Physical plant first became aware of the problem last fall. "Through a review of Campus Police reports, I became aware that there were significantly large gatherings and parties in the basement spaces of the fraternity dorms and when I investigated the matter in more detail with the Campus Police, I became increasingly aware that the parties were exceeding the occupancy limits for the basement spaces," said Director of Physical Plant Jim Brassord. "It poses an inherent risk to the students using the basements because the exiting capabilities for the basements were not designed for such large groups," he said.
Brassord brought the issue to the College Council. "I wanted to investigate the matter and determine if there were modifications that should be made to enhance safety," he explained. Brassord hired an architect to develop revision plans for the basements.
Basements in Seelye, Mayo-Smith, Hitchcock, Seligman, Hamilton, Tyler and Plimpton Houses need repairs. Basements in the other houses will not be modified. "The key difference between the dorms that require modifications and those that don't are the open spaces. Garman, for example, is a fully programmed basement without large open spaces that are conducive to large parties," said Brassord. The most controversial revision is in Hitchcock-the plans calls for the laundry machines to be moved to the first floor kitchen, creating student storage space in the basement.
Elan Ghazal '05, a member of the College Council, disapproved of these plans. "I think it is pretty unsanitary. A lot of the laundry rooms on this campus are pretty filthy. So are the kitchens for that matter, but the mix of the two really seemed like a bad idea to me," he said. "Most laundry rooms have detergent and bleach bottles strewn around all over the place-not the kind of thing you want to be around where you are preparing food," he added.
According to Brassord, the plans had not yet been finalized. "We are still looking into details of whether [the laundry in the kitchen] is feasible," he said.
Currently, a small number of students can safely use basement facilities at one time. "Individual students can go down to the basement and do laundry, but [the basement] is an assembly space," said Dean of Students Ben Lieber. The current setup poses a number of "significant safety issues," he said.
The basements will not be closed completely following the revisions. "We'll preserve access to storage areas as well as kitchenettes and laundries where appropriate, but the larger spaces within the fraternity dorms will no longer be accessible," Brassord said.
Although the former fraternity houses will eventually be renovated as part of the College's Residential Master Plan, safety in the basements is a priority. "Students on the College Council felt these were reasonable and necessary measures under the circumstances," said Lieber.
"My hope is that students will appreciate these proposed changes," said Paris Wallace '04, a member of the College Council. "Although the changes may limit where people can party, overall, these spaces are a disaster waiting to happen."
Ghazal agreed. "There will be some groups on campus that traditionally have their parties in these basement areas and they will have to relocate, but the big issue is safety," he said. "The most important thing to keep in mind is that this is not a move by the administration to limit our gathering spaces. This is predominantly a safety issue. We have to close these basements until the reconstruction starts on the upperclass dorms," he added."
Brassord explained that eventually, the houses will have large spaces in the basements. "In the overall Residential Master Plan, when the College begins to address fraternity dorms, we will renovate the houses and at that time we will try to incorporate larger spaces into the basements," he said.