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.
According to Dean for Student Life Myrt Westphal, who used to be the Housing Coordinator, “we tried substance free housing in the past, twice, and it failed both times.”
A look into the archives of the Daily Gazette and The Phoenix reveals that the last attempt to reinstate such housing was during the 2003 spring housing lottery, when Woolman, with 21 spaces, was proposed as the substance-free dorm. Less than half of those spaces were applied for. A multicultural education hall in Mertz was also proposed that year. Although 24 spaces were allocated for it, fewer than six people applied.
When we asked Westphal why she thought the substance-free attempts had failed, she explained, “First of all Swatties are more interested in real estate than a themed hall, so people who weren’t substance free would pick on to the hall.”
To counter this problem, Housing Committee made the stipulation that residents of the hall would have to live a substance free life style inside and outside the dorm, since “we didn’t think it fair for folks to live on a substance free hall and then take their drinking and smoking to other people’s homes… when we made the stipulation that you must live a substance free lifestyle, not enough folks would pick onto the hall to make a full hall.”
Westphal also pointed out that many students “didn’t want to be defined by their substance free lifestyle–they felt they had many more characteristics that defined them and didn’t want to just be secluded from all the variety of students on campus.”
