UChicago Housing has announced the names of the eight houses to be situated in Campus North Residential Commons, opening this fall.
Students moving to North in the fall have received their house names and the locations of their new houses, University spokesperson Marielle Sainvilus said in an e-mail.
According to students moving to North, Tufts House, Henderson House, and Midway House will have their names retired and most of their members will be absorbed into Thangaraj House, Rogers House, and Trott House, respectively. Students from the old Palmer House, Talbot House, and Wick House will be reassigned to Dougan-Niklason House, Boyer House, and Yuen House, respectively. Students from Maclean House and Blackstone House will join Strongin House and Behar House.
Immanuel Thangaraj, A.B. ’92, M.B.A. ’93, is a member of the College’s Visiting Committee and co-chair of the Council on Chicago Booth. John W. Rogers, Jr., LAB ’76, is a University Trustee who named the house for his parents, both graduates of the Law School. Trustee Byron D. Trott, A.B. ’81, founded the Metcalf Internship Program. Trustee Brady W. Dougan, A.B. ’81, M.B.A. ’82, and Laura E. Niklason, Ph.D. ’88, have donated to the Metcalf Internship and New Leaders Odyssey Scholars programs. Trustee Francis Yuen, A.B. ’75, and his wife Rose have supported scholarships and fellowships for graduate and international students, along with the University’s centers abroad. Steven H. Strongin, A.B. ’79, A.M. ’82, and Alexis Strongin, A.B. ’80, S.M. ’82, M.D. ’84, are members of the College Visiting Committee and created the Strongin Family Fund for Students with Financial Need. Robert A. Behar, LAB ’81, A.B. ’83, M.D. ’87, M.B.A. ’11, is the chairman and CEO of North Cypress Medical Center.
Fifty members of the College’s Visiting Committee donated to the Metcalf Internship and Odyssey Scholarship programs in honor of Dean of the College John Boyer and his wife Barbara, earning one house the name Boyer.
The name of Behar House was first announced by Behar in an interview in the fall issue of the University of Chicago Magazine.
Second-year Margaret Oley, the president of Talbot House, was excited to learn that her new house’s name would be Boyer. “We’re all super hype about it actually,” she said. “We really feel like we got the best one.”
Students in other houses wanted to keep their original name. “We definitely wanted to keep our name!” said second-year Harper Graf, Maclean’s Special College Housing Advisory Committee representative. “Norman Maclean was an incredible professor here at UC. We were happy to have honored his legacy for so long as Maclean House.” Graf noted, however, that she’s mostly heard positive things about the new name.
The dorms that were home to the eight houses whose students are moving into Campus North will be closing at the end of this school year.
When the dorm closures were first announced last spring, some students from these dorms formed a group called “Save Our Satellites” to challenge the move. The coalition also requested that the University not retire the houses’ names in order to preserve house culture. Though its members organized some protests, the coalition was unable to stop most of the names from being retired.
New Graduate Residence Hall will become the Keller Center, home of the Harris School of Public Policy. Broadview, Blackstone, and Maclean will be sold to Hyde Park Places, and will become apartments in the fall.
Breckinridge House, from Breckinridge Hall, was originally set to move into Campus North as well. However, the house will instead be moved into International House in the fall, replacing graduate housing. The University is keeping the building for an undisclosed purpose, and the house will keep its name after its move.
