It’s one thing to come to Columbia and join a campus group, but quite another to get quality housing out of it. Special Interest Communities range in tone from commune-like to scholarly, and the houses work with faculty advisers to explore passions from food to economics. The application processes closed in February, but be sure to watch for the many events each of these and other 2008-2009 SICs will be hosting next year.

Urban Economic Perspectives
Location: Broadway
Residents: 6
Founded in 2005, the group aims, according to an e-mail from Recruitment Coordinator Jehan Sparks, CC ’10, to “focus on applying economics in untraditional ways.” Past activities have included discussions, study breaks, and movie screenings. Asked for fun facts, Sparks wrote, “Maybe just that we are not as nerdy as our name implies?”

Community Health House
Location: East Campus
Residents: 6
Founded in 2005 as Sexual Health House, the community’s goals have since expanded to include all aspects of health at a school that functions largely on caffeine and stress. Events range from STI testings to low-fat baking classes. “Only one person in the house is actually premed or pursuing an explicitly health-related career,” House Coordinator Jeremy Reich, CC ’09, wrote in an e-mail. “For the rest of us, it’s been a great way to get involved with this clearly very important element of community life at Columbia.”

Students for Substance Free Space
Location: McBain
Residents: 9
The Student Affairs Web site states delicately that these residents “promote substance free living by educating peers about the dangers of drugs and alcohol,” sidestepping the issue of what happens in Columbia’s other, also theoretically “substance-free” dorms. “We like to have good, clean fun,” resident Grace Chen, SEAS ’10, said.

Symposium House
Location: 606 W. 114th St.
Residents: 15
Known and advertised mostly as Potluck House, the community boasts no less than seven kitchens. “We open up the house to the whole university every Friday night starting at 7 p.m. for potlucks,” House Coordinator Rachel Waldholz, BC ’08, wrote in an e-mail, “and we hold professor dinners about three times a semester, when we invite students to come over for a home-cooked meal and conversation with a professor.” Her fun fact is cryptic: “Fifteen people, seven kitchens, and a lot of squash soup.”

Ethnic Studies Suite
Location: Broadway
Residents: 9
As an Office of Multicultural Affairs Residential Community, this suite is not actually an official SIC at all. But it functions in a similar way, “encouraging intellectual inquiry focused on issues related to Multiculturalism and Social Justice,” according to the OMA Web site. “Part of the idea behind the Ethnic Studies Suite was ... integrating ethnic studies into everything and having that critical stance on power and privilege being more integral to the campus,” Samantha Stanton, CC ’09, said.

Q House
Location: Ruggles
Residents: 8
Goals: New this year, and also supported by the OMA, Q House will work to “foster a safe campus environment and engage the Columbia community in meaningful dialogue about LGBTQ issues,” according to an e-mail from Student Affairs Director of Events and Communications Cristina Stevenson. The OMA Web site states that it’s also “dedicated to providing a safe living environment for LGBTQ students.”
mary.kohlmann@columbiaspectator.com