by Josh Cooley
There will still be a lot of noise coming from 1128 East Street next year, but instead of music, it will be the clanging of pots and pans.
Music House, officially renamed Freesound House, was hoping to extend its residency at 1128 East Street into the 2004-2005 school year, but it was not selected by the Housing Committee to continue its reign. Instead, the committee chose International Gourmet House to occupy 1128 East Street.
The number of OCCO houses has declined as the number of dorm rooms has increased. Neither Freesound House nor Pioneer Pals, which planned to offer tutoring to local middle school students, was chosen by the Housing Committee.
“There have been a lot of complaints,” said Interim Director of Housing Mandy Fox. “It was a very tough decision.”
“I was positive that Music House would get that one,” said coordinator of International Gourmet House Katherine Kleese ‘05, “and that of the other three groups, one of them would get the other house.” When applying for a house, International Gourmet House selected 1205 Park Street, the location of the other college-owned off-campus house, as their first choice but admitted that they would be willing to live in either house. Dagohir House was again selected to control 1205 Park Street, but Kleese was thrilled that she and her friends were selected to live at 1128 East Street.
“I thought we had a pretty good chance at getting a house just because a lot of the people in our group had already lived together,” said Kleese, noting that many of next year’s International Gourmet House residents are currently living in French House. “And our project is something that needs a house for it to exist. We need a kitchen to do what we want to do.”
Kleese and some of her friends in French House thought up the idea of International Gourmet House because while living there, they had been preparing weekly meals of different ethnic foods for the house residents. Since they enjoyed teaching each other how to cook different foods and preparing their own native dishes, they decided that they wanted to continue their tradition next year and share it with the whole college community.
“We have everything from vegetable choppers to Mac and Cheese chefs to people who can prepare an entire meal if given the time,” said Aly Beery ‘05, future resident of International Gourmet House.
Seven current residents of Dagohir House will return to live at 1205 Park Street next year, but current coordinator Thomas Alexander ‘05 will live on campus. Kent Cubbage ‘06 will be the House’s new coordinator and Ellen Mease, Theatre, will be the house’s new faculty adviser.
Next year’s Dagohir House will also be slightly different from this year’s. According to Anna McNulty ‘06, a current resident of Dagohir House who will live their next year as well, Dagohir hopes to host more prospective students than it did this past year and also to have more interaction with other collegiate groups.
“We want to have an open-door policy and encourage anyone to come visit us,” she said. “With the centralization of [a] house, it’s a lot easier for people to come and find us. On a typical night, there are around five high school kids who come to DAG house, and the people who aren’t living in the house outnumber the people who are. … It’s basically a social mecca for gamers, magic card players, Dag fighters and video gamers. We’ve even had random people come in and sit in our lounge and watch Family Guy and Futurama with us.”
Dagohir House will again sponsor a Renaissance Festival in the fall as their House project, in addition to coordinating their annual Field Day.
International Gourmet House’s main project is a recipe book, which they plan to publish next fall and distribute to the community free of charge. International Gourmet House will begin accepting submissions for the book early next year. Beery believes that the book will collect between 50 and 100 recipes, including many of those used to prepare the dishes served at the various food bazaars sponsored by ISO and ASIA. International Gourmet House plans to contribute several foods to each of these bazaars. In addition, several times a semester they plan to invite a guest to the house to teach the residents how to cook a new dish and to teach them the traditions associated with it.
Though they can’t cook for the whole campus, International Gourmet House wants to share its love for cooking with the community. “I think there are a couple of us who know how to adapt recipes for large amounts of people,” said Beery.
International Gourmet House will also organize trips to Iowa City and Des Moines, so that students can purchase food from the fish market, the co-op, the Asian food stores and the other specialty food stores that don’t exist in Grinnell.
The group hadn’t talked about preparing the community meal at Davis School, but Beery believes the group will take on this task. “There are enough people [in International Gourmet House] who enjoy cooking that it’s definitely something we’ll consider.”
The Housing Committee selected occupants for the two off-campus campus-owned houses available.
1128 East Street
• International Gourmet House
• Projects: creating a free recipe book for campus community next fall, participating in ISO and ASIA food bazaars, organizing trips to Iowa City and Des Moines to shop for foods not available in Grinnell
1205 Park Street
• Dagohir House
• Projects: holding a Renaissance Festival in the fall, coordinating Dag Field Day
Houses not selected
• Freesound House, who planned to emulate Music House and offer practice space to campus musicians
• Pioneer Pals House, who planned to offer tutoring to local middle-school students
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