While I was out of town, there was a nice article in the New York Times Education section about the Minerva House system that Union has set up recently.in an attempt to (among other things) reduce the dominance of fraternities over the campus social scene:
“You’d see that these were very prominent places, and a lot of social activity was concentrated around them, day or night,” says Thomas D. McEvoy, Union’s dean of residential and campus life. Today, the houses convey a decidedly different message. The fraternity brothers have moved, and their former homes, together with several other newly renovated buildings, now make up Union’s seven Minerva houses, the heart of an ambitious experiment named for the Roman goddess of Wisdom.
In practice, the Minerva houses are a foundation on which Union students — who typically live on campus — can build a life outside the classroom. They can watch football games or invite professors over for tea, cook dinner with friends or throw a party. The houses are also a physical symbol of Union’s ultimate goal: creating a campus where it is harder to tell where the classroom ends and the rest of college begins.
(The “Minerva” name comes from the fact that she’s on the College seal, for historical reasons that are interesting, but not particularly important. Also, while I’m throwing out asides, this article about Cornell and other schools is also worth a look.)
I wouldn’t normally note a week-old Education article, but in this case, I have a personal stake. I’m not quoted in the article, and I was out of town when the reporter came through, but I’m taking over as the faculty representative of one of the houses this year. This means working with the students in the House to plan interesting events, bring faculty and students together outside the classroom, and generally try to foster a more vibrant college community. This means a fair number of additional meetings, but I can put up with that for the social stuff, which I enjoy a lot.
All in all, it’s a pretty good article, and a fair description of the system. I probably won’t talk much about it directly (as I try to avoid direct discussions of campus politics), but if you’d like to know where my “service” time goes on campus, that’s it.