Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
The Gazette recently received a question regarding whether or not freshman were assigned to a dorm based on the dorm’s “culture.” Students imagined that this could be done for one of two purposes: either to diversify the kinds of students living in the dorm or to match a students to dorms based on common interests.
In a response, Housing Coordinator Liz Derickson ’01 wrote: “In my experience, first-year students have not been assigned to dorms based on the dorms’ perceived “personalities,” or a desire to shape dorms’ personalities.”
She observed that housing assignments reflect an interest in diversity, but also that “the roommate questionnaire is not sophisticated enough to capture all the complexities of Swatties’ personalities.”
Want to know how you got your roommate? Send this and any other questions to Ask the Gazette at dailygazette[at]swarthmore[dot]edu !
