Information and FAQs Regarding Senior House

[dorms@mit.edu]

Hello all,

We have called a number of meetings these past weeks in response to the
announcement regarding Senior House and are writing to share the
information that we've gathered, some thoughts and discussions that have
been circulating, and some next steps.

First and foremost, we stand behind the proposals put forward by Sarah
Melvin, the Senior House president, which we highly advise you peruse at
seniorhouse.mit.edu. Right now, we are focusing on immediate next steps for
Senior House, and working out compromises with those behind the Senior
House decision through Chancellor Barnhart. We'd like to note briefly but
emphatically that compromise does seem to be working, and that the
Chancellor has agreed on certain points. We are optimistic that we can
pursue this path further.

Many students and other involved parties, including Sarah Melvin and Senior
House leadership, the Senior House Head of House and GRTs, the Class
Councils, the Tech, and likely many others, have all had one-on-one
discussions with the Chancellor, the results of which are somewhat compiled
below.

Why was the Senior House decision sent out over the summer?

Discussion began in late spring, and a course of action was finalized
during the week before finals. The senior administration thought that it
would be academically detrimental to announce this at that time.

Why was the decision posted on MIT News and an email sent to parents?

It was believed that information about the decision would have quickly
circulated to parents and the MIT community at large. The biggest motivator
behind informing everyone simultaneously was to prevent the spread of rumor
and misinformation.

The data doesn’t seem complete.

The Chancellor’s office and IR (Institutional Research) ran a number of
different analyses on the data, including looking at demographic effects
and graduation rate by time spent in Senior House and not just by where
people lived their first semester and the results were not significantly
different than those that they shared. There is also more data that was
used to make this decision, but the full data set will not be released to
the public out of respect for community privacy.

Will the data be shared?

The full data set will be shared with Senior House residents, their house
team, and the people who end up working on the turnaround committee.

Will freshmen or upperclassmen transfers be allowed to move into Senior
Haus this fall?

As of now, freshmen will not be allowed to move into Senior House. Many
upperclassmen transfers have been allowed, and additional transfers will be
reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Who are these decision makers you’ve been talking about?

This decision was the result of discussions between senior administrators
and faculty. Members of the faculty that were involved include former MIT
undergrads and heads of house.

How can I help?

Thanks for asking! seniorhouse.mit.edu currently has a petition up. If you
haven’t read the proposals there and signed the petition yet, we encourage
you to do so. Additionally, we encourage you to reach out to us if you have
questions or concerns we have not addressed here, in order to prevent the
spread of misinformation.

Best,

Kate Farris, DormCon President
Yuge Ji, DormCon Vice President
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