Tom McEvoy
Union’s “Third Spaces”
A few years ago, before coming to Union—before hearing about its plans for a House System, before seeing its theme houses, before looking at the architecture of its gracious fraternity houses—I picked up a book written by a sociologist named Ray Oldenburg. The name of the book was The Great Good Place. I didn’t know it at the time, but this book would have special relevance a couple of years down the line when I would go to work as Dean of Residential and Campus Life at Union.
I liked and agreed with the book’s key premise, and it even made sense when I thought about it in the context of a college campus: Hangouts are important. The actual physical spaces where people (read students, faculty, and staff) are drawn together and can affiliate vastly helps in the establishment of community. Oldenburg wrote that people need spaces separate from where they work and live to relax, unwind, chat, where they can coincidentally bump into others, and where they can “see… and be seen.” Oldenburg called these spaces third places. He lamented there did not seem to be very many good ones in America.
The most successful, he says, are those that are inexpensive, informal, inclusive, highly accessible, and where a number of people will be everyday. The ingredient I liked most of all: people should feel welcome, it should be easy to get into a conversation, and a person who goes there should be able to find old and new friends each time they visit. Think Starbuck’s. Or an Irish pub, an Italian piazza, a French café. Now think about a college freshman!
When I was hired by Union to lead the implementation of the House System, I thought about Oldenburg’s book. I took it off the shelf and brought it along with me on a trip I made, between jobs, through the Southwest. I re-read The Great Good Place in Starbuck’s from San Diego, to Santa Fe, to Tucson. It looked to me that Union was trying to create something a lot like what Oldenburg was describing. The application of the third space idea to Union’s plans for seven Houses was pretty astonishing.
I arrived at Union a few weeks later, and I soon found a couple of good third spaces on campus. The Dutch Hollow area of the Campus Center seemed everything a third space should be—food, drink, newspapers, books, coffee, neutral ground, a place to see and be seen. One student told me she’d ‘stake out a good table’ early in the morning for herself and her friends, almost as if she was grabbing the best picnic table on a summer’s day at a park. Another great third space I discovered was tucked away in the basement of Raymond House. “Coffeehouse” looked like a place Oldenburg could sink his teeth into. The walls were painted with murals, the lighting was dark, and the place gave off an offbeat, bohemian air that seemed just right for listening to acoustic music and hanging out with friends.
In the early days of meeting with the committee charged with getting the House System up and off the ground, I shared with them a few copies of The Great Good Place.
They took to the book and idea: “Yep, first place: house, dorm, fraternity, sorority.”
“Yep, second place: lab, classroom, library.”
Third spaces? “Well, we’ve got the dining halls, Dutch, a few lounges, Coffeehouse, and we could probably throw in the Rathskeller, Chet’s, and a theme house that offers dinner and discussion on Wednesday evenings for the campus community called Symposium.”
This coming September, seven more third spaces—let’s say seven more campus living rooms—will begin to take shape through our new Minerva Houses: Wold, Golub, Red, Yellow, Green, Orange, and Blue. All students and faculty have been assigned their membership, and staff has been invited to join a House as well. Incoming first-year students will receive their memberships over the summer. There will be no lacking at Union for third spaces come fall term.
My suspicion is that each of the Houses will take on its own unique feel over time and eventually feel as comfortable as a well-worn pair of jeans. What may first seem very new, and ‘hotel lobby-like,’ as one student phrased it, will evolve into a lived-in space where members might be seen cooking, playing music, reading from one of the Houses’ own periodical subscriptions, checking e-mail, watching a video, having a coffee, hanging some artwork, checking out intramural standings on a bulletin board, or stopping in to hear a talk in the seminar room.
This is exciting stuff. It is not necessarily unique to Union, but the eventual feel of our Houses will be. We need this; I think we are doing it right. Students hunger for the opportunity to socially and intellectually connect. By offering them seven more areas to gather and engage themselves, along with faculty and staff, we will see Union College at its finest. It’s a great, good place, and it’s going to get even better. Ray Oldenburg will approve.
For details about the Minerva Houses, visit http://www.union.edu/minervas
Students tell faculty: get involved with Minerva Houses
Exterior and interiors of the Inn at College Park, the newest addition to the College’s residential facilities
When students made a pitch for faculty involvement with the Minerva Houses opening this fall, one seemed to sum up the feelings of his peers:
“Students really enjoy having the faculty there,” said Chris Macomber ’05. “It’s really neat to interact with faculty on a different level.”
Macomber, a member of South College’s Green Lab, is one of the ten students on the committee planning the Minerva Houses. Committee members updated the faculty at a meeting in March. Six of seven Minerva Houses will be in operation this fall; the seventh, Orange House (now Sigma Phi) will be in operation in the winter of 2005. (The term “Minerva Houses” has replaced “House System.”)
Sonya Saxena ’06 said the point of the houses is to create “space where you can engage in something that is both fun and intellectual. I’m sure students want that type of interaction.” And just because faculty are involved, she added, it doesn’t have to be serious and intellectual. “I haven’t had any of (the committee faculty members) in class, but I know them better than a lot of professors I have had in class just because we get to talk about things that aren’t always related to school.”
Dale Stoudt ’06 reviewed a number of events held and planned in Yellow Lab in South College—a wine and cheese reception with students and faculty, a sushi and Chinese buffet, a trip to see Les Misérables, and a catered French dinner followed by a trip to a French opera.
Aaron Edelstein ’05 said that “a big push from faculty” would help draw out students. “There are a lot of students…who really need that catalyst, really need that connection with faculty to be able to raise their hands in the classrooms. This is an opportunity to get those students who are almost proactive to get into that proactive side.”
Senior Peter Stein, a member of Sigma Phi fraternity, said he has heard students say they have grown tired of fraternity parties. “The student body is changing to become more intellectual and less party-oriented. Students are embracing [the Minerva Houses] as another option.” And senior
Peter Gorvitz, on the implementation committee since it started fifteen months ago, said, “Students would like to see the intellectualism of their classes pervade their social life.”
Tom McEvoy, dean of residential and campus life, said, “We have everything in place—we have the buildings, we have the resources, we have the people. The only unknown for me is, if you build it, will they come? I think so. We are creating what [Committee member Prof.] Suzie [Benack] calls seven campus living rooms. That’s something we’ve never had before.”
Benack, who has spent the last six years helping to develop the Minerva Houses, said that faculty and students have kept to their own realms—academic and social. “I feel most energized in my job when that separation breaks down, when you are involved with students collaboratively.
I hope that students have that experience of collaborating with us and not viewing us as the scary grown-ups, or the annoying grown-ups, or the idealized grown-ups.”
Concluded Saxena, “Collaboration is important to me, and I know that a lot of students are looking forward to that.”