Strolling into Kershaw Hall, one notices a departure from the typical Grinnell dorm. Finger paintings adorn the walls, the density and quality of door decorations seems greater than usual, and the dominant smell is cookies, not last night's Natural Ice.
Welcome to the world of substance-free housing, now entering its fourth year as part of the Grinnell culture. Smith Hall became sub-free in 2004, while Kershaw joined the ranks in 2005. The dorms remain a haven for some, while sparking debates about their image in the campus community, first-year housing procedures, and what "sub-free" really means.
Different factors draw people into sub-free housing. The idea of a culture without drugs or alcohol was appealing to Smith Annex resident Nabila Mirza '11. "Personally, I don't drink or smoke, so I wouldn't like being around alcoholics and smokers," she said.
Beyond the lack of drinking and smoking, students are attracted to sub-free dorms for various reasons. "It was the community feel of my friends over here that drew me to it," said Allie Greenberg '10, an SA on Kershaw third.
Ben Halliburton '08, however, drew on his past experience to choose to live in Kershaw during his senior year. "After coming back from abroad, I had a single in Cowles, and it was just a mess," he said. "The lounge got wrecked every other night--I just wanted some peace and quiet."
Bryan Leland '09 lived in Smith last year but left this year because he had "moved past the sub-free stage." He admits he "drew in to sub-free mostly to get a triple," although being sub-free was part of his motivation.
Sub-free, in casual conversation, often gets a negative stigma for being dull and antisocial. "It's true that there is a stigma about that, which is sad," Leland said.
However, Halliburton didn't notice much of a negative attitude towards sub-free in the campus community. "The only crap I get about living in sub-free is that [friends] can't bring over a bottle of wine when we're having a party," he said.
Greenberg tried to dispel the common campus stigma that sub-free residents were quiet and dull. "Sub-free does not mean sex-free or quiet," she said. "People here are very crazy--we just don't need alcohol to be crazy."
Halliburton said that he had not imagined the boisterousness. "Instead of drinking, they're playing dodgeball in the hall--which is more annoying in some ways."
Sub-free dorm policy:
Smith and Kershaw house 141 students between them, yet fill up very quickly with first-years. According to Emily Wax '09, a member of housing committee, one-third of incoming first years request sub-free, a number that drops significantly for upperclassmen. "Doubles for sophomores usually have a hard time filling up," Wax said, although singles tend to be popular.
Due to possible concerns of too many incoming students requesting sub-free, changes to the sub-free application process have been discussed heavily this year in SGA Housing Committee. According to Wax, a section has been added to the first-year housing form explaining in more detail what sub-free housing is. "We'll see if this new form actually cuts the people who use sub-free by explaining exactly what sub-free means," Wax said.
She hoped that reducing the number of applicants would help balance out age ratios in the dorm. "It would be awful, I think, to make all of those [sophomore] doubles first-year," she said. "You suddenly have a first-year dorm."
For those who do not make it into a sub-free dorm, unofficial clustering of sub-free students has been practiced in the past; Norris Fourth has been an example in past years, and Greenberg spent her first year there. "Those don't always work out as planned," she said, noting that it ended up "very sub-full."
The idea of officially creating sub-free floors has been tossed around, but Wax, a former HSC, explained concerns about usage of the common space.
Questions have been raised on how sub-free one has to be to live in sub-free dorms. According to Wax, sub-free is not binding but based a contract of good faith, and there is no enforcement "apart from glares."
"If you draw into that and you're not actually sub-free, people will look down on you," Leland said. He said that there were problems with people keeping alcohol in the fridge in his dorm last year.
Greenberg mentioned some initial conflicts on her floor with people who did drink outside of Kershaw. "They wouldn't even be anywhere near tipsy, and some of the first-years would be freaking out," she said.
Mirza, like many others, did not mind when her floormates went out and drank elsewhere. "They go out, they have their fun, they sometimes come back drunk, but they don't make a mess," she said.
