Welcome again to the neighborhood (system)

This tutorial 12 months marks the third for the reason that tumultuous launch of the neighborhood system and the primary the place frosh will enter neighborhoods with finalized names, newly established traditions and a wash of funds. 

Final 12 months, the neighborhood system noticed a wave of criticism from college students over the restricted housing choices and lack of neighborhood identities. The neighborhood naming ideation classes have been sparsely attended, and solely 30% of undergraduates voted on the record of finalists.

Frosh entered a system extensively disliked by college students — at the same time as directors tried to enhance the neighborhoods. “I believe the opposite frosh don’t just like the neighborhood system as a result of they have been informed to not just like the neighborhood system,” Rush Bogin ’27 mentioned. 

Whereas many college students proceed to precise blended emotions across the new system, some Ginkgo residents are taking the brand new title in stride. 

The phrase “gink,” a short-hand for “ginkgo,” has unfold by way of Fizz as an unofficial nickname for Gingko residents. Fizz customers have been fast to level out that the title may perform as a diminutive, with some joking it was “offensive” or “discriminatory.”

“Solely Ginkgo residents can use ‘gink,’” mentioned Bogin, a Ginkgo resident. “At any time when I hear one other neighborhood resident utilizing the phrase ‘gink,’ I get a little bit harm inside.”

This isn’t the primary humorous off-shoot of the brand new neighborhood names. After the names have been introduced final quarter, college students shortly poked enjoyable on the new acronym spelled out by the neighborhood names — SHAGWORM — which changed its predecessor, STANFORD. One scholar even made merchandise that includes SHAGWORM and its unsavory anagram, WHORGASM. 

The finalists for neighborhood names have been curated by neighborhood councils — the teams of scholars and directors that resolve funding and programming for every neighborhood. Neighborhood councils will start to reconvene this week. In response to an e mail from director of communications Pat Lopes Harris, a number of homes already utilized for funding. 

ResX additionally created a brand new neighborhood web site with details about buying funding for college kids, residences or organizations, Harris wrote. Final 12 months, residents used funding to buy home furnishings or refreshments for events. Aspen used a considerable quantity of their funding to host “HEATWAVE,” an all-campus occasion that price round $92,000. 

“The neighborhoods ought to fund events,” mentioned Mehmet Tascioglu ’26, a sophomore in Aspen and former intern for Neighborhood T. “They need to fund frat events for the frats throughout the neighborhoods so we will hold doing that and having enjoyable occasions.”

Some neighborhood occasions — just like the third annual spherical of neighborhood barbecues held throughout the first week of the quarter — have already drawn many attendees throughout all 4 courses, who flocked to the occasions without spending a dime meals. 

“I partook in round 4 neighborhood barbecues,” mentioned Aspen resident Alexander Ekpo-Otu ’26. “I didn’t need the meals to go to waste.”

Although the neighborhood system is now in its third 12 months, many upperclassmen are struggling to neglect what many seen as a disturbing housing course of. Whereas college students have been supplied a one-year pilot of a neighborhood reassignment course of, college students have been assured neither their prime decisions for reassignment nor any reassignment in any respect.

College students can solely select housing areas in residences inside their neighborhood, a rule which some understand as limiting the choices. 

After receiving a late housing draw time, Tascioglu was separated from his supposed roommate. By the point he opened the portal, there have been no empty two-room doubles left in Aspen for Tascioglu and his two-person draw group.

“Final 12 months, I used to be working for the neighborhood system and I received to see a few of the occasions that have been placed on and the exhausting work that received into it,” Tascioglu mentioned. “However being on the backside of the system and handled as simply one other draw helped me notice this method has some imperfections that must be straightened out.”

With the brand new begin to the neighborhood system, there might also be new modifications. Final 12 months, ResX created the Neighborhoods Job Power to establish issues with the present system and suggest options. The committee will launch their solutions on Dec. 8, whereas proposed modifications will start within the 2024-2025 college 12 months. 

Till then, college students can take part in focus teams held by the duty drive, in response to Stanford Report. Every scholar will obtain “a meal and $30” to share their particular person neighborhood experiences with the duty drive, the report wrote.

For some frosh, it might be too late for ResX to sway opinions on the neighborhood system: “I got here into the system figuring out that individuals hated it,” Bogin mentioned. “I had a detrimental perspective on it, however I hadn’t even skilled it but.”