Brown’s Newest Dorms Cause Ripples Across Campus

In the Face of Conflicting Student Opinion, ResLife's Efficacy is Called into Question

Rendering by Deborah Berke Partners, 2022

Thumbnail by Deborah Berke Partners, 2022

by Sophia Miller

April 2023, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island – In a stuffy room in Marcy Hall, a dense three-story dorm on Brown University’s Wriston Quad, three girls sit hunched over their computers, one scrolling frantically, the other two staring blankly at their screens. “It’s almost time,” says sophomore Jessie Golden as she twists a strand of blonde hair around her finger. Her friend, and hopefully soon-to-be roomie, Sophie Treader, gulps in response. The leader of the operation, Hannah Flannery, readies her finger over the trackpad. The clock nears 11:24am. They know what they want, and, having spent many sleepless nights going over every possible option these past two weeks, getting what they want has become an obsession.

“God, I hope they have it,” says Treader.

It is a suite in Brown’s newest Brook Street Dorms: dreamy, spacious, all with common spaces, some even with kitchens.

Golden, Treader, and Flannery had obtained a great check-in time; they came prepared, getting up early, congregating in Flannery’s dorm, armed with tabs full of spreadsheets, student forums, and university sites. But other groups of students had begun choosing rooms hours earlier. The already limited spaces at the Brook Street dorms were disappearing. At 11:00 am, the latest updates showed only 2 suites left.

It’s over in a flash: the page opens up, directs Flannery to Brown’s Housing Selection site, and suddenly the nervous energy breaks. The three young women gasp in synchrony. Plans A and B have become Plan C. Flannery hurriedly checks their backup. That option (a fairly nice suite in Greg A) is gone too. The color-coded Google doc with the group’s choices slims as Golden races through the list.

Finally, they spot a vacancy: a suite in Young Orchard, the dorm farthest from campus. Their twelfth choice. Reluctantly, Flannery submits their choice for the group. She grimaces and sighs.

“Those lucky bastards.”

Student Housing Gold

Brown University is set to open two new residence halls in Fall 2023, with Chen Family Hall and Danoff Hall (250 & 259 Brook Street) designed specifically for upperclassmen. With two-, three-, and four-bedroom suites, communal kitchens, and enhanced space for lounges, classrooms, and retail, the two new dorms will add 351 beds to Brown's housing inventory and help fulfill a university goal of retaining more on-campus upperclassmen.

public rendering by Deborah Berke Partners, 2022

To Golden, Treader, Flannery, and just about any other Brown student, these dorms are the pinnacle of the housing hierarchy. New and shiny, gorgeous floor-to-ceiling windows, rooms complete with more square footage and amenities—a dorm hasn’t been this hot since Brown opened the Wellness Center & Residence Hall in 2021.

Wellness was the first dormitory built in nearly thirty years. Similar to Wellness, the Chen Family and Danoff dorms will sport what Brown has labeled “theme communities.” Three in total: Sustainability, Interfaith, and Civic Engagement. Residential Life faculty has selected students to participate in these communities, and therefore obtain a room in Chen Family or Danoff Hall via an application process. This year, hundreds of students applied. Only 42 were accepted.

Some students, particularly those lucky 42, as well as ResLife faculty, see these new dormitories as a step in the right direction for the betterment of student housing. However, others are questioning the purpose and efficacy of theme communities, citing both the necessity of such spaces in the face of general housing demand and their small-scale and selective approach to altering the culture of student living.

The Brook Street dorms are now an irrevocable part of Brown’s footprint. Will discourse over its theme communities continue to run mixed? Or will Chen Family and Danoff Hall prove to be of value in transforming student living for all students?

Wellness Center

Brown installed its first theme community with the Wellness dormitory at 450 Brook Street.

public rendering of Wellness Center and Dormitory by William Rawn Associates, 2022

The university writes that the dorm’s theme works to create "an environment for students who are committed to developing and sustaining healthy lifestyles, wish to study holistic global approaches to wellness, and want to live with like-minded students."

That fall, 162 students became the first group to live in Wellness Center’s theme community. From afar, I got to observe all the amenities given to these holy few, on top of the incredible living spaces. Free food, stress relief gift baskets, coloring books, wellness workshops; kitchens in-suite, spacious living rooms, beautifully designed common spaces, and much, much more.

At the time, I wasn’t sure if I was the only student feeling left out. Apparently not.

Student Skepticism

At the Rockefeller Library on a Monday, between bites of chocolate muffin, Hunter Karas, current senior and on-campus resident, spoke to me about his confusion regarding Brown’s decision to make the Wellness Center application-only. “It just doesn’t make sense. You have freshmen living in forced triples, dorm rooms flooding when it rains, and Brown has the audacity to make a dorm that’s about wellness…? And, get this, you have to come up with suck-up answers to an application that gets you a one and a hundredth chance of getting you a room.” He takes an angry bite of his muffin. “And now there’s going to be more? Brook Street is going to be freaking frat row after Brown’s done with it.”

Our girl group, Golden, Treader, and Flannery, said much the same. “I just don’t have the time to deal with something like that,” Treader says of living in such a community, where one would be expected to contribute to initiatives and programs regularly. “And I don’t see other busy Brown students having much time either. It’s like, why do I have to jump through hoops just to get acceptable living conditions.” Treader lived in one of the dorms that flooded last year, with the entire basement floor, the floor she lived on, a foot deep in rain water.

Theme Communities at Chen Family and Danoff Halls

“In its initial design, I was tasked with reimagining the student experience,” says Brenda Ice, Senior Associate Dean and Senior Director of ResLife. “These dorms provide students with a sense of belonging, an expanded academic experience.”

According to Brown’s dedicated website on Chen Family and Danoff, the sustainability theme, in partnership with the Associate Provost of Sustainability, aims to deepen students' understanding of sustainability and the ways in which students can commit themselves to sustainable practices. This community is an extension of Brown’s commitment to sustainability and works in tandem to Brown’s Climate and Sustainability Action Plan.

The interfaith theme community, in partnership with the Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life, seeks to create a communal cohort of students with different religious and spiritual identities. The community will provide a space for students to engage with one another and learn more about the diversity of traditions and principles held by others in the group.

The civic engagement theme community, in partnership with the Swearer Center, will create a space for students with a passion for social change. Civic engagement residents will take on a mission of advocacy and community service/support on many levels, from within the dorms, to across campus and the city.

Application Process and Dorm Breakdown

“There are three ways students could get housing in the Brook St. dorms,” says a student via text, who got a spot in a themed community and who wishes to remain anonymous. Either through accommodations, the general lottery, or by applying to a themed community. Applications had to be submitted by January 31 (three months prior to the general housing lottery), and ResLife coordinators handpicked 14 students to join each community. Then, said the source, ResLife organized an event where all the themed communities got to meet up and pick their rooms.

The source remained hopeful for what the future held for them and their fellow residents; and their genuine excitement to be included in such a community lined up with what Dean Ice had wished for, a “vibrancy in the new buildings and in upper-division housing” that stems from student support.

Student Concerns

Out of 351 total spots in Chen and Danoff Halls, 42 students will participate in theme communities this fall. Unlike the Wellness Center, which was entirely application-restricted, the new Brook Street dorms are a hybrid project, something that ResLife claims to be open to altering upon receiving student feedback. “It could be just a prolonged program or workshop series,” says Dean Ice when asked if Brown will keep the dorms’ themes in perpetuity. “We want to continue to support our students,” she says, “if they approve of these communities or not.”

Yet, as of now, ResLife will have a lot of students to convince.

For students that don’t connect with the new themes, or don’t have the time or qualifications to devote themselves to such a community, the new dorms are restrictive. “It seems like special treatment,” says Flannery. “They get all this cool stuff just because their application was a little better than someone else’s.” Additionally, it is yet to be seen if themes like “interfaith” are more discriminatory than beneficial. My anonymous source said that the application questions for the interfaith community asked “what religions/spiritual tradition” the applicant identified with. What of students without an ascribed faith? While the other themes speak to extracurricular interests, how does the interfaith community respond to, in Dean Ice’s words, “the university’s commitment to inclusion?”

Furthermore, there is some wariness about the small-scale approach Brown is taking towards bettering student living. “Why doesn’t Brown implement similar programs, with similar amenities, in every dorm?” Golden asks. “Wouldn’t that have more of a widespread effect on campus?” While the missions of Wellness Center, Chen Family, and Danoff Halls are appealing to a large group of students, some like Golden wonder if these themes can’t be promoted amongst all Brown residents. “It’s limiting. And doesn’t make as big of an impact, if that’s what Brown is really trying to do.”

Additionally, there is an escalating housing crisis on campus, spurred by a trend in the rising population of students these last few years that Brown has not directly dealt with. In the 2019-2020 academic year, 6828 students enrolled; this year, it was 7222 students. And from 2019 to 2020 specifically, there was a jump of nearly 100 more freshmen on-campus.“I was in a triple my freshman year,” says Flannery. “The room was barely big enough for two of us.” With no new dorms built for underclassmen in thirty years, and current spaces reaching capacity, it brings ResLife’s motive into question with the new Brook Street dorms.

Also in dispute, why is Brown dedicating themselves to retaining more upperclassmen on campus, when, for one, campus needs more underclassmen housing, and also, juniors are happy and willing to live off-campus. “I tried to apply for off-campus housing at the start of junior year,” says second-semester junior Cierra Jenkins. “Brown turned away hundreds of juniors that wanted to do that, people that already signed leases months before, and Brown just decided to trap us here on-campus.” If Brown allowed all juniors that wished to look elsewhere for housing to do so, wouldn’t that alleviate some of the housing demand for everyone else?

Yet for students like my anonymous source, the themed communities present a way to engage with their passions on a deeper level. And so, if there are students eager to participate, prepared to give their time and effort to certain university-endorsed initiatives, who’s to say that these new dorms aren’t for the betterment of student living. Perhaps they can even create a ripple, enhancing the awareness of and commitment to student wellness, sustainability, interfaith, and civic engagement throughout campus.

The Future

While the new Brook Street dorms and theme communities do have their benefits, there are concerns surrounding their exclusivity and their ability to address larger issues on campus, such as the housing shortage and Brown’s cultural and ecological footprint. In the next couple years, students will be looking towards ResLife for their verdict on the success of these communities, and looking towards each other for better solutions to some of Brown’s largest student housing issues.

dorms still in development, photo by me, May, 6, 2023

Sophia Miller, four-year on-campus resident, would've sold her life's possessions to get into the new Brook Street dorms for a year. She lived in Morris Hall as a freshman, where, occasionally, the sinks would spew brown water!

Commentary

I had a lot of fun writing this story; hitting more close to home, while dissecting some of the more controversial development decisions made by Brown, I was able to apply my own experiences and the voices of my friends and fellow students to the piece. The overall goal was to have all these myriad opinions on student living weave a colorful account of the Brook Street Dorms, with character playing a huge role throughout. My interviews, while numerous, were very informative and engaging; and my research for the piece came pretty easy, due to my prior knowledge. My favorite part was sitting in on our girl group during housing selection (the first selection I didn't have to participate in, being a senior). There was just so much great content for a lede, and I knew automatically that the piece could start off with a bang. As a farewell to this class, and to Brown, I am grateful to have had this story-making process under my belt.

Sources:

Phone Interview with Senior Associate Dean and Senior Director of ResLife, Brenda Ice (4/19)
Text interview with anonymous student accepted into the theme communities (4/20)
Text interview with Kayla Mukai, student accepted via housing lottery (4/19)
Text interview with Sarah Frank, student accepted via accommodations (4/19)
In-person interview (and observations) of Jessie Golden, Sophie Treader, and Hannah Flannery (4/12)
In-person interview with Hunter Karas, senior living on-campus (4/7)
In-person interview with Cierra Jenkins (4/10)

Architect’s Write-Up: https://tenberke.com/project/brown-university-brook-street-residence-hall/
Building Details: https://brookstreet.brown.edu/project-details#:~:text=The%20publicly%20accessible%20green%20space,project%20architects%20Deborah%20Berke%20Partners.
New Brook St. Dorm Announcement: https://reslife.brown.edu/living-us/brook-street-residence-halls
Wellness Center and Dorm Details: https://www.brown.edu/facilities/projects/capital-projects/completed/wellness-center-residence-hall