colleges today are adopting similar systems.

"There's a feeling among many people that what got Harvard through the 1960's was the house system. It bridged the gulf between the faculty and students. How other schools are trying to create the same opportunity for that mix by building communities within the larger university community," Dingman says.

"Harvard's model provides an ideal which has worked extremely well," Robinson says, but adds that copying the system may be a mistake because of a "lack of money or physical arrangements to do it."

Whether they are adopting the entire House system or just the philosophy of bolstering the dorm-classroom connection, several Ivy League colleges are now spending substantial amounts of time, money and people on improving residential life.

Princeton: Five Colleges for Underclassmen

At Princeton, Katz points to several factors leading to the adoption of the residential colleges including the increased number of students enrolled at the university, and the desire to be more competitive in attracting students.

"The problem was obvious. Common areas designed for 500-700 students were being used by 2500--it was uncivilized and unmanageable. Students missed out on the benefits of undergraduate college life, including closer contact with faculty members," he says. Katz also points to the faculty's desire to create a more egalitarian atmosphere because Princeton students, after their sophomore year, join selective eating clubs. "We wanted all the students to have some kind of integrated experience," he says.

The Princeton system, now in its first year of full operation, includes five residential colleges, each with its own support network of advisors. Unlike the Harvard Houses, Princeton's colleges house only freshmen and sophomores with a few upperclassmen advisers. While they borrowed the practice of assigning freshmen to a house from Yale, many of the other aspects of the Princeton system were modeled after Harvard, Katz says.

With still a few problems to iron out, such as the incorporation of upperclassmen, the Princeton system has been labelled a success. Citing increased acceptances of high students as evidence, Katz says, "This is the first year we've had equal splits with Yale in the number of students who decided to come. (The college system) has made us more competitive for the kind of students I want."

On the 50th anniversary of it college system, Yale is not resting on its residential laurels. A report released this year by their faculty council addresses the issue of improving residential college life. The report recommends an increase in the number of formal courses offered at the colleges, says Frank W.K. Kirk, master of Trumball College. Currently each college offers about six courses a year. "Teaching on the college level is a nice way to integrate the social and academic functions of the college, it also lends a greater sense of identify to each of the colleges," Kirk says, adding that the smaller college courses made it easier to teach innovative subject matters which larger courses often do not address.

Penn: Moving Slowly

With the same philosophy in mind, the University of Pennsylvania has rearranged some of its residential space to resemble Harvard's.

Ten years ago the university turned some living quarters into "houses," each with its own master and academic-related programs. The move came in response to widespread demands for "alternative life styles with more contact between the faculty and the students," says Peyton Randolph Helm, Penn's former coordinator of college house programs.

"The house system is relatively new for us and the issue now is to expand the same kinds of programs begun in the houses to other dorms," says Patricia B. Helm. Penn's college house coordinator. The university is currently in the process of renovating a group of dorms by dividing them into smaller units with common rooms, libraries and apartments for faculty and administrative staff.

Financial and geographical limitations, however, pose problems for Penn. "We have a smaller endowment than Harvard and the house system is only one in a series of living options," Helm says, adding that students may also opt to live in a "high-rise or a regular dorm."

In addition to increasing the scope of its residential house program, Penn is also in the second year of a college house seminar program in which a guest from outside the university becomes part of the house community for a week. Some recent guests include, West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and iconoclastic novelist Norman Mailer '43 are two luminaries who recently visited.

Explaining the trend to improve residential life. Helm says, "For a while students saw the dorms as a place to retreat from academics at the end of the day. It's the job of a first-rate academic institution to make sure that education doesn't stop in the classrooms."

Dartmouth: Clusters vs. Frats

At Dartmouth, the move to improve residential life has two angles. An office of Residential Life established last August, oversees the institution of "clusters"--a series of dorms close enough together to form a neighborhood, each one with its own resident faculty members serving as student advisors. The school is also renovating the clusters to establish common rooms as well as recreational and library space, says Dean of Residential Life J. Christia Lesher. Officials have also imposed a set of "minimum standards" on the 27 fraternities and sororities, some of which have been marked by incidents of disorderly social behavior, officials say.

"The purpose of the institution is to educate, Everything that is not part of the classroom should be in support of the classroom," says Lesher in explaining the philosophy behind the renovations.

Some colleges have taken a more radical approach to the fraternity issue by abolishing them all together. In February, the trustees of Amherst College voted to shut down the eight Greek organizations, saying that they no longer contributed to the campus's academic or social life. "The fraternities had become quite independent from the academic life of the college. There was a genuine conviction that they were not living up to the college's standards," says Terry Y. Allen, a spokesman.

In an effort to promote a better sense of community, the college has also required that all students move back on campus. While long term plans for a residential system have not been made, the administration has looked at the possibility of a house system, Allen says.

While a majority of Ivy League schools are working to strengthen the connection between the faculty and the students, some administrators fear "too much" support. At Brown University, for example, administrators seek to promote a high degree of independence in student residential life.

"We don't ever pretend to try to equal the faculty involvement with students that there is at Harvard," says Arthur J. Gallagher director of residential life. "There is a point to stop trying to bridge the gap between students and faculty. It's important for students to be able to let their hair down and have fun."

"Many students choose to come to Brown because it's a different kind of campus--because of our low-key approach. That's not to say that we don't envy the Harvard system," he adds.

Back at Home

While Harvard may be the model for other newly-evolving residential systems, it has not become stagnant. Administrators point to the $50 million House renovation plan that began in 1981 as the University's largest ever financial commitment to the improvement of residential life. Besides renovations for general up-keep, the University has made special additions to some of the houses--such as a weight room in Mather House, and a Q-RAC nautilus.

"We're conscious of trying to equalize the amenities in various houses, so that each one has a sense of something special," says Assistant Dean of the College Martha C. Gelter. Gelter also points to space in the Houses for common rooms, libraries, or special activities--such as dark rooms or pottery studios--as involving substantial financial commitments. Moreover, House masters receive a discretionary fund in the range of $12,000 annually to support activities such as open houses and special dinners.

Besides pure monetary support, the University also devotes a great deal of time analyzing how the system may be improved. For example, two years ago, the College established the student-faculty Committee on Housing which discusses residential life issues.

In an effort to bolster the intellectual life in the houses, the Committee most recently has discussed the possibility of teaching sections in the Houses and promoting a series of special dinners featuring speeches by outside guests.

"The initiative to create something like our system is underway in other universities, but Harvard also wants to shore up its Houses--they're vital to the life of the College," Dingman says.

Princeton's five residential colleges, now in their first year of full operation, are credited with fostering a more egalitarian atmosphere there.

Dartmouth has moved to create 'clusters' with advisors, libraries and common spaces, and has also cracked down on its 27 frats and sororities.