Building Brotherhood on West Campus

I really enjoyed this Rose Cafe, because I finally got to sit down with Dr. Hill and discuss his ideas for a developing a better sense of community on west campus housing systems. Students had different ideas that were raised to have a better sense of belonging and unique culture in each house.

One interesting idea was to encourage interhouse sportsmanship. The competitive nature of sports and students at this school would encourage a camaraderie between residents on a team. Another interesting idea was for each of the 5 west campus dorms to “adopt” a dorm on north campus. This way freshman will already know which dorm they will be a part of as sophomores, and maybe juniors or seniors at Cornell.

Sitting with Dr. Hill and discussing these unique ideas was a very fulfilling experience. I felt that he really took our ideas into consideration and genuinely wanted to encourage more brotherhood between residents of each of the main houses.

Building A Better Community

Contrary to the regularly scheduled cafes, this event was set up by Dean Hill to give and receive feedback from current Rose Scholars and what lies ahead for the future of the program. And this being my second year in the Rose Scholars program, I was here to witness the changes that Dean Hill and Professor Blalock decided to implement, such as the online sign-up sheet and capacity limit for certain events. At first, I didn’t quite like this change since I was always used to attending the Wednesday cafes to get my requirements done. I did it primarily because it took the least amount of time. However, since the online system was implemented, there were times that I had to attend different Rose Scholars events. One that I have come to particularly enjoy is the Friday movie nights. Even though they are a bit longer, I realize that I enjoy watching a movie that pertains to different cultures or studies and have been attending them since.

Likewise, a few of the Rose Scholars voiced their concerns about the capacity limits. I took it as a net positive since this creates an incentive for people to participate in the community. If you want a slot, then you have to be active and sign up for it early instead of just dropping in and treating it like a requirement. In addition, I think some other scholars raised wonderful points about the programming of the Scholars program. Every week, there are time scheduled events and we can expect them to be the same. However, since everyone’s time commitments are different, it would certainly be delightful to see events being shuffled around the days of the week while preserving the time slot.

And lastly, I really feel that the Rose Scholars program could contribute more to socializing people within Rose House. Most of the participants either come in groups or attend for the sake of the requirement. I believe that if there were events that have the sole purpose of letting other house members meet each other, it could foster better interest in the community offerings. All in all, I think this was a great talk and I’m glad to see the effort that is being put in for the development of the program.

Feedback on the “Rose Family”

At the beginning of this semester,  I found that the program lacked interesting events such as talks we had on the previous semesters. After the talk with Dr. Hill last Wednesday, I realized that I had forgotten that these events require funds, and the house might not have enough money. However, they find interesting way to balance the situation. I applaud their new initiatives with the high table, the movie nights and the predictability in the schedule. Meanwhile, a student mentioned that it may be better if there was a rotation between events so that students can attend diverse events due to their schedule.  I think it is very good idea.

Another comment I can make to the Rose house compared to its sisters, it is that I feel like Rose is too formal most of the time. It is good to be serious and elegant sometimes, but I also think that maybe we should plan more fun stuffs or events to do like play times between residency, comedy movie, or others. We already have a lot of formality in class. Usually at home we should relax away from books.

Except it, I love my Rose building especially Lyon hall. I love this ancestral buildings that are extremely gorgeous, but I am very curious to find the secret elevator and room that is inside the Lyon Hall. It actually can be a fun treasure-discovery game in which we learn about the buildings and the Rose House history.

 

The Future of Rose Scholars

I greatly enjoyed last week’s Rose Cafe with Dr. Hill. As usual, he was quite candid, encouraging the rest of us in the room to express our thoughts, concerns, and ideas about the Rose Scholars program. I think the discussion was quite productive, and will hopefully result in a number of positive outcomes.

I agree with the theory behind the Rose Scholars program. Those who are on top of their plans and those who choose to be active in the community should be rewarded for doing so, instead of simply being able to tag off more active residents so they can live in a West Campus House next year.

There are two suggestions which I do support.

  1. We need more social events or games. Why not have a jeopardy contest, for example, with prizes, or some social events with games so we can get to know each other? I feel like if we became closer friends with one another, that would be the best way to encourage greater participation in Rose House events. Not to mention that games would bring out the spirit of competitiveness and result in more lively activities.
  2. We should allow scholars to attend more lectures and events on campus. The drawback from this is that people may be less motivated to attend events in the House itself, or that they may be dishonest while going, but I hope that that would be kept to a minimum. I greatly enjoyed the Heather Ann Thompson lecture, for example, and it showed the best of what can come out of Cornell.

Views from the Scholars

Last weeks cafe was unique in that it wasn’t just someone lecturing about a topic, but it was an open discussion about the state of the rose scholars program and ways we may be able to improve the program moving forward. As I am nearing the end of my second year of the rose scholars it was interesting to be able to reflect on my time in the program. Here are some of my opinions regarding the program:

I really like the Thursday seminars and I wish that they were weekly occurrences. These seminars provide information that is different than the standard lectures you hear from career services.  The people who run the seminars provide personal anecdotes from previous experiences that provide helpful tips. There have also been times when i have attended this event where we had to end our discussion early because we had ran out of time. If the seminars are weekly, then we would be able to cover more content and possibly hit more areas. During the seminar in which we discussed interviews, possibly we could do a follow up session in which you have the opportunity to do a mock-interview.

Another suggestion I would make is to maybe have more viewing party sort of things. Similar to the Super Bowl (even though i didnt attend it) and debate viewings, there should be events for if there is a big game on, awards show, or even weekly TV show that can bring people together.

One thing i think would be interesting in terms of scholar and non rose scholars in Rose House would be to have house teams that compete in intramural sports. Maybe we could have a house softball or frisbee team or something to that extent. The fee for participating is either free of a small fee and many organizations have teams in order to build chemistry and unity. It doesn’t have to be competitive, but just an excuse for people to get out and do something.

Other than these few suggestions, I think the structure of the program has been great and i am interested to see how the program progresses.

Reviewing the Rose Scholars Program

The Rose Scholars program has been an integral part of my life for the past two years. Within the two years that I have been a part of the program, I have seen it change. More events were offered, the Cafe series was moved and the style of doing things was slightly different. One things that I have noticed is that I very much enjoy having a wider array of options in regards to events. Although I still usually attend the cafe, I have also attended other events such as a table talk. Even though the program is small, I would love to see even more variation in the events and types of events. Also, while I do find the smaller size of the cafe to be appealing, the way seating is can make it a bit difficult to see the speaker if you get stuck on one of the sides towards the back.

I think that having a way for the scholars to get to know one another better would be a great idea. Most of us only know a few select others and sometimes these are the people we live by. Even if there were just two or three social events just for Rose Scholars throughout the year, this could allow for better engagement and communication during events. In order to create a sense of community within Rose, it is also necessary to get active participation from those who aren’t Rose Scholars. From what I have experienced, this doesn’t happen too often but I would love to meet other people who are living in Rose even if it is just for the year.

Overall, I think the Rose Scholars Program is a great way to get people involved with the house community and I have enjoyed being a part of the program. It has encouraged me to attend events that I otherwise would not have.

Reviewing Rose Scholars

I found it useful to think about Rose Scholars as a program and how we can improve it. Since I have been a member since my Sophomore year, it is interesting to think about how it has changed and how it can continue to change for the next year. I agree that it would be beneficial to provide more opportunities for the scholars to bond and have more discussions. I suggest that there be prompts at the end of discussions to allow individuals to speak to each other in smaller groups about the material that was presented. I typically do this with my friends after rose scholars, but I feel that it would be valuable to have access to different perspectives.

One thing I will say about the Rose Cafe events is that they are a great opportunity to explore topics I would not have gotten exposure to often. In learning from experts about their research, or people on campus about their work, I am able to exercise the knowledge I have obtained in my coursework by thinking about these topics through the lens of my own perspective. That is, thinking about different things with regard to labor, policy, and inequality. I appreciate having this ability, and the requirement of one event for week forces me to make time for this.

 

One thing I think could be an improvement in the events is to offer varied speakers or implement more of the speaking events on campus. I often find that there are lectures I would love to attend but have to forego them because I must attend a rose event that day and there is not enough time to attend both. I also agree with a suggestion made to offer more social events that count as events as I think that this could be a fun way to get to know other scholars and maybe make for a generally different vibe during the cafes.

 

Uniting the Scholars

This is my second year in the Rose Scholars program, so you could say I’m sort of a veteran when it comes to choosing events to attend and arranging my schedule around them. I have attended everything from the artifacts tour in Olin Library to the Cascadilla gorge hike to a non profit tour in Ithaca commons. I really enjoy the events that allow me to explore the rich culture and history of Cornell and Ithaca and go to places that I’ve never been before. The Rose Scholars program has really allowed me to branch into the Cornell and Ithaca community and take some really amazing study breaks. It’s so refreshing to go to a café talk for an hour after working all day and coming home from classes. It’s exhilarating to go on a hike or nature walk on a Saturday morning and start the weekend on a pleasant note. The Rose Scholars program continues to offer wonderful events for the students to attend, but I find myself falling into the same routine every week and attending the same types of events.

To be honest, I really do like that the events have a routine this semester. I know that the table talks are on Mondays, cafes are on Wednesdays, and the films are on Fridays. Usually, I can only make it to the cafes due to my schedule but sometimes I wish that I could make it to the other events as well. Charlotte proposed a great idea about rotating the events around so that they take place on different days during the week but at the same weekly times designated for an event. In this way, the scholars would get to experience all the different events that the program has to offer and not be restricted by the same event every week. I also think it would be beneficial for the program if the scholars got to decide what events they wanted to see every week. If there was some way for us to vote on at least one event every week, that event would probably get a higher turnout due to the high demand for it. I personally would like to have more social events that allows the scholars to bond, get to know each other, and eat some delicious food too. I really hope that the students take an active role in deciding the Rose scholars events next year and organize more social events to unite the scholars community.

Rose Scholars with Dr. Hill

I found the efforts by Dr. Hill to improve the Rose Scholars program and the overall experience of living on West campus to be truly outstanding. It is inspiring to see someone like him work so hard on behalf of students. I do believe that the Rose Scholars program has improved tremendously over the two semesters that I have been here and I am confident that it will continue to become even better.

One idea that was suggested during the Rose Cafe that I support is having social events that count as events. This is a fun and enjoyable way for students to take some time off from studying and mingle amongst ourselves. Social events are important if we would like to see a community form among the Rose Scholars and this could be later be expanded to West Campus overall. However, to achieve the community that we aspire to be, we need to start small and thus, we should try to at least try to develop some sort of group cohesion among Rose Scholars next semester.

Another improvement that could be made is having more opportunities to volunteer as part of the Rose Scholars program. I believe that many students find volunteering to be an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Adding volunteering events would be a great way for students to get opportunities to volunteer and become even more ingrained into their communities.

Overall, I believe that the progress that has been made is fantastic and with the leadership of Dr. Hill, I am confident that Rose Scholars will continue to improve. It is nice to see that our feedback is taken seriously and I look forward to seeing the program evolve in the future.

Possible Improvements to Rose Scholars

At the Rose Cafe, Dr. Hill led a discussion regard possible improvements to the Rose Scholars program. I thought many people raised a lot of really valid and great points, with many centering around promoting more socialization and camaraderie within the program. While the event programming certainly seems to be fairly diverse and varied overall, and the quality of  events that I have attended have been quite high, they do not truly center around socialization at their core, which means that it is quite difficult to facilitate camaraderie through these events. I definitely feel that having events centered around socialization, such as frequent food/ice-cream socials would help alleviate this problem.

In addition, while I feel the Rose Cafe programming and speakers have each been pretty great, I have noticed that there is a lack of STEM/technology topics at the Rose Cafe. It would be great if the cafe could perhaps invite professors in computer science, physics, etc. to talk about issues such as AI research and other major scientific research trends. For example, I know that this semester there is a Cornell CIS Seminar Series on Artificial Intelligence offered that features lectures from computer science professors on various AI topics that is open to the public, and in the lectures that I attended, it has been extremely well-attended. Thus, I feel that if the Rose Cafe were to offer more STEM/technology topics and speakers, I think it would draw a great deal of interest, perhaps even from students and people outside the Rose Scholars program.

Building Community

Last week I went to the “Tell Us What You Really Think” Rose Cafe. Professor Hill talked a lot about building a living-learning communities on west similar to the colleges at Yale. This is very difficult to foster this kind of atmosphere because most of the people who live on west are doing it out of convenience, and picking houses simply based on where there are open beds.

I made a suggestion to hold fun events at the beginning of the semester to draw people in that are not part of the Rose Scholars program. Unfortunately, budgeting is an issue.

Another idea, though I’m sure it would be near impossible to implement, is to team soon-to-be rose residents with Rose Scholars or current Rose residents. The new residents can be paired with the resident that lives in the room they are going to be assigned to. They could see their new rooms, maybe join their upper-class mentors for dinner in the Rose dining room, or go on a tour of West. Certainly not a perfect solution, but it’s an idea to foster communication between rose house generations and build community. In my experience, students come visit the rooms they are going to live in either way.

Another idea is to promote the creation of a building group me, and get the building together for little events like movie nights. We did this last year in my building, and I made friends that otherwise probably would not have talked to.

In general the Rose Scholars program has been a great experience, but there are some ways it could improve, particularly when it comes to creating a community.

Rose Mingling

Last Wednesday, some of us were able to sit down with Dr. Hill to talk about the Rose Scholar Program and possible improvements. Overall, the feedback for the program was positive. However, some improvements were suggested. One that stood out to me was the possibility of rotating the types of events through a set schedule of times throughout the week. I think this would be a great improvement. I am mainly only able to make it to the Rose Cafes, which are very interesting, but I wish I was able to be exposed to more of the events while not skipping my other engagements.

An improvement that I suggested was a type of forced bonding among the Rose Scholars at the beginning of each semester. I think that this would greatly change the dynamic of the program. If wanting to join became more about the people in the program and less about having a bed in Rose House the following year, this could help begin to create a culture that the house would be known for. It is also beneficial for each Rose Scholar, as making new friends is always fun but can sometimes be daunting.

This forced bonding could also be integrated into the application process to be a part of the Rose Scholars Program. If events were held where potential applicants were able to mingle with former Rose Scholars and learn about their experiences, as well as meet some of the other applicants, this could create a sense of camaraderie and further the creation of a Rose House culture.

The Rose Scholars Program

Last week I attended a Rose Cafe where we talked about the Rose Scholars Program. Dr. Hill asked us to reflect on the last year and to think of the things that we liked/didn’t like. I’m really happy that I decided to apply to be a Rose Scholar because I learned a lot of things that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I went to Rose Cafes that were about topics such as Cornell Dining, the Cornell tennis team, Flora Rose, Human Ecology etc. I really learned more about the University, and I think that being a part of this program has enhanced my time at Cornell.

One suggestion that I have for next year is to have more science/ math speakers come in for the Rose Cafes. A lot of the speakers have been in economics and liberal arts, and I think that it would be interesting to have a Physics professor come in and give a basic rundown of some of the more interesting parts of physics/ their research. A  lot of people do research here on campus, and I think it would be interesting if we could get a couple of speakers to talk about what they’re doing so that we not only know more about their subject, but also so that we’re more aware on what’s going on on campus. I think that a lot of people, myself included, live in a bubble where they only things that are going on in their major, so I think that it would be beneficial to learn more about the Cornell community at large.

Program in Review

Last week I attended the open forum for the Rose Scholars program. This forum provided the Rose Scholars with the opportunity to have an open discussion about the program and suggest potential changes for future years. We also discussed the role of the program in the overall purpose of the West Campus community.
Overall, I have enjoyed be a part of the Rose Scholars program, and believe that attending the lectures and events, in addition to being part of the smaller Rose Scholar community, has positively impacted my time at Cornell this year. However, I do think that there are things about the program that could be changed. First of all, I think it is important to encourage a greater sense of community within the scholars, may that be via Scholar-only event or “forced bonding” activities. Second, I think it is important that there be a greater variety of times/events at specific time slots for people with busier schedules.
In terms of the role of the program within the context of West Campus’ goal, I think that there need to be changes made which promotes unity within Rose house as well as a specific culture for the house itself. It seems that removing the sign-up parameter for events would improve attendance of non-Rose Scholars, and creating more “social” events that are tied to an academic event would be beneficial to creating a more potent sense of community and encourage attendance.
In the discussion of the West Campus system as a whole, I think there were many points made which would improve the “house loyalty” concern within the community. In may other institutions, there is a much stronger house system, and I think it should be a goal of Cornell to develop this. Ways to do this include developing unique house cultures, including freshman in the West Campus System, e.g. each house adopting North Campus residences, as well as encouraging competition between houses. I personally think this sense of competition would encourage people to root for their houses and in turn increase the sense of community and loyalty within the system. While the development of house sports teams did not work here in the past, I think that some kind of game show, Family Feud, Jeopardy, etc., in which each house had a competing team, would be more successful as it lends itself better to the student culture here at Cornell.
I have enjoyed being a part of the Rose Scholars Program and West Campus System here at Cornell, but I do think there are changes which should be made. I hope that some of these changes can be made so that, in the future, the system will reach the point where it is fully achieving its goal.

Improvement

Last week, I attended the Rose Cafe where we discussed what could be done to improve the Rose scholars program and the dorm’s environment in general.  There were many suggestions that discussed have new events and having events that are consistently on one day to randomized throughout the week. I agree with this because due to having a set academic schedule it limits not only I but others who want to attend different events.  I also feel that non-Rose scholars should be able to feel involved, I understand that Rose scholars are always at these events so maybe the others may not feel as inclined to go, but I feel that what we as scholars have been exposed to is new and amazing.  Another suggestion I have is more stress related activities,  this institution is very stressful, so I feel that there can activities in place that help us students relieve our stress. Taking into account for the budget, instead of taking residents to places maybe bring the places to the residents. For example, having free massages for the residents from professional masseuses, I feel will help a lot of people. I also know that a lot of people would show up as well. I feel that improvement can only be made in strides. Introducing new events and ideas while getting more people to show up, I feel would be a great improvement for next year.

Suggestions

Last week, we had an open discussion about the Rose Scholars program. Therefore, I would like to propose solutions to a couple of issues that came up in the discussion. Firstly, Dr. Hill mentioned that it would be ideal if more Rose House residents who were not necessarily in the Rose Scholars program came to events. One suggestion I have for achieving this is to not use asterisks to denote Rose Scholar events. I feel like they are liable to make some students feel like they are more exclusively focused on Rose Scholars and not Rose House residents in general. Because most of the weekly events are eligible Rose Scholar events already, I believe it would be better to simply denote which are not Rose Scholar events.

Another issue that came up was the social aspect of the program. Besides the initial ice breaker at the beginning of the year, I feel the scholars generally don’t really get to know each other too well. Not to mention, I do not believe ice breakers are that great to begin with. As most students are not enthusiastic about them, they simply go through the motions and forget most if not all of the dozen or so names they randomly pick up. Instead, I believe it would be better to perhaps have more game nights. I know there were at least a couple board game events this semester, which I was not able to make. But in general, I believe students are likely to get to know each other better when sitting at the same table playing a game for thirty minutes or so. Another option would be to have sports events. For instance, there could be casual basketball games at the Noyes Community Recreation Center. Then students who go would get some exercise as well!

Rose Scholars- Feedback and Opinions

This week’s Rose Cafe was an honest and open discussion about the Rose Scholars program. It was a great and refreshing opportunity to discuss the program and what it is like living in Rose House in general and it was interesting to hear different peoples opinions on the program. Here is some feedback and thoughts I have regarding the program:

  1. I agree with many other people’s blogs that we need more events with smaller time commitments. I ended up mostly attending Rose Cafe as it was the shortest event and happened every week at the same time so I actually just put it in my Wednesday evening time slot in my calendar for my own convenience of having a fixed schedule. On days where I haven’t been able to attend Rose Cafe, I struggled to find another event to attend that is interesting to me, is of a reasonable duration, and at a time that works for me. Unfortunately, as much as I wish I had more time to spend exploring Cornell and Ithaca and enriching my experience here, I simply don’t have time to visit the plantations for half a day. There should be more events which are shorter and interesting on a regular basis, so that people actually go to events other than the cafés and learn and immerse themselves in Rose and the Cornell/Ithaca area- which is the very purpose of the program.
  2. Another major criticism I have is why the ‘Feminism and Food for Thought’ weekly program (that is always featured on the ‘What’s Happening email) does not count as a Scholars event. I would personally love to attend this series and gain credit for it. As a passionate feminist, I believe that it is crucial for us to discuss issues of gender and sexuality. It is absolutely imperative for more people to engage in conversation about feminism. Considering there have been other Rose Scholars events that touch on feminism, as well as a variety of intellectually stimulating topics like economic development, globalization, etc, I don’t understand why this series does not count as a Scholars event. It strikes me as perhaps subconsciously/accidentally sexist to dismiss this fascinating series and exclude it from being a Scholars event, when it is so relevant and in line with the other events that do count for the program.

Letter to Julia 4/24/17

Dear Julia,

I liked this event; I like to offer constructive criticism. Geoffrey Burt Hill and I had a brief, but pleasant conversation about headphones (He agrees that those Thurston Moore designed over the ear headphones look kind of dumb. It’s okay though, I still love Sonic Youth.) and Kendrick Lamar’s new album DAMN. (To Pimp a Butterfly is still Kendrick’s best, IMO, but it’s definitely as good as Good Kid M.a.a.d City, but I digress) before the event began so I was in a pretty good mood going in. We all talked for a while about the housing system, West campus, and the challenges of building a residence house with a personality and character that’s distinct. Apart from the suggestions that I made within the event, I also think Rose could do a better job with sign ups. It’s very frustrating when you sign up for an event, there’s no space, and then a day after the event you get an email saying there’s an empty space for you. (That’s happened to me more than once…) Beyond the Rose Scholar Program I think my biggest gripe with Rose House is that there is not an oven or stove in the second floor kitchen in Rose Main. It’s very inconvenient to have to go all the way down to the pantry on the ground floor anytime I want to cook something–especially when the pantry is locked because of vandalism.

Love,

Robert

My Experience as a Rose Scholar

To be frank, my primary reason for applying to the Rose Scholars program was to get guaranteed housing for the following year. As a transfer student, I didn’t want to have to go through the worries of looking for apartments so early into my first semester at Cornell, and being a Rose Scholar seemed like the most logical option for me to take. I did, however, really enjoy my time being a Rose Scholar and attending many Rose Cafe events. Honestly, if it wasn’t for this program, I most likely would not have attended these Cafe events, but I’m very glad that I did because I was able to learn so much from them.

For future years and moving forward with this program, one of the suggestions I do have is providing more events with shorter time commitments. I often felt that the Rose Cafe events were my only option because the majority of the events took up a couple hours on a Saturday or a late night on a weekday. Although I wanted to explore more, my academic endeavors as well as other commitments often overlapped and I couldn’t go to a lot of the other events that the House hosted. I think the Rose Cafe events are great, but it would also be nice to have other options with similar time commitments.

I also think it would be great to incorporate other House programs with the Rose Scholars program. This could be a way of unity of West Campus as well as another way for students to interact and get to know each other.  A lot of West Campus is made up of transfer students, and I think it would be great to provide them with the opportunity to mingle with other students and help them step out of their comfort zones as well.

Overall, I enjoyed the Rose Scholars program and I definitely think it changed me as a person. I was able to learn a lot and I look forward to living in Rose again for another year.

Thoughts on the Rose Scholar’s Program

As a returning Rose Scholar this year, I have enjoyed the program very much. I sincerely appreciate the opportunity being a Rose Scholar has given me to expand my intellectual horizons and get to know guests/students in smaller, discussion-promoting settings who I otherwise would never have known. I also admire the great diversity of visitors we have hosted at our Rose Cafes, many being professors/scholars hailing from universities of different countries with educational/cultural systems quite different from our own, and it is very eye-opening to learn about their unique journey in academia. Moreover, blogging about the events has helped me better reflect on my experience and consolidate my questions/reaction that I did not have the adequate time to do so during the event. I think the Rose Scholars program has taken a considerable step towards creating a sense of membership within the Rose House, one of the primary goals of the program, but more importantly, cultivated a sense of community and engagement within the residential system.

My biggest suggestion for improvement, especially pertaining to the goal of creating a sense of house membership, is to incorporate social opportunities with the primary goal of encouraging Rose residents to get to know each other better in informal settings. Although I agree that the Rose Cafes and Table Talks/discussions have been very beneficial intellectually, I find that students are not able to connect with each other very much during these events. Becoming familiar with each other/recognizing friendly faces as a member of Rose House is a precondition to creating a sense of belonging within a house. Another suggestion relating to events would be to conduct a pre-semester survey of Rose residents on their interests and what they seek to get out of the program. This feedback could be incorporated when organizing events, for example, when choosing discussion topics for Monday’s dinners or Friday’s films. This would be a relatively easy way to both bolster event attendance and give residents a larger voice in the creation of their own academic/social environment.

Identity Through Competition

The Rose Cafe that I attended last Wednesday was quite different from the rest than i attended before. This cafe was more akin to an open discussion with Professor Hill about the history as well as the future of Flora Rose House and the west campus system in general. Professor Hills most pressing concern, one I share with him as well, is the lack of identity of the different west campus houses. Judging from the types and frequency of events held at Rose House, I personally think that Rose House is the more academic house focused on intellectual development while a house like Bethe focuses more on developing its social aspect through fun events like smoothie making and frequent trips to see broadway show in New York City. This is only a personal opinion and whether or not this identity should be further pursued is up to the house professors and staff at Rose House.

As a method of promoting house spirit, I believe that competition is necessary in order to give residents a reason to be proud to be part of a particular house. While intramural sports competition between houses was attempted before in the past, competition can perhaps be encouraged through less physical yet still enjoyable and enriching ways. Some suggestions include having a house food drive for donation to the needy to having board game competitions such as Chess and Go. Another way to encourage competition is by having students participate in community and service events throughout campus. Points can be awarded to the house based on how many residents contributed to each service event. A house cup can be awarded at the end of the year and additional benefits can be given to the winning house such as meal vouchers or free food. The west campus house system in Cornell is still very much a work in progress and I would like to see a much stronger sense of house identity be developed within the time that I reside on this part of campus.

Rose Scholars Feedback

Dr. Hill’s explanation of the Rose Scholars program and the many comments by the scholars during the café provided a great deal of food for thought concerning the future of Rose House. I thought I’d use my blog post to give my own feedback on the Scholars program, since I was a bit quiet during the café itself.

  1. Social Events: I think more events designed with the purpose of encouraging socialization between Rose residents would create a more cohesive community and identity for the Rose system. I have actually never held a conversation with another Rose Scholar at a Rose Scholar event. This might be a result of the types of events I have participated in (films, Rose Cafés, and lectures), and maybe some of the Saturday excursions have more socialization, but I would appreciate some events expressly created for that purpose.
  2. Food Events: Food-focused events, like cookie decorating or dumpling making would make for great social events, and it is still possible to make these activities more “scholarly” by teaching the scholars about the culture or science behind the food.
  3. Plant-Based Food: As another scholar mentioned during the café, if there are food-based events next semester, it would be great if there were vegan options as well. It’s pretty frustrating that even at the cafés, there are no vegan snacks or non-dairy milk/creamer.
  4. Films: During the first semester, I was pretty frustrated with the selection of movies we could see with the Rose Scholars at the cinema, since the events were almost always for documentaries. All films, not just documentaries, have intellectual and artistic value. I’ve appreciated that this semester there has been a lot more variety in the cinema films available for scholars. However, I am a still quite confused by many of the choices. For example, this week, the Cornell Cinema is showing both Pulp Fiction, an extremely popular movie among college students, and Daughters of the Dust, a influential film that would likely stimulate discussions about race and gender, but the Scholar event is Pablo Lorraine’s Neruda. As a biopic, Neruda does have educational value, but it strikes me as likely to be the least popular of the three among scholars.
  5. Scholarly Event Topics: While the café speakers have all been very interesting, I have found the range of topics to be rather narrow. Most of the speakers have spoken about either food or politics. With this semester’s smaller café format and encouragement of scholar participation, I often feel that I have little to contribute in discussions because my studies have not been in these fields. I would appreciate if we had speakers from a wider range of academic backgrounds. I’m an engineer, so I would actually really like to have some engineers/engineering professors come in.
  6. Rose House Identity: I understand that one of the goals of the Scholars program is to cultivate a unique Rose House identity. However, I don’t really understand what type of culture we are trying to create. Is Rose House supposed to be the intellectual house? The pre-professional house? I think the house that is closest to having a unique culture is Cook. Cook is seen as the “international” house because of (1) the language house (2) multi-cultural house events (3) those flags in the dining hall. I think if Rose wants to establish its own culture it should learn from Cook and host events that promote that culture. Or add something quirky to the dining hall decor.
  7. Regular Input: Finally, I agree with other scholars’ suggestions for monthly/weekly input on the events that will be offered. I always see posters for interesting events around campus and would appreciate if there were an easy way to communicate my interest to those who organize the events.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed being a Rose Scholar for these past two semesters. The program has given me a great incentive to attend lectures and see films when I otherwise wouldn’t have, and guaranteed housing is a blessing in Ithaca.

Reflecting on the Rose Scholar’s Program

First of all, I’d like to say that I really appreciate the faculty’s desire for feedback on the Rose Scholar’s Program. It’s refreshing to feel like students’ opinions and wishes about a Cornell program are not only heard, but are a necessary building block for success.

I agreed with most things that were said at the forum, but I identified most strongly with the goal of creating some sort of a unique culture for each dorm on West Campus. This definitely existed freshmen year on North campus. The first question you would ask another freshman would be which dorm they lived in, and each dorm had different stereotypes about it. Unfortunately, most of the stereotypes were about the quality of the buildings, but not all. Now that I wonder why this existed for North campus but not West, I think the answer is that freshmen are more likely to latch onto any semblance of a family. They latch onto any perception of a feeling that they belong somewhere. Whereas sophomores already have a friend group, a “Cornell family”, and are less willing to identify with new places and things.

I’m not sure what the answer to this problem would be, because I know that there’s no way freshmen would be allowed to come directly to West campus, nor is there a way to somehow say (for example) that Clara Dickson is the sister dorm of Rose house. But I don’t think that the problem is unsurmountable. I think the solution has to be tied to a diversification of the dorms on West campus. If there were more discernible differences between the houses, then people would start to filter themselves into the house that aligns most strongly with their sense of identity. How to achieve this diversification is another matter altogether…and any strategy would need mass public and administrative support to succeed. So, theoretically, the first step is gaging support on campus for this idea. Then, maybe we can work to achieve it.

Thoughts on Rose House Events

The Rose Cafés are a key way to bring community on West together; however, I do feel that they are somewhat exclusive to Rose house members alone, which really limits our ability to engage with students from other houses. While I am a strong proponent for continuing Rose House events that draw from a pool of Rose residents, I would encourage planning an event once or twice in the semester that would include inter-residency mixing.

On another note, I would like either more Rose café events to be offered throughout the week or other events with that amount of time commitment. I usually find the café events most manageable. However, this semester was a struggle for me because I was able to attend café events only when my night class canceled (only three). The solution to this was to make as many of the Friday night film screenings as possible, which although I think are very convenient and which I really enjoy (given that I am a cinephile), I found to be quite exhausting having to balance them with my Cinematography and Screenwriting courses, which require me to attend a certain number of film screenings at the Cornell Cinema per semester. I think this amount of watching films becomes quite overwhelming, and I would encourage for the Rose house events to allow students in these situations to substitute (once or twice) the house requirement with fulfilling a course requirement especially when it seems to overlap to such an extent. In regards to the Friday film screenings, I also think they take away from attending screenings at the Cornell Cinema or even the live performance ones at Sage Chapel, which I find to be an incredibly important cinematic experience that should be encouraged above one in a dining hall room where the color calibration from projector to screen and the sound quality is not as immersive as in a dark theater space.

As a double major and a scholar, I am also committed to attending many extracurricular events (receptions and lectures–all of which I find to be immensely exciting and valuable), which often conflict with the Rose house events (ones that are oftentimes study breaks and bonding). I would suggest that perhaps going forward, the Rose house events can include more student input in the types of events that are held.

Improving the Rose House Experience

Tonight’s cafe was different from previous cafes that I have attended in that it was primarily a brainstorming session. We discussed ways to improve the Rose Scholars program and the West Campus Living and Learning system. 

One point that I brought up during the discussion was the idea of rotating events through fixed time slots instead of having the same events at the same time every week. This semester, I have only been able to attend Rose Cafes for the most part because the other times do not fit with my schedule. However, when the “What’s Happening in Rose” email goes out, I often find that the seminar series events and table talks sound very interesting, but they happen at times that I cannot make. I think it would make sense to have events at the same time every week so that people can plan out their schedules ahead of time, but it would be nice to change the events that happen during those times. For example, some weeks we could have a seminar series event or a table talk on Wednesday night instead of a cafe.

I feel like the two main areas for improvement in the Rose Scholars Program are getting more people to come to events who are not Rose Scholars and promoting bonding among residents, especially at the beginning of the year when people are new to the house and still have free time. The first is a challenge because students are busy and will only go to an event if they know that it will be worth their time. I think that events that have clear applications to academic and/or professional success may be popular among people who are not Rose Scholars (the seminar series is a good start). As for bonding events, I think that events with food or a fun activity would be popular. Some ideas are going to one of the free concerts in the commons which run through mid September, having a barbecue at one of the state parks (preferably before the swimming closes for the season), and having an ice skating event after we return from winter break (which has been done in past years).

Creating Community

As I reach the close of my second year in the Rose Scholars program, I found tonight’s Rose café a great opportunity to reflect on the changes I have seen in the program and the ways it could develop in the future. I liked the fact that Dr. Hill opened our discussion with a brief history of the program so that we could see how recent changes fit into the program’s overall history. For instance, I was surprised to learn that the Rose café had only begun to be held in the library room last year and that moving it into the House Professor’s apartment was a return to its original setup. Personally, I have really appreciated this change in location because I like the more intimate atmosphere and because I feel that the restrictions on the café’s size have led to a noticeable increase in attendance at non-café events in the past semester.

After we discussed specifics of the Rose Scholar program, the conversation expanded to cover the overall problems with establishing permanent house cultures on West given the huge student turnover each year. This issue resonated with me since, although I am a rising senior who will be living at Rose for my third year, I would struggle to define what makes life at Rose different from any of the other houses on West. I thought many people tonight made insightful suggestions on ways in which these distinct cultures could be established, such as having inter-house competitions or having each house “adopt” a freshman dorm on North to provide a continuity between freshman and sophomore years. Dr. Hill explained, however, that the current general lottery system and the housing shortage make it impossible for freshmen to self-select houses, so any real solution to this issue will have to involve major changes to the existing system.

Logistics of Rose

At this week’s rose cafe we spoke with Doctor Hill and discussed the logistics of Rose House living, and what could be done to create a more distinct identity among houses. One of the people in the cafe brought up a point that because selection into these houses is largely based on convenience rather than a common interest, this is largely impossible to facilitate. The common interest at the moment, at least among rose scholars, is simply the desire for a bed on campus for next year. Furthermore, I feel that as sophomores at Cornell, we have already established who our close friends throughout college will likely continue to be, and trying to force friendships will be counter intuitive.

I find it really funny that trying to make people more proud to be in the housing group that we live in through physical competition was unsuccessful. Personally, I think that this again has to do with the fact that people only live here for convenience. Further, because Cornell is so academically oriented, people spend their free time mostly studying. I personally would not be that interested in a competition like that, as I am busy doing homework, and I cannot imagine that I am alone.

Another thing that we talked about was having more consistent events. I would really love this. At the moment, I can only make the rose cafe, however it is extremely stressful as most of my assignments are due on Thursday morning. Therefore, I have to go to Rose Cafe, write up a blog post, and then stress as I have lost some time to do a problem set due the next day. Therefore, more consistent events throughout the week would really improve future scholars’ experience.