Adams to Designate a 'Wellness Entryway' Next Year

Beginning next year, one entryway in Adams House will be focused specifically on student wellness, according to Adams House Faculty Deans John G. “Sean” Palfrey ‘67 and Judith S. “Judy” Palfrey ‘67 and Resident Dean Adam Muri-Rosenthal.

In an email sent to the Adams community last week, the Adams House administrators announced a new initiative which will designate I-Entryway—located in Randolph Hall next to Linden Street—a “wellness entryway” where students will meet throughout the year to set community expectations and discuss ways to live happy and healthy lives.

“We believe that this will provide an opportunity for students living in the entryway to be intentional about their choices, collectively set the norms for their micro-community, and be supportive to one another in upholding them,” they wrote.

In addition to prompting students to be thoughtful about their living choices, this new initiative also seeks to foster house spirit, Muri-Rosenthal wrote in an email.

“We hope that uniting students locally around a specific theme will bestow a common mission, strengthen bonds among students, and eventually provide a model for building community throughout the House,” he wrote.

In their email to Adams House residents, the administrators wrote they chose I-Entryway, one of the smallest entryways in Adams House, for the wellness entryway experiment in order to move forward with “minimal impact to the community at large.” I-Entryway also houses the community kitchen and the technology-free Heaney Suite, named for former Poet-in-Residence Seamus Heaney, who frequently stayed in Adams.

Per the results of the Adams housing lottery, only two upperclassmen—out of the approximately 300 juniors and seniors in the lottery—will live in the newly-designated wellness entryway next year. Sophomores, who do not typically pick their room assignments, will fill the remaining rooms in the entryway.

Adams House will begin a three-year renovation in June 2019, overlapping briefly with the ongoing renovation of Lowell House, which is scheduled to end in Aug. 2019.

The Adams renovation will be the first to proceed in stages, with the House’s different residential halls set to be restored at different times. Claverly Hall will be the first to be renovated, from June 2019 to July 2020, according to Elizabeth R. Leber, a partner at architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle. Apthorp House and Randolph Hall, home to the new wellness entryway, will be restored in the following year, with Russell Hall and Westmorly Court undergoing renovation last.

—Magazine writer Devin B. Srivastava can be reached at devin.srivastava@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @thebigsriv.