Every year, current row staffs go through the process of selecting the people to take their places and lead the row community for the following year. Undoubtedly, many of these new staff members are familiar to the houses in which they will work by serving as previous staff members, residents or at least friends.
Saturday’s forcible sexual assault in Escondido Village has refocused campus attention to a growing pattern of criminal events involving peepers, prowlers and other intruders. While these incidents highlight the need for students to redouble their efforts to secure doors and windows, this Board also believes that improving campus safety may also merit further review of existing Residential housing policies. Specifically, the administration should consider a policy under which any Stanford undergraduate can access any other undergraduate dorm as a counterintuitive but effective means of promoting residential safety and solving several minor nuisances.
No all-campus parties for two weeks, freshmen plotting how they’re going to take over the Row and girls dressed up at ridiculous hours for reasons none of them can really explain, I think it might be RUSH season. I don’t really care if you RUSH, but if you do, join Kappa Sig.
Two months ago, we criticized Residential Education (ResEd) for eliminating social dues refunds, because the policy was an inefficient and unnecessary attempt to enhance social life on the Row. ResEd’s newest surprise for Row FMs — banning the use of social dues to buy alcohol — is another poorly conceived policy that is actually counterproductive to the stated goal of banning refunds. Effectively, ResEd has crippled social dues as a vehicle to fund the kind of social activity that has and will always characterize the Row, forcing houses to acquire the funds through unaccountable and undesirable means that will be fraught with unintended consequences.
Social dues collected by Row houses can’t be spent on alcohol anymore, according to a Residential Education (ResEd) policy that goes into effect spring quarter. The change comes as ResEd increases its oversight of Row finances and revises some unpopular policies put in place fall quarter.
Following conversations with leaders in both fraternities and sororities, Residential Education (ResEd) plans to launch a new class this spring for new pledges in the Greek community. Plans to implement an educational component to the pledging process were initially met with complaints by members of the Greek community because of a cited lack of communication with ResEd.
Slightly more than half of students who responded to a Student Housing survey indicated they would like to see a change in the in-house draw process. These results are part of an ongoing inquiry by Housing to improve the in-house draw, the aspect of the annual Draw that is the target of most student complaints.
According to several financial managers, Row residents are no longer refunded their houses’ unspent social and board dues. A changed Residential Education policy requires that houses deposit their budget surpluses in restricted-use accounts called “Capital Reserve Funds” (CRF).