Almost 30 people gathered in House CC's commons room last night to discuss the racial balance in selective houses.
With race as its starting point, the group-composed primarily of CC members and black independent students-guided the conversation through many phases, ranging from the state of minority comfort levels to the benefits of an all-sophomore West Campus.
A suggestion that fraternities be removed from West Campus altogether launched a debate over whether selective housing was a worthwhile goal of the University.
Most of the independent students in the room agreed that too much emphasis is given to selective living, which, they said, is naturally exclusive.
But diversifying fraternities' memberships is not the solution to the generally-acknowledged problem of West Campus' homogeneity, said Trinity senior Nicole Stewart, president of the University's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"You have to make West Campus more inviting.... The administration is going about it the wrong way. Don't integrate fraternities. People will not want to [join]," she said. "We need to address what the [dominant West Campus] culture is. If it is frats, it needs to change."
Some of the black students argued that by giving fraternities the most highly-coveted locations on main West, the University helps perpetuate an environment unwelcoming to them as black students and independents.
"I don't like living in a fraternity, but the real estate is prime for me," said Trinity junior Lance Philadelphia, a member of the Black Student Alliance who lives in the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity section.
"Why do fraternities have the best real estate on campus? You shouldn't have to put yourself at the mercy of a selection committee to get good housing on campus," he said.
This aversion to rushing was shared by many of the attending independents: "If I wanted to live on West, I'd have to bow down to a selection committee. I think that's ridiculous," said Trinity junior Kameron Matthews, vice president of the NAACP and BSA parliamentarian.
For some attendees, the all-sophomore West proposal of the residential plan would ameliorate what they described as a "hostile climate."
But Philadelphia predicted that "There will be more than broken vodka bottles outside of doors" should the "forced integration" of the all-sophomore West become a reality.
Instead, he and others looked to the abolition of selective houses as a more effective option.
"If we could do away with all selective housing on West it would change the climate drastically," said Trinity junior Tanya Copeland, co-president of the Women's Studies dorm.
Members of House CC, however, were skeptical of suggestions to eliminate selective living, describing the rush experience as an important social event.
"There are other outlets for minority students to meet upperclassmen," said CC President Brent Kaziny, a Trinity junior.
"For white freshman males, the way of meeting upperclassmen is through rush."
Others said that the hostile climate perceived by many minority students needs to be reevaluated, arguing that many minority students are not speaking from experience.
"Before you have the chance to say West Campus is hostile to minorities, why don't you live here," Copeland said. "I don't think minority criticism is entirely justified because so few choose to live on West."
Trinity junior and CC Vice President Rob Cuthbertson, the discussion's organizer, said it was "almost entirely by coincidence" that the dialogue took place in such close proximity to the recent attention paid to race and selective housing.
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