Delta House Faces Possible Disbandment

8 Replies
Delta House (formerly ADP)

Delta House (formerly ADP)

Update 3/7/13:
Delta President Luke Battle ’14 says ADP is “biggest place to party on campus” and calls the $1,500 dorm damage limit “unattainable” (apparently breaking shit is part of the culture) in Campus feature.

Update 3/6/13: Middblog posted on the recommendation to disband Delta today. According to them, Delta had over $10,000 in damages last year.

Update: Still haven’t heard from Delta but we heard their petition has over 200 signatures.

The Residential Life Committee (a newly created branch of the Community Council) has recommended that Delta House (formerly ADP) be disbanded for not respecting warnings from last year’s Community Council about damage costs and other issues. The Community Council will review the Committee’s full recommendation and decide whether or not to shut down the popular “athlete” social house on Tuesday, March 12.

Members of ADP are apparently putting together a petition to save their house, but things aren’t looking great.

The Community Council could have shut down the house last year after it surpassed its damage cost limit. But instead the Council gave them a warning and a maximum damage cost limit for this year of $1500. By February 25, Delta had already amassed $1800 worth of damage.

Delta was also warned about not registering parties last year, which they have continually failed to do this year as well (have you noticed how you never really hear about ADP events?). This is a matter of both failing to uphold their role as an open space for social life for the whole community and also liability problems for the school under Vermont State Law (yeah it’s a pain in the ass, but at least register a party or two a semester, or have a coffee hour or something!).

According to Barrett Smith ’13, Community Council Student Co-Chair, Delta also has other infractions on its record, including incomplete hazing training. But he is not sure of the full extent of the case against Delta because the Residential Life Committee will not release its full report to the rest of the Council until later this week.

If they are shut down, they can petition Ron, which they did after they were disbanded in 2006 for similar issues (largely occurring at an ugly party that allegedly included sexual assault). They were eventually successful and revived under the new name of Delta House during the 2008-9 school year.

middbeat will update this post as we get new information about the status of Delta (we are waiting to hear back from Delta with their perspective).

What are your reactions? Should Delta be shut down? What will the repercussions be for Midd’s social life? Palmer used to be a social house–if disbanded, will it just turn into an unofficial party space like Palmer basically did?

  • le loup

    It’s another step in the school’s move to discourage or deny any groups of friends from living together who are likely to throw parties on the weekends. They tried to end Palmer house as a superblock two years ago (but a student of ours worked hard to keep it as is), there’s this, Jewett is going to be another substance free house, etc. etc. This is a bummer for social life at school – if friends can’t chose to live together, less gatherings will happen.

    That being said, in my experience here football players have been the cause of probably 75% of all dorm damage in halls I’ve lived in (this is speaking from witnessing, not rumors). It’s about time they grow up and keep the testosterone rages on the field, like most of our other sports teams. ADP, basically a football house, seems to be in need of a wake up call concerning how they treat the property at this campus, the facilities workers who deal with them, and the rest of the students here. I’m talking about respect.

    Do I hope ADP gets the boot as a football crib? No. Do I hope those kids grow up and learn from this? Yes.

    I have my doubts.

  • grass-fed cow

    They have the nicest backyard spot and barely use it. ADP should become the new house for the M.E.A.T. club. (middlebury eating animals together). Now theres an idea!

    • meepmeep

      This is actually a great idea. Those guys are really chill, not your typical collection of bros.

  • ’85

    get a rich alum on their side! its worked before in other places…

    • le loup

      just going off of names here, ’85, you’re probably the richest alum in the conversation.

  • Beneep

    Interesting that the only house in ridgeline that really belongs to a group of students (Brooker, the mountain club) also happens to be the one that public safety referred to at the beginning of the year as the “model” for what parties should be like. Let’s have some responsibility for our shared spaces and some respect for the other people in them.
    I think that superblocks could be actually a motivating factor in maintaining a space; you’ll be less likely to damage a dorm if it’s yours, and you respect the house and the other people living there, rather than an institutional dorm you’re at for a semester, surrounded by strangers.

    The football bros are not the issue here, dude. We are talking about drawing a line in the sand.

  • S.

    To take one counterexample, like you say, Palmer is not an official social house and as such it does not share these issues. Palmer’s inhabitants change with every year, but there is not necessarily continuity between these year groups of inhabitants. Whereas this social organization, Delta, has had repeated issues and apparently did in its earlier incarnation as ADP. It seems fairly clear that there is a correlation between the group and the infractions. If the organization is disbanded, it’s likely that the building itself will continue to serve as a site for more partying, no matter who lives there. Scrapping Delta as an organization will give more people the chance to live in the house and potentially reduce the issues we have seen with Delta without having much effect on the number or scale of parties at Midd on a given night.

    Social houses should have some kind of presence in Middlebury’s community — if they existed ONLY to throw parties, they would be no different from many other spaces on campus beyond their official status as organizations and the budgets that come with that status. All four of the other social houses have distinct identities and manifest their existence in other ways besides the occasional rager. But Delta? I have been here 3 years and never met a member. Granted, it’s not really my scene. But neither are Tavern, Xenia, Mill, or KDR, and I know multiple members of all of those social houses. Any house or superblock can supply us with social gatherings and parties; what makes Delta different and deserving of social house status? I don’t think they are fulfilling their responsibilities as a social organization if Palmer can do everything they’re doing without that status. If the organization is disbanded, parties will continue to be thrown in that very house — so, will anyone besides the members of Delta be sad to see the group go?

    I say get rid of the organization. The members will find a way to deal, and they’ve had their chances. The house will continue to host many social gatherings, most of them probably dark, loud, and soaked in Keystone Light. It will bring variety to the campus each year, and for those who love continuity and tradition, there are four other social houses whose members and leaders have proven they can handle the responsibility. I’m not sure I really understand what the defense for Delta is….

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