Residence life is expanding housing options for upperclassmen by adding a townhouse floor to the basement of Shenawana (Shen) Hall starting fall 2016. The townhouse floor is a more recent option for living on campus that combines the rules of a townhouse with the setting of a dormitory.
A townhouse floor was added to Gillette in 2014. According to Jason Stephens, the Residence Director (RD) of Shen, a townhouse floor has all the benefits of a townhouse. Such benefits include extended open hours, more options when it comes to meal plans, not quite as much involvement from an RA, and a lower cost than a townhouse.
Last fall Stephens also took on the role as Assistant Director of Student Programs. Through his busy dual role with campus activities and as the RD of Shen, his time has been divided. “We were able to create an assistant residence director position (ARD) for next year to help with some of the tasks it was difficult for me to complete in Shen this year,” said Stephens.
Ian DeHaas ‘17 will take on the role as ARD and live on the townhouse floor.
Instead of putting the ARD on a floor with first-year students–where it would take time and energy to help them through their transition into college–the college decided to put him with the townhouse floor residents where he can be more of a support to students who already know have experience navigating the Houghton college environment.
The townhouse floor setting is built to support the ARD, so he can still take on the RA role of a floor, but with residents who will not need his support as much. It has seven rooms, one being the ARD room. The basement of Shen also has a full kitchen and large lounge.
“I am really excited for the townhouse floor opportunity,” said DeHaas. “I am working with Jason to develop ways the upperclassman on my floor can pour into the underclassman on other floors in intentional ways. I want them to still be plugged in to Shen and connected with other guys.”
According to DeHaas, because the basement floor in Shen only has seven rooms, compared to the other 13 to 21 room floors, it is hard to get guys to sign up to live down there as people tend to want to be on a bigger floor. “Since the level of interaction is pretty low the basement is a hard floor to start out on because it is kind of isolating,” said DeHaas.
Chris Guntz ‘17, a future resident of the townhouse floor said, “I’ve always loved the
atmosphere of Shenawana Hall and all that it has stood for. I love the people and living in the dorms. I’m excited I get to exercise more freedom by living on the townhouse floor combined with being able to live in the dorms.”