Inquiry House Seeks Next Year's Residents

Inquiry House, a special interest community created last year in which residents plan and develop independent research projects, has struggled to find enough applicants to fill its rooms next year.

While the original application deadline was Feb. 6, 2007, both Jack McGourty, associate dean of Undergraduate Studies for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Lavinia Lorch, senior assistant dean of Student Affairs and director of the Scholars Program, sent e-mails to students several days later, encouraging them to apply.

Few of the former residents have chosen to re-apply to the house. Some said there was a lack of clear advising and problems with facilities this year.

"The major flaw was that it was unorganized, and it was sort of a guinea-pig year." said Ori Sosnik, CC '09, a current member and future RA for the house. "I don't think they [the administration] gave us all the support we needed."

He said that while he enjoyed living in the house, the project advisors disappeared during the course of the year, offering residents little counsel on how to complete their work.

Other students said it was difficult to work with maintenance to fix problems.

"While the house is brand new and very beautiful, we have honestly had quite a significant amount of difficulty working with housing, getting things repaired that are not working," Susanna Berger. CC '07 and the current residential advisor of the house, wrote in an e-mail. "Several students told me this is why they are not reapplying."

But other students said they are confident that the program will run much more smoothly next year.

Miriam Arkin, CC '09 and a current member of the house, said she decided not to reapply because she felt a sense of completion at the end of this year.

She acknowledged that there were a few advising kinks, but she said she thought they would be worked out. "They [the administration] were trying to figure out how to advise it," she said. "It wasn't the most well-run house, but they are working it out."

McGourty, who will serve as he house's central faculty advisor, said that next year's projects focus on issues of sustainability directly impacting the areas surrounding Morningside Heights. "We have to create an end result that is tangible and sustainable. It has to be real," he said, citing current projects such as a writing and mentoring program with a high school in Harlem and a project that involves mapping HIV information around the city.

"It is really a house for civic engagement," McGourty said. "It is a way for students to bridge academic interest with community service."

Echoing that sentiment, Sosnik said that he was excited to strengthen the bond between academic interest and real-world problems next year.

"Inquiry House is looking at how to formalize intellectual curiosity and produce practical actions," Sosnik said.