Starting with the unprecedented Lyon triples situation of last year, and now with the "Modular Housing Units," the boarding circumstances on this college have undergone significant changes in a very short period of time. Well, it seems that the housing status of our happy little community is changing, once again, for the worse.

Consultants hired by the college last year gave Pomona one chief suggestion: to lodge all freshmen in what could come to be called Freshmen Row. The proposal indicated that Pomona could improve itself as a residential college if it housed all of its freshmen in Wig, Lyon, Harwood, and Mudd-Blaisdell, in order to prevent freshmen from feeling isolated from their class, purportedly those first years who are now housed in Smiley and Walker, and to promote class unity. The trustees, impressed with the points made, decided that Pomona was due for a change. Which is why, though few students are aware of it, task forces and focus groups have been convened on campus to structure exactly how changes need to be made to establish the entirety of South Campus residential life as a freshmen-concentrated wonderland for an experimental period of at least one year.

As much as our ranking as happiest college in the country shouldn’t make the college complacent when making productive change, we should also consider the qualities of this college that have, perhaps, contributed to our contentedness. Primarily, the idea of isolating the entire freshmen class from the rest of the Pomona community lacks any productive merit whatsoever. The class division between freshmen and the remainder of the student body, at a school where multi-class interaction is widespread and beneficial to many students, would increase dramatically without visibly increasing freshmen class unity. First years in sponsor groups in Smiley and Walker exhibit massive amounts of pride for their North Campus abodes, and almost all freshmen can attest to the benefits of having upper-classmen exposure. Yet, there are even greater ramifications that should be considered.

As is, sophomores who make the decision to be sponsors choose to live apart from their friends in order to enrich the lives of incoming freshmen. What would the sponsor applicant yield be if potential sponsors knew they had little chances of even living in close proximity with their friends from the year before, who would now be forced to live in Smiley and the other dorms north of Sixth Street? Is Pomona considering the effects of this guinea pig program on one of the institutions responsible for our happy student body? And even though a poll is supposed to be administered on campus to gauge the student response, how much will a negative reaction sway the trustees who have already put this plan into motion?

We attend a college smaller than most public high schools. Our concern should lie in fostering school unity, as opposed to unity within classes. Relegating freshmen to live amongst only themselves will deprive them of the benefits innate in a small residential college in which collegiate veterans and rookies interact. As much as we should be constantly trying to improve, following the path of the progressive liberal-arts college, we should also hold dear the aspects of our community that make residing at this school an educational experience in itself.

Sincerely,

Amit Thakkar

Editor-in-Chief