John D. Rockefeller Jr., who founded the University of Chicago’s International House in the 1930s, intended the stone Gothic estate at the heart of campus to foster cultural exchange among campus members and foreign students, who could call the dormitory a temporary home.
The residence has been loyal to this mission: It has housed notable faculty like Italian scientist Enrico Fermi and American writer Langston Hughes, held foreign music singalongs and staged energetic cuisine showdowns. In a cook-off a few years ago against French students, German students stole the show with their hot mulled wine.
So when the university announced this month that International House would temporarily become an undergraduate-only dormitory starting this fall and stop housing international graduate students, residents felt as though Rockefeller’s mission was being betrayed.
“This choice will destroy the purpose of International House, and is completely against the original statement of Rockefeller. (The university) is going against his will,” said Daniele Macuglia, a doctoral student from Italy and a resident of the dorm since 2009. “Even if this is temporary, it will interrupt the continuity of nearly 85 years during which the older residents of International House transmitted the traditions of the house to newcomers.”
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U. of C. officials said the switch would last for only a few years, until the next major residence hall is constructed. Jeremy Manier, a spokesman for the university, said this new dorm is in “active planning” but could not provide details regarding the construction timeline or location.
Karen Warren Coleman, vice president for campus life and student services, said in an emailed statement that the university would still adhere to Rockefeller’s intentions. The dorm, she said, will continue to host an internationally focused arts and lecture series as well as music and cultural performances. It will also add a Diplomatic Encounters series to the list of dorm events.
But residents say such programming isn’t enough to preserve the house’s identity.
“It’s about living together every day. Studying together, making dinner together,” Macuglia said. “This is the special thing about these communities. It is an opportunity to open your eyes on a global community, not just a collection of events.”
International House currently houses 65 graduate students, most of whom are international students, and 311 undergraduates, Manier said.
In addition to changing International House into an undergraduate-only dorm, U. of C. will close its Blackstone, Breckinridge, Broadview and Maclean off-campus dorms. Students who live in those dorms will have the opportunity to move into the new Campus North residence hall, which will house roughly 800 undergraduates. Students from one of the closing houses will instead move into International House, officials said.
The moves are part of the university’s long-term plan to strengthen its housing experience for undergraduates by providing them with more on-campus options. U. of C. is currently able to house just over 56 percent of its undergraduates on campus, and it aims to house 70 percent in the coming years, Manier said.
The push to house more students on campus is in part to bolster the university’s Resident Master model, designed to stimulate interactions between students and senior faculty outside the classroom, officials said. The four residence halls that are closing could not accommodate Resident Masters — faculty members who live among students and reinforce a sense of community.
The university in November announced plans to sell the Blackstone, Broadview and Maclean buildings, Manier said. There are no plans to sell the Breckinridge building.
Also closing this summer is the New Graduate Residence Hall, which university officials in 2014 announced would become the Keller Center, and the new home of the Harris School of Public Policy.
French foreign exchange students Jeanne Sorin and Philomene Chagniot, both 20, and Camille Godbillot, 22, all who live in International House, said almost all their friends reside in the dorm, as they found it hard to become close friends with non-international students.
Now, Godbillot is unsure whether she could recommend U. of C. to her classmates back home, she said.
The graduate students living at International House, she said, are “an enormous part of the experience.”
“We wouldn’t be able to tell (classmates) about our experience here without them,” she said.
Students are concerned about how future international graduate students will find easy and affordable housing, which they say is difficult. In a letter to the dorm’s residents, university officials offered a meeting between students and representatives from U. of C.’s Residential Properties to help ease the housing search.
Some students also worry that the “temporary” nature of the change to International House will, in fact, be permanent.
In 2000, International House risked closure. University officials at the time estimated the building needed more than $20 million in renovations to remain open. Students held rallies and tried to raise money to fuel their fight, which included a lawsuit against the university that claimed administrators were ignoring Rockefeller’s intentions.
After months of deliberating, the administration decided to keep the dorm open.
This fall, International House will still be home to some international students, as they make up 11 to 14 percent of U. of C.’s undergraduate class, university officials said.
Lucy Duan, a 2013 U. of C. graduate from China who lived in the dorm for two years, said that while university officials plan to continue global programming for undergraduate residents, it was the international residents’ own planned activities that defined her experience.
She fears that with the removal of graduate students those activities will be gone.
They included “I-Monday,” a weekly dinner cooked by students of different nationalities in the dorm’s communal kitchen, with a new cuisine highlighted each week. There was “I-Focus,” an opportunity for students to showcase their cultures in a casual atmosphere. And there were the energetic screenings of the finales of Eurovision, Europe’s TV singing competition.
“I was very humbled by the people I was living among. It was such a big community, and people mixed very spontaneously,” Duan said. “There was so much music — residents who are musicians play music together. Each of those little moments was so extraordinary on its own.”
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