The four Greek groups moving to Wilder Tower next year will face many changes, including newly renovated suites and the prospect of living with a resident adviser.
The Greeks have been working with architects to come up with an acceptable renovation design.
Fraternities Sigma Nu and Sigma Phi Epsilon and sororities Delta Gamma and Sigma Delta Tau will relocate to Wilder from the Residential Quad to accommodate freshman housing. Their floors will undergo renovation to create more common space.
Currently, the plan calls for creating eight-person suites by turning the lounges of current suites into double rooms and creating a central common area by eliminating the wall between the center doubles, said Laurel Contomanolis, associate director of the Office of Residential Life.
Some groups seem pleased with the renovation plans.
?[The architects] let us have a lot of input,? said sophomore and Sigma Phi Epsilon president Josh Rolnick. ?We?ve created schemes that are actually quite different. Each organization had the option of having a slightly different plan.?
?They?re being very accomodating,?sophomore and Sigma Delta Tau president Sue Mao said.
Rolnick said that suggestions such as removing a door to create a larger lounge were incorporated into the plan. Closets were also included to increase the amount of storage space, which Rolnick said is less than was available to them on the Residential Quad.
?Our lounge will have windows finally,? Mao said.
But renovations cannot placate all of those displaced from the quad. Junior and Sigma Nu president Nick Turner said that he would rather just stay at the fraternity?s current home in Crosby Hall.
?It?s unfair that we?re being moved,? Turner said.
Though he feels the renovations will improve the current Wilder setup, Turner said, ?The lounge we?ll get will be smaller and the big thing we?re losing [in the move from Crosby] will be big rooms and sinks in our rooms.?
Mao also noted that the rooms will be smaller than her current room and Rolnick said he is worried about losing the communal aspect of living in a hall environment, but believes it will work out.
Beyond the big move, the Greeks will also have to make other adaptations ? one of which may be living with a resident adviser.
Two of the eight special interest groups living in Towers will get an RA next year.
The special interests are the four Greeks, Computer Interest Floor, Music Interest Floor, Health and Home and International Living Floor. None of these floors currently house an RA, although an RA on one adjacent floor is technically assigned to them.
The change will occur because Towers needs a minimum of 12 RAs in order to run the buildings, Contomanolis said.
The decision of which floors get an RA will depend on who fills their floors, Contomanolis said. Floors who can completely fill their living space will be less likely to house an RA.
?We?re not your stereotypical fraternity who are going to be loud and annoying and give the other people problems,? Rolnick said. ?We?d be willing to work with them and even set up programs for the building.?
?We would be able to do more programming and it would be good to have a connection to Res Life,? said junior and CIF president Chris Howell-Little.
?I don?t know if it would affect us much,? Turner said. ?We can just close the doors to our suite.?
Mao seemed uncertain about the prospect.
?We?re not used to it,? she said.
Mao also expressed concern for the RAs themselves and for any students randomly placed on a Greek floor, whose living experience may not be as positive.
?They?re going to feel kind of out of it,? she said.
Though RAs may express preferences, Residential Life will ultimately choose which RAs will staff a special interest floor.
The floors which house an RA may also alternate on a rotating schedule from year to year.
?We?re certainly not trying to pry,? Contomanolis said. ?We just need to staff the building.?
Additional reporting by Pranav Chandra.
