Residents: Don't Continue the Transfer House

By Alex Horowitz

EVANSTON, IL – “My friend told me to avoid the Transfer House like I avoid the plague,” said Krissy Schanbacher in a voice that could not decide whether to crack with laughter or tremble with tears. From the porch of her dorm, she looked across the quad regretfully, as if she saw a greater Northwestern life on the other side.

Many other students living in the all-transfer dorm share similar sentiments. Nearly every day, complaints of isolation and drama suffocate the halls of what is now affectionately known as the Funhouse. The nickname alludes to the old-fashioned amusement buildings where visitors found the strange, the scary, and the unexpected.

“I think in theory [the Transfer House] is a great idea. Everyone’s in the same boat,” said Steve Cella, a Funhouse sophomore who transferred from Indiana University. “But in practice it’s a horrible idea. It’s isolating and it leads to a lot of the same type of people in the dorm, and those are the type of people who, by virtue of being transfers, have a low tolerance for irritation.”

Transfers, after all, are often students who identified a problem at their old schools and proactively sought a resolution. Many current Transfer House residents, like Schanbacher, believe that the concentration of these personalities into one dorm breeds the discontent that notoriously stifles the Transfer House.

“I’ve never experienced a dorm where every day some girl is crying,” said Schanbacher, who transferred from the University of Saint Thomas. “We’ve had every single person on my floor strongly consider moving out...Girls are constantly fighting and slamming doors. It all becomes this emotional rollercoaster. It’s ridiculous.”

Seven of the dorm’s 48 residents got off the rollercoaster after Fall Quarter and moved to other parts of campus. Nikki Love, a transfer from the University of Illinois, was one of them.

“There was just too much drama, too much crying,” said Love, a sophomore. “I have some good friends there, but I felt like anything that happened set off a psychological explosion.”

Even if transfers do not have a lower tolerance for conflict than other students, it is clear that their conflicts are more frequent. According to Northwestern Student Affairs, the Transfer House consistently logs a disproportionate number of disciplinary issues for its size.

Brian Apel, this year’s Community Assistant of the Transfer House, thinks that these problems could be attributed to the unique mix of excitement and experience inherent to transfer students.

“It’s very common for transfer students to have the energy of freshmen because they’re at a new school, but to not have a lot of what I call ‘freshman baggage,’” said Apel. “The whole college thing isn’t new to them [and] they are more adept to acquiring alcohol. In that respect I think that’s why there are more disciplinary issues.”

Emotional and disciplinary problems aside, many Transfer House residents claim to have a difficult time assimilating into Northwestern’s social structure. Transfers have neither freshmen numbers nor the existing networks that other upperclassmen maintain. Their closest friends will naturally be those they live with, and for that reason most Funhouse residents simply mingle amongst themselves.

“[The Transfer House] limits Northwestern students from getting to know who’s in the transfer dorm and it limits transfer students from getting to know Northwestern,” said Schanbacher, a sophomore. “It sounds like a great idea at first, but after that, you pretty much don’t get a Northwestern experience.”

Kaitlin Barancik, a Transfer House resident who attended Mount Holyoke College as a freshman, says she feels equally helpless.

“We become our own friends and our only friends,” said Barancik. “I’m pretty embarrassed to say I live in the Transfer House.”

Behind these cries of despair, a minority of students continue to embrace the dorm. Jad Carson, a transfer from the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, says that the Transfer House was a key factor in his decision to transfer, and that the problems other residents have can be overcome.

“I like the general idea of [the Transfer House]. In fact, when I was applying to schools, that was one of the things that drew me here,” said Carson, an engineering major. “I have had no problem making friends with other people. All it takes is to go out and join a club, join a fraternity or sorority. There are tons of opportunities at Northwestern, and if you’re having trouble making other non-transfer friends, you’re not trying hard enough.”

Apel, although not a transfer himself, also supports the continuation of the Transfer House and thinks that at the very least it provides a cohesive sense of acceptance for many transfers.

“I think it gives a lot of students a very quick sense of identity,” said Apel. “Like, ‘I’ve got a lot of friends who are going through the same thing I am, and I’ve got a place that I can be.’”

The Transfer House may also help carve an identity for transfers that live in other dorms throughout campus. Max Clarke, a transfer that lives in nearby Lindgren Hall, says the Transfer House serves as a physical center for the entire transfer community.

“I think having a community for transfer students is better than not having a community for transfer students,” said Clarke, a sophomore. “Even if that is a flawed group, even if that community has issues, I think that any community is better than none.”

Before the Transfer House was created, the university had simply paired transfers together as roommates and sprinkled them into various campus dorms. The Transfer House was then formed four years ago after Northwestern’s Kappa Sigma fraternity vacated the building.

During its first year of existence, the Transfer House received glowing reviews from many residents. In each year since then, however, more and more problems have arisen, and the debate about whether to continue or terminate the Transfer House has escalated.

“We’re just not getting a Northwestern experience,” concluded Schanbacher. “We’re getting some awkward, weird, emotionally psychopathic transfer experience.”

While Northwestern Housing has already voted to continue the Transfer House for the 2007-2008 academic year, what lies beyond that remains a mystery.

“Nothing is ever set in stone on campus,” said Kristin Thomas, an Administrative Coordinator in Housing and former transfer student. “Things can always be changed. It’s a very new program, and the more input we get from students that go through it, the better off we’ll all be.”

BK: the only late night food in Evanston

60 Years Later: MLB Still Has Work to Do

By Alex Horowitz

EVANSTON, IL - Sixty years after breaking the color barrier, Jackie Robinson has clearly changed the outward face of Major League Baseball. Disturbing to some, though, is that the behind-the-scenes faces you do not see have changed far less dramatically.

“I think with the players being put on the field, Major League Baseball is doing a pretty good job,” said Sekou Bermiss, a Kellogg student who organized last month’s Northwestern Fireside Chat on African American athletes. “But the power structure remains pretty much the same.”

According to a University of Central Florida report, 40.5 percent of today’s Major Leaguers are people of color, a number not far off the league’s all-time high of 42 percent. Since the time of Robinson’s death in 1972, however, the ratio of African American players has plummeted from 20 percent to 8.4 percent.

This drop could be attributed to increased and broader opportunities for African Americans, and other sports leagues that desegregated much later than baseball.

“Among the African American community, baseball is no longer the only desegregated option,” said Justin Shin, a Northwestern student. “Now, African Americans have a broader range of options, either in education, choice of career, or even other sports like basketball or football.”

With player diversity close to record highs, the administrative side of baseball has lagged behind significantly. Last year, only 49 of Major League Baseball’s 468 central office employees were people of color. At the same time, 27 of the league’s 32 teams were guided by white managers, and only two teams had minority general managers.

“In business there is a concept called the glass ceiling, pertinent to women,” said Marlene Jia, a psychology student at Northwestern. “I believe that exists not just for women, but for minorities, too, and not just in corporate America, but also in sports like baseball.”

Hispanics, not African Americans, maintain the greatest statistical discrepancy between management representation and number of players. According to the report, 30 percent of all current Major Leaguers are Hispanic, a number unthinkable before the Robinson breakthrough.

“Anytime you have one person break a barrier, they do not only break that barrier for their coalition or group,” said Bermiss. “They break it for anyone else that wants to enter. Hispanic players also have their own pioneers like [Roberto] Clemente.”

Still, Hispanics make up only 13 percent of Major League Baseball’s central office and boast only one general manager. Bermiss believes that the lack of Hispanics on the executive level should be baseball’s biggest concern.

“I think the real travesty is the underwhelming representation of Latino managers and GMs and what have you,” said Bermiss. “They have all those players and they are the growing minority. With that kind of difference between players and management, they should be baseball’s priority right now.”

Last month, Major League Baseball celebrated and honored the anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breakthrough. These numbers, though, indicate that there is still work to be done.

Spotlight: IFC President Billy Carberry

In a world where fraternities are synonomous with superficiality and booze, Billy Carberry has seen Northwestern’s Greek community flourish. Since becoming the president of the Inter-Fraternity Council four months ago, Carberry has already supported the largest fraternity influx in over a decade. This success, however, has come only after much tension and stress.

“It’s a rollercoaster of emotions, with ups and downs,” said Carberry, 21. “One day things can just be going great. The next day things can take a turn dramatically for the worst.”

Carberry, the former president of Northwestern’s Chi Psi fraternity, had previously been active within the IFC forum, a group of all fraternity presidents on campus. As a member of the forum, Carberry attended meetings biweekly. Now, as an officer on the executive board, he is dedicating much more time.

“Things tend to come up all the time,” said Carberry. “We have to be ready to meet and talk things over and strategize depending on how things are going during the week. It’s a full time job.”

As the IFC president, Carberry supervises the tasks of the other executive board members. He oversees the handling of recruitment, risk management, academics, service, and public relations. Most importantly, though, he serves as the link between the fraternities and the administration.

“Probably the biggest responsibility I have is communicating with the administration of the school, such as Mary Dessler, the vice president of Student Affairs, and the director of Fraternity and Sorority Life,” said Carberry. “I am the primary liaison between the university and the Greek community.”

IFC’s role has changed over the past year. While it had traditionally served a judiciary function, IFC has now become more of an advisory board. It acts as a resource, assisting fraternities to better themselves and stay out of trouble.

“Rather than be the bad guys on campus, we’re becoming more of the advisors and supporters,” said Carberry, a Slavic and mathematics double-major.

One IFC-supported event, Dillo Day, is just a few weeks away. IFC makes financial contributions to the event’s bands, lunches, and tents, but also promotes safety and risk management.

“Probably 60 to 70 percent of what we do during [Dillo Day] is making sure everybody is safe during a weekend of a lot of fun [but] also historically a lot of drinking and a lot of hospital visits by a lot of Northwestern students,” said Carberry. “We don’t want the Greek community to be overrepresented in the emergency room.”

Baseball Walk-On Earning His Stay

By Alex Horowitz

EVANSTON, IL - Jim Grieco has everything working against him. He’s a walk-on player, he’s not on scholarship, and he’s far from 6 feet tall. But the Glenview native shows up to baseball practice for Division I Northwestern every single day and does every single little thing right.

“I know that I can play with these guys and I just try to do everything I can to keep it that way,” said Grieco, 19. “If it means being so small and what not, and not being a big-time starter, the way to get your name out there and get some playing time is to be ‘Mr. Hustle.’”

Growing up, Jim was swinging a bat ever since he could hold one. He played all year round, starting with tee-ball and Little League, until he got to high school. There, he quit football to keep playing baseball in the fall. After struggling through his first few high school seasons, he came into his own as a senior. He decided to attend Division III John Carroll upon graduation, but his stay there did not last long.

“I went to a DIII school, John Carroll, and there were some politics issues there about playing time,” said Grieco. “They had some seniors that were not performing, really, and I kind of rode the pine. It wasn’t really a good fit for me, and I put in a transfer app and decided to see if I could walk on here.”

Standing at just 5-foot-7, walking onto a DI team full of 6-foot-somethings was no small task. Neither is his quest for playing time now. Jim, though, has risen above the doubts and questions.

“If you look at a line, it’s like 6-foot-3, 6-foot-3 and then me, so it’s kind of funny,” said Grieco, a current sophomore. “I really don’t let it get to me. I swing the bat and I can hit the ball just like everyone else.

“Baseball, it’s not a game of brute, individual, one-on-one strength. It’s who can perform and who can’t,” he said.

Matt Havey, a Northwestern and former high school teammate of Jim’s, agrees that size in baseball is nearly insignificant. The 6-foot-4 relief pitcher says that Jim is mentally tough and can overcome any physical disadvantage.

“I personally don’t think it really matters all that much how tall you are or how much you weigh or anything,” said Havey, 20. “It’s what you put into the game. [Grieco] plays like he’s the biggest guy on the field sometimes.”

As of April 1^st, Grieco has been to the plate just 11 times despite reaching base safely on five occasions. With talented scholarship players hitting in front of him, Jim realizes that his climb to this level has already been a bit of a surprise, and that now every chance counts.

“I would say that people probably are looking at Northwestern’s roster saying, ‘Wow, I can’t believe Jim Grieco’s on that team,’” said Grieco. “I guess I just have to work that much harder in practice and see if I can compete at that level. And in terms of playing time, when I do get opportunities, I have to perform.”

As a walk-on, Jim admits that he could very easily be cut next year despite his hustle and performance. The hours of dedication that he gave for just 11 plate appearances so far this season could be disregarded without a second thought. But this North Shore native could not possibly imagine having it any other way.

“I could never see myself at this point in my life not playing baseball,” said Grieco. “It’s just something that every time spring rolls around, I’m always playing … I don’t know what summer is without baseball. I’ve never had it.”

(Written April 3, 2007)

2007 Marks Most Fraternity Pledges in Decade

This was an especially Greek year for one of the nation’s especially Greek campuses. With 320 men joining fraternities, 2007 marked the highest influx of Greek males at Northwestern since 1996.

“It shows that we’re pulling kids out of places that we normally didn’t before,” said Billy Carberry, the IFC president. “We’re recruiting in dorms and places on campus that typically haven’t generated many Greek members. Obviously we’re doing something right, because our numbers are up consistently.”

This year, eight fraternities dramatically increased the size of their pledge classes over those from 2006. While in previous years a handful of fraternities received a disproportionate number of pledges, 2007 saw a more even distribution throughout the Greek community.

“That’s significant because it shows that the chapters in the past that maybe struggled from year to year can turn it around in the course of twelve months and then have a very large pledge class,” said Carberry. “It’s a sign of a healthy system.”

Over the past decade, fraternities have averaged between 250 and 300 pledges each year. And in 1996, the last time 320 men had pledged, there were a higher number of fraternities on campus.

“I would say the drastic increase in numbers and dedication towards recruitment in the past year has been one of our biggest stories and one of our biggest successes going forward,” Carberry said.