I got this email today:
Dear Bowles Resident:
All current Bowles Hall residents who have applied for a 2005-06 housing contract and indicated a preference to return to Bowles Hall next year will not be able to return to Bowles.
Next year, Bowles Hall has been identified as a First Year Experience (for freshmen only) pilot program. This program is designed for new students to the University, with a particular focus on their successful transition to the University as leaders and scholars.
I’m upset that Berkeley Housing and Dining didn’t notify me sooner. I’ve been living at Bowles Hall for nearly two years, and I had wanted to live there for another year. Students were only able to specify five housing preferences on their housing applications, and I indicated Bowles Hall as my first choice. It’s too late to provide Housing and Dining with a revised list of preferences because housing decisions have already been made. Furthermore, I probably wouldn’t have applied for housing if I had known Bowles Hall wasn’t available. Now, Housing and Dining has pocketed my application fee, and I’m stuck in housing limbo.
The First Year Experience sounds totally stupid — some underworked staffer probably came up with this brilliant idea during a lunch break. One of the great things about living in the dorms is meeting returning students who have had experience with the university system and knowledge of the local area. For freshmen, these dormmates are often much better (and more easily approachable) advisors than the ones the university officially provides.
Why couldn’t the university make a theme program for this? Most of the freshmen who are going to be living at Bowles aren’t going to be interested — the success and popularity of similar programs at Bowles attests to that. Furthermore, Bowles Hall is probably the worst dorm for such a program: half of the residents live in singles, and we have the least common space of any dorm. Bowles Hall is not the best dorm to foster bonding between freshmen.
I’m betting this program is going to be shelved after a year.
{ 18 } Comments
I think it’s a fucking stupid idea! I’m also upset as the fact that they did not notify us beforehand or that this program was only proposed on bowles and not stern alike (so to make it fair). I heard if you write a letter to the housing deparment that they might change thier mind, but it’s delt on a case-by-case basis.
stop complaining and realize that is for a great cause. you sound a littlt mature to be living in teh dorms for three years. maybe u should consider taking on a little responsiblity and move out !
-jerry
stop complaining and realize that is for a great cause
I don’t see how closing off Bowles Hall to returners is a ‘great cause’. It’s not like they’re converting Bowles into a homeless shelter. As I stated in my post, I think it will be a disadvantage to the freshmen who get stuck at Bowles Hall. If this is a ‘great cause’, why didn’t they come up with it earlier and tell people about it on the housing application?
you sound a littlt mature to be living in teh dorms for three years.
What kind of logic is that? That only immature people belong in the dorms?
maybe u should consider taking on a little responsiblity and move out
So, now I’m not responsible enough? Didn’t you just say that I was a little too mature to be living in the dorms?
And why is it my problem that Berkeley Housing and Dining didn’t provide earlier notification about Bowles Hall?
I am going to be a freshman this Fall 2005 at Berkeley. Did I put Bowles hall as any of my FIVE choices?! NO! and I’m pissed because that’s what I got. I wanted to live in one of the units, because it’s close to campus and I’m a lazy bastard. Then, I found out Bowles had some sweet traditions so it might be ok… but no one is going to give a shit about that, and no one will be there to show us how to carry them out, BECAUSE WE’RE ALL FRESHMAN! Plus, NO WOMEN!!! WTF!
-someone please tell me the pros of living at bowles…
-OR a way to switch out
Thanks
someone please tell me the pros of living at bowles
It’s the closest dormitory to campus, especially if you’re an engineering student. Half the people in Bowles also live in single rooms, so it’s great if you have a close girl friend *cough*
way to switch out
You can always ask Housing and Dining to switch out. If you get into a single, I’d be willing to switch places with you, if they let me. I’ve got a sweet double in Foothill, so reply if you’re interested.
*coughs*
singles rock. you can make as much noise as you want. ;D
Most of the freshmen who are going to be living at Bowles aren’t going to be interested.
I’m certainly not. I also seem to have grabbed the short straw this time. But it can’t be all _that_ bad, can it?
Plus, NO WOMEN!!! WTF!
On that note…. erm…. how tight are the security/restrictions at this place?
Is the food any good?
But it can’t be all _that_ bad, can it?
Life at Bowles isn’t bad. I loved living at Bowles for two years, and I would live there again if I got the chance. My main gripe is that Berkeley Housing and Dining came up with this half-baked plan and started spinning it as the best thing ever for freshmen. It’s not — one of the greatest strengths of Bowles was the bohemian mix of traditions and freedom.
how tight are the security/restrictions at this place
Unlike the Units, there are no real security monitors at Bowles Hall. Guests are allowed, but they’re not supposed to stay over for more than a couple days at a time, although I’ve never seen that rule enforced. Additionally, if you have a single, it’s really easy to share it with anybody you want. Furthermore, people have been known to smuggle entire kegs into Bowles :). I don’t know if all this will change next year, though.
Is the food any good?
We used to have our own private cafeteria, but it was shut down a few years ago. Currently, Bowles uses the Foothill Dining Commons, which is also used by Stern and all of Foothill. While the Foothill Dining Commons lacks the selection of Crossroads (the cafeteria for most of the southside dormitories), the food changes every day and is decent.
Kegs at Bowles?
The hell you say. Oh, wait, that is what we were smuggling up to the fifth floor every week. As a witness to the original birth of the Keg ‘O’ Rater (1996) and former Hall president, I’m glad to see this website. Life at Bowles is what you make of it. I hope that the opposition to all things Housing and Dining still remains and lives on through even the most hairbrained schemes they can come up with.
I have no idea if you ever still check this, but I have a Bowles question and no one seems to have the answer. My housing contract tells me I have a quad room, but nothing more specific. What decides who gets the singles and who ends up sharing a room? Is it a just mad race at 8 AM on move-in day?
You won’t know until the first day. You’ve already been assigned a specific type of room, but the silly Housing and Dining page won’t tell you which type.
What you can do is contact Housing and Dining and ask them for your exact room number. If it ends in an ‘A’ or ‘B’, you have a single. If it ends in a ‘C’, you have a double.
As a side note, if you do get a single, would you want to trade for a double at Foothill? I currently have a space in one of the few Foothill Hillside (next to the Dining Commons) double rooms in an all-male suite that has access to an elevator and is a couple floors above the laundry room.
It appears there are no longer going to be single rooms at Bowles Hall:
According to housing and dining:
“All of the rooms in Bowles are being converted into doubles because of equity issues. So, your bed and your roommates bed will be in the smaller side room and all of the other furniture will be in the center room. I’m pretty sure you and your room mate can work out the storage issue and talk to your other roommates in the other room about securing your quad. ”
Great. This just gets better and better…
Even if they remove the doors to the former ’singles’, I bet you can still move one of the beds back into the new common room. The hard part, of course, would probably be deciding who gets the center room.
This new layout sounds really stupid, as the singles really aren’t large enough to handle two beds. Furthermore, this doesn’t allow Housing to fit more people into Bowles Hall. Sure, it might make things more equal, but at the cost of making everyone less comfortable.
We need to replace Housing and Dining with elected officers who answer to the students whose college lives they’re messing with.
Well, it looks like Housing and Dining was unable to move the beds in time, so the old arrangement will still persist for at least one more year. Go figure.
They also told me I have a single (hopefully they won’t change their mind about this as well), so I’m pretty happy. I’ll probably be keeping it.
I took some time last week to take a look at Bowles Hall, and it doesn’t seem all that bad. I really won’t mind living there at all, now that I’ve had some time to think about it. Singles are nice…
However, I will ask around and see if anyone else is willing to trade for a Foothill double, if that’s still possible this late in the game.
It’s sad. The wonderful experience I had at the bowels of Bowles of Berzerkeley was incredible. Unlike The Units in which all rooms are doubles, Bowles was originally built as two-man suites in which each man had his own bedroom and shared a common living room. When the Army took over during The War, they put four guys in each suite. When The University got the building back they said “we can do that too”. So when I was there there were two upperclassmen in the “siderooms” and two freshmen in the “centerroom.” The Upperclassmen had some well deserved privacy, and the freshmen had some mentors to show them the ropes. My “mentors” Sloth and Weasel in addition to having colorful nicknames had profound influences on my experience at Cal. I am otfen awestruck at the influence that random choices by outside forces (such as the housing office roommate assignment) have on our lives. My experience at Bowles was outstanding! I’m sorry to see this change!
Here’s to Bowles Association, and the Golden Bear!
JD Atkinson ‘78
I agree with my old friend, JD Atkinson, that it is sad to see us solving our social problems by segregating freshmen from other students. Everyone gains from having a healthy mix of students at all levels, genders, races, religions, sexual orientation, etc. Certainly, while I was at Bowles Hall, I evolved as a better student by mixing with sophmores, juniors, seniors, and the few grad students who lived with me. On the other hand, Bowles Hall, as a male-only dorm, had alcohol and drug abuse, hazing, sexism, and homophobia that the university should never have allowed and should not allow today if it is to be housing our maturing children. The university should do something to correct these problems in its facilities, but segregation does not teach students to accept diversity–it just changes the face of intollerance. Perhaps the university should remove all previoius students as a means of finally removing the “old traditions” (this does seem a bit drastic to me), but the students who fill the dorm afterwards should be a diverse mix that fully represents the university. To control the excessive alcohol usage, the university needs to enforce its rules that prohibit dorm kegs and the serving of alcohol to at least underage students. Damages should decrease dramatically as soon as the dorm society mirrors our society at large with men AND women.
(Just catching-up on the news.)
For years, the Housing & Dining have waged a war against Bowles.
I am really sad and depressed at reading this news and feeling helpless at being able to do nothing to repair the damage.
I read a good idea that the Housing & Dining should be elected people.
Since the late notice of not being assigned Bowles Hall has placed some in limbo, can a class action lawsuit be forward against Housing & Dining?
Also, what was this survey the Housing & Dining gave out to students? Were the results ever published? What was the sampling? Were the respondants self-selecting? (I suspect only those two or three people who did not like living in Bowles completed this fabled survey. 3 out 3 people claiming XYZed is not what I call a conclusive survey study.)
What steps can be done to reverse this bad idea? If anything is worth protesting, this is it.
I’ll fly up from UCLA, if you need help.
The I-Houses runs independently from the university Housing & Dining office.
How much would it cost to buy Bowles Hall from the university?
I for one would chip in all that I have just to relive Bowles from university control.
Where do I sign-up for the campaign to take back Bowles Hall?
Sheldon Ross
Once a Bowlesman, always a Bowlesman. 1989-’91, 1999
The “First Year Experience” is not a special program designed for new students. It is part of a plan to bring Bowles back under control. Bowlesmen are not different from other residents, and if they tend to create more trouble it is because they have been allowed to so. Thus the university is to blame for the problems it has experienced at Bowles Hall, but as they say, the nail that sticks out gets hammered down.
Yes, Bowles has been a problem for Housing & Dining. As part of their effort to address this, they severly limited the amount of returners to Bowles for the 04-05 year. This makes sense, since the majority of consistent policy violations are made by only a small percentage of the overall population of Bowles. During the 03-04 year, with support from a brand new RD, there was a serious attempt at a crack-down on the questionable behavior at the hall, and from what I understand, there was stronger pressure on RA’s to write up residents that were caught violating housing policy. This was especially apparent during the Halloween party. According to an RA friend of mine, Housing was toying with the idea of limiting Bowles to freshman only in order to start with a clean slate cut down on the less desirable traditions, but ultimately decided to screen returning applicants based on whether they had ever been written up. Instead, many model residents were also denied the opportunity to return, instead being offered a triple in Unit 2 or something similar. A friend of mine went to the Housing office and was able to convince them to let him return to Bowles for 04-05, however, and it’s possible that others did this as well. There were also no returning Bowles RA’s for the 04-05 year.
Unfortunately for Housing, the problems from Bowles did not stop. Since screening returners did not work, the next step was to limit Bowles as a freshman-only hall.
Bowlesmen should have been told of this plan, as it seems likely that the decision was made prior to the initial application date.
Living in Bowles can be a very rewarding experience, and while incoming freshmen have always been quick to complain at first, until recently Bowles has consistently had the highest percentage of returning residents. Hopefully Housing & Dining won’t lose track of this fact.
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