Residential Education is offering a pre-assignment system for all Special Program Houses (Ethnic/Academic Theme, Focus and Cooperative Houses). This process will allow Resident Fellows, Faculty Affiliates, and house program staff to pre-assign a set number of 2009-10 residents who complete the pre-assignment application and meet all necessary requirements prior to the Housing Draw. Here is the Residential Education link for detailed pre-assignment information.

IMPORTANT: There are THREE ways to get in to Special Program Houses

1. Pre-assignment – Note that when you apply for pre-assignment to participating houses, you must understand that, if you are granted pre-assignment, you automatically accept that as your assignment and therefore are not eligible for the 2009 Housing Draw or other housing application periods.
2. In the Draw, any student who meets the pre-requisites for a participating ‘special program’ house can list the house on their draw application. They must also indicate that they understand if they do not meet the pre-requisites for the house, their assignment can be cancelled when they reach the in-house draw. (Students in the Draw will be processed in Draw-number order.) See Requirements for Listing Theme Houses, Focus Houses, or Co-Ops on Draw Applications.
3. Focus Houses have a third process, applying in the Draw to the non-focus portion of the house. Please read below in the Focus House section.

Note: Ethnic/cross-cultural theme houses do not have specific requirements for the Draw process. House requirements are only to be met by students going through the pre-assignment process.

Obtaining Pre-Assignments
If you are interested in applying for pre-assignment please go to Residential Education, read the key points regarding pre-assignments, and please download and complete the application forms for the house where you are seeking pre-assignment. If you have questions about a specific house, please contact the Pre-Assignment Representative for the house.

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Experience has shown that certain residences with special themes, student interests, and methods of house management are more successful when their residents hold a common concern for that which makes the residence unique.

At Stanford, 25 houses offer special residential programs or co-op style living to students who demonstrate a specific interest in the house, meet publicized criteria, and sign an agreement to participate and support the house program.
There are four types of programs:

• Language, culture, and academic theme houses
• Cross-cultural (ethnic) theme houses
• Focus houses
• Co-ops

Seven houses offer programs organized around language or culture:

• EAST House (East Asian Studies Theme House)
• Haus Mitteleuropa (Central European Theme House)
• La Casa Italiana (Italian Language and Culture)
• La Maison Française (French Language and Culture)
• Slavianskii Dom (Slavic/East European Theme House)
• Storey House (Human Biology Theme House)
• Yost (Spanish Language Academic Theme House)

Theme houses enable both majors and non-majors with an active interest in a field to live together and explore a theme in a fun and comfortable residential setting. These programs feature lectures, receptions, film series, recitals, in-house seminars, special projects, and language tables, among other activities. Most houses maintain active contact with faculty in the relevant academic departments and programs. Theme houses often host noted scholars, cultural figures, and political leaders.

Special campus events
Many Theme houses sponsor special activities intended to draw in the wider campus community, such as the weekly La Pizzeria at La Casa Italiana, the annual EASTFest at EAST House, and Oktoberfest at Haus Mitteleuropa. Non-theme activities are offered in each house as well. For students preparing for or returning from overseas study, the houses with a language theme provide opportunities to use the language on a daily basis.

Plan a program/Take a class
In addition to a Resident Assistant, student Academic and Theme Associates live in each house and help plan theme programs. Potter, EAST and Yost House also have Resident Fellows. Residents of theme houses must usually commit to take a class related to the theme and organize a theme project.

All Theme houses have student-managed board plans and University custodial service. Meals often feature foods related to the house theme.

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(Ethnic theme houses do not have specific requirements for the Draw process. House requirements are only to be met by students going through the pre-assignment process.)

Stanford’s four cross-cultural theme houses are:

• Casa Zapata (Chicano/Mexican-American Theme House in Stern Hall)
• Muwekma-tah-ruk (American Indian/Alaska Native Theme House located on the Row)
• Okada (Asian-American Theme House in Wilbur Hall)
• Ujamaa (Black/African-American Theme House in Lagunita Court)

In addition to social and educational opportunities available in any Stanford residence, the cross-cultural houses feature theme programs exploring American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian, Asian-American, Black/African-American, or Chicano/Latino history and culture. Theme programs include campus-wide events, in-house classes, film and lecture series, group discussions, drama productions, music recitals, and readings by noted authors.

Special campus events
Cultural theme houses also sponsor major, campus-wide activities such as Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, an annual celebration organized by Okada; Club Ujamaa, a jazz and casino night in an African-American cultural setting; and Zoot Suit Week, Cinco de Mayo, and Dia de los Muertos celebrations at Casa Zapata. Muwekma-tah-ruk offers hands-on activities related to American Indian culture, such as pottery workshops, training in beadwork, and holds various activities to interact with members of the local Muwekma-Ohlone tribe.

Group values and identity
For students living in Casa Zapata, Muwekma-tah-ruk, Okada, or Ujamaa, the educational experience is enriched by participating in cross-cultural activities. Members of the ethnic groups living in the houses have an opportunity to be a part of a supportive community as the educational program emphasizes and values the cultural identity of the group. The programs enable all students in the house to learn about and appreciate the ethnic group's history and culture.

If you are considering accepting an assignment to a cross-cultural theme house, it is important that you realize that all residents are expected to support the house's activities, theme-related or not. For the houses to be successful, all residents need to participate in the range of house meetings and programs.

Staff Committed to Theme Programs
Considering the special nature of their residences, the residence staff – a Resident Fellow, Resident Assistants, and Theme Associates – encourage and help residents work out compromises that make the houses comfortable places for all students who live there. The staffs are also committed to the theme programs and actively encourage participation of all residents in theme activities. All students who accept assignment to a cross-cultural theme house are expected to enter with a cooperative attitude, an open mind about living in a theme house, and a willingness to examine attitudes about race and ethnicity in our society.

Note: Ethnic priorities for assignment to Casa Zapata, Muwekma-tah-ruk, Okada, and Ujamaa are automatically issued to Chicano/Latino, American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian, Asian-American, and Black/African-American students, respectively, based on ethnic data supplied by the Registrar's Office. In addition, each cross-cultural theme house offers a possible pre-assignment to all students, regardless of ethnicity, who meet certain objectively defined criteria. (See Pre- Assignment.)

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The five residential programs below are featured as the house focus in a specific area:

• Public Service (Branner Hall)
• Writing (Adelfa, Lagunita Court)
• Arts and Performing Arts (Kimball Hall, Manzanita Park)
• Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE)
  (Murray House, Governor’s Corner)
• Sophomore Priority House (Toyon Hall)
  

Like other residences, Focus houses offer diverse programs on many different issues. In addition, however, a portion of Focus house programs examine a specific field in greater depth. Student Focus Assistants live in each house—along with a Resident Fellow and Resident Assistants—and help plan focus programs. The houses serve as forums for residents and nonresidents to come together to discuss issues related to the house focus and to meet with faculty members from the focus area. The relaxed residential setting allows students to interact informally with other residents who are interested in learning more about the focus subject.

Three ways to obtain Assignment to Focus Houses

1. Pre-Assignment: Focus houses offer a Pre-Assignment for a limited number of spaces in each house. If you receive a pre-assignment (obtain assignment to a focus house), you agree to, and are expected to help plan and participate in focus programs and fulfill the requirements for obtaining a pre-assignment.
2. Draw Assignment—Focus portion: Other students may apply without pre-assignment. Through the Draw you can list on your application a focus house for which you are interested. When you apply to the focus portion of the house, you are
   • agreeing to meet the pre-requisites,  
   • expected to fulfill house requirements, and
   • also indicating that you understand if you do not meet the pre-requisites for the house, your assignment can be cancelled when you reach the in-house draw, or you will be reassigned out of the house.
3. Draw Assignment—Non-focus portion: Students in the Draw – who are not interested in the special program and apply to the non-focus portion of the house – may obtain an assignment but are not required to participate in focus programs. These students may take part in other traditional dorm activities, such as trips to the City, movie nights, IMs, and study breaks.

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Public Service
Beginning in 2009-10, Branner will become a public service focus house. Many Stanford students are already involved in serious, meaningful service; we want to offer them a community of like-minded peers, to enable collaboration on specific projects, and to foster a deeper understanding of service through exposure to others' experiences, accomplishments, and challenges. We also hope that some students coming in with limited exposure to service will get involved their dorm mates' activities. Dorm activities will include a range of service-related programming (local, regional and national service speakers, a service symposium), small- and larger-scale service projects coordinated in the dorm, and a dorm-based course and/or reading group focused on issues surrounding service.

Writing
Writing in its myriad forms occupies a central place in students' lives at the university and then continues to demand attention in students' lives after college. In Adelfa, the Writing Focus house, residents will be part of a community of writers exploring a wide range of writing genres, from academic and discipline-specific essays to comic writing, spoken word, songs, and plays.  Faculty and guest speakers invited to the house would include professors from the Schools of Law, Business, and Medicine as well as departments such as Political Science, Economics, Philosophy, History, and English. 

Beyond academic forms of writing and speaking, the house will offer workshops in which residents play with language to make and perform poems, songs, stories, plays, and perhaps full-scale dramatic productions.  A regular feature of life in the Writing House would be performances of writing by guests such as the Spoken Word Collective, the Robber Barons, Stegner Fellows, faculty from Creative Writing, and by the residents themselves.

Arts and Performing Arts
Kimball Hall is the Arts and Performing Arts Focus House. The house focuses on programs that explore topics related to how the fine and creative arts interact and relate in aspects of the performing arts. A Faculty Fellows program includes dinners, fireside chats, and desserts with affiliated faculty members interested in the creative and performing arts. Focus Assistants expand programming opportunities and plan field trips to art galleries, poetry readings, and opera, dance, musical, and theatrical performances.

Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
Murray is the focus house for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE) - concerned with the study of race and ethnicity in comparative perspective, nationally and internationally. Programs are developed with the guidance of CSRE faculty, to increase the understanding of issues of race and ethnicity among its residents through seminars, social events and discussions. Murray is geared towards increasing the general awareness of these issues within the broader Stanford community. Students work closely with the Resident Fellows to ensure a strong sense of community among all the residents in Murray. Murray House is a 3-class dorm with approximately 60 undergraduate students, and has a dining room, computer cluster and lounge. It is generally regarded as a nice place to live, even though it is off the beaten path.

First is the chance to bond with a major portion of an entire class just as an all-frosh house does. The staff intends to begin with a strong sophomore orientation which gets everyone in the house to meet and learn something about each other. Then, continuing through the year, the house will have programming intended to encourage social interaction, like camping trips, outings and dances. Toyon should be a place where all its residents can feel comfortable, relaxed, and totally at home.

The second opportunity is the chance to address concerns unique to the sophomore experience: choosing careers, declaring majors, and giving academics greater attention. The house will have more interaction with faculty on a regular basis and special advising programs.

Students should choose Toyon because they want to combine the social energy of their freshman year with the excitement of moving into the more serious adventures of the sophomore year. The Toyon staff wants their residents to find Toyon a wonderful place to catalyze their shared experience and creativity.

The Freshman/Sophomore College, housed in Adams and Schiff in Sterling Quadrangle, is a residence for 90 freshmen and 90 sophomores who are interested in broad intellectual exploration of the liberal arts and sciences. Entering students (freshmen) have the option of living for two years in the College. As the residential complement of Stanford Introductory Studies (SIS), the College connects residential life with the mentoring and academic activities offered through SIS courses. SIS courses include Introduction to the Humanities, Freshman and Sophomore Seminars, the Science Mathematics and Engineering Core, and Writing and Critical Thinking. For more information, read the Freshman/Sophomore Residential College page.

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Co-ops are alternative living/learning environments that provide an educational opportunity outside the classroom for Stanford students to develop as leaders and responsible citizens in a primarily student-managed community through the governance, cleaning, food operations, care, and community development of their living and learning environments.
The seven cooperative houses include:

• Chi Theta Chi
• Columbae
• Enchanted Broccoli Forest
• Hammarskjöld
• Kairos
• Synergy
• Terra

Please go to our Co-op web page for more information.

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* Indicates the residence offers a portion of their rooms to students interested in gender-neutral housing.

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