Planned themed houses prove good for all
Friday marks the deadline for student applications to potentially live in a themed house for the 2010-2011 school year. This marks a huge step forward for the college’s quest to be a liberal arts school. According to Renee Bruck’s story on the front page of The Franklin, there are two proposed houses for next year: La Casa, a Spanish-themed community, and Horizon House, a dwelling focused on multicultural and diversity issues, as well as intercultural education. The students who live in the houses would be submerged in a new environment, one that would be unavailable to readily achieve in Central Indiana. This type of learning is essential, and should be encouraged at a school such as Franklin. Admissions and professors preach about our school’s liberal arts background, and this is the perfect opportunity to flaunt them. Having houses like these can only benefit the knowledge students can get about other cultures. These houses will not only help the knowledge of those who live in them but everyone on campus. If we incorporate campus events with these houses, we can share the information and the knowledge already being learned. We do have one cause for concern, though. If this program becomes successful – and we hope it does – will we include more houses like these? Earlham College has roughly the same number of students as Franklin, and they have 28 houses like these. We would certainly like to be able to build a themed housing program up to this level, but does the college have the financial stability and space to expand the program? We need to be sure we are not biting off more than we can chew with this. But for the current moment, the idea of bringing more diversity and cultural education to the campus is a good plan that we should embrace.
