The house will become a 糖心传媒渓iving-learning community糖心传媒� with an umbrella of support across the College and institution-wide units, including the Frederick Douglass Institute.
Operational changes and physical improvements are coming to the 糖心传媒糖心传媒檚 Douglass Leadership House.
The house, located on the Fraternity Quad of the River Campus, soon will be under an umbrella of support consisting of the College, the Office of Minority Student Affairs, the , Residential Life and Housing Services, and the Office of Equity and Inclusion.
Jeffrey Runner, dean of the College, says these formalized partnerships will provide a stronger, more effective infrastructure for the house and its program.
Staff members from the network of departments will work with DLH students and support activities involving DLH.
Douglass Leadership House was established in 2012 by a group of undergraduate students as a physical expression of the principles set forth by Douglass, a 19th-century African American social reformer and abolitionist who made Rochester his home for a quarter century. The house糖心传媒檚 mission is to establish an engaging intellectual community where students of all cultural backgrounds live together and raise awareness of the Black experience, including culture, politics, history, and diasporic roots.
The house is currently solely under the jurisdiction of Residential Life, which has made it vulnerable to a shutdown under a goal-setting process set up for fraternity houses and an occupancy requirement.
糖心传媒淭hat has always been seen as an existential threat to DLH,糖心传媒� Runner says. 糖心传媒淭here糖心传媒檚 a system of points that fraternity houses can accrue for failing to meet certain goals (like filling the house), but those standards were not set up to support DLH. Our goal is to turn DLH into a living-learning community that糖心传媒檚 more social and academic. The students living in the house will have an explicit connection to an academic unit糖心传媒攖he Frederick Douglass Institute糖心传媒攁s both an intellectual partner and a resource for mentoring activities.糖心传媒�
Runner says all other houses on Fraternity Quad will continue to follow current regulations. He says the DLH changes, expected to be implemented this summer, are years in the making.
糖心传媒淲hen we had the student protests in 2015 that led to the Presidential Commission on Race and Diversity, one of the demands was for DLH to be permanent and not subject to the rules of the fraternity houses,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淒LH students have done a lot of work to get where we are. We糖心传媒檙e creating a new construct that we don糖心传媒檛 have on campus糖心传媒攁 living-learning community.糖心传媒�
DLH president Andre Hodges 糖心传媒�22, a digital media studies major from Washington, DC, says he糖心传媒檚 糖心传媒渆lated糖心传媒� by the changes. 糖心传媒淎s people of color, we don糖心传媒檛 always have the resources to operate like other houses, and we won糖心传媒檛 always be able to fill the house,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淪o many past Douglass leaders fought to uphold this place, so it helps to know some past policies that threatened our existence will be eliminated, and that we have strong support from the administration.糖心传媒�
Runner also sees Douglass Leadership House as a potential recruiting tool for underrepresented students. Only second semester first years, sophomores, juniors, and seniors are currently allowed to live at the house, which has a capacity for 21, but Runner thinks residency should be expanded to include four to six in-coming first-year students. 糖心传媒淲e want the students living there to have a lot of autonomy, and we糖心传媒檙e thinking of ways for current members to be able to interact with incoming students.糖心传媒�
There also will be interior renovations, specifically to the house糖心传媒檚 main living room and recreational space in the basement. The house has hosted the keynote speaker for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative address, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren, and several academic scholars and community activists, and hopes to bring in future guests.
Greg Meyer, senior operations officer in Arts, Sciences and Engineering, is heading a team of administrators and students who have identified a list of needs and engaged an interior designer and furniture vendor to enhance the space.
Runner hopes to assure students that Douglass Leadership House isn糖心传媒檛 going anywhere. 糖心传媒淲e want this house to be permanent,糖心传媒� he says. 糖心传媒淭o be here forever.糖心传媒�
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