On April 3, Assistant Director of Residential Life Ashley Place announced to the student body via email that a new pilot program for residents in Rogers Estate would be implemented starting in the Fall 2018 semester. The program, which, according to Place, is currently seeking a “catchy name,” will provide students living in Rogers Estate with bonding activities and programming focused on improving both the mental and physical health of the residents.
This is not the first attempt to establish such a program. As Place acknowledged in her email to the community, the Residential Life Office advertised a similar pilot program for Rogers Estate last year. However, things fell through and the program was never put into effect. “We didn’t have a good plan in place and the idea was never fully developed,” Place explained in the email.
This time around, though, the Residential Life Office outlined their more concrete plans. They hope to reorganize the wellness program for the upcoming 2018–2019 academic year and have already accumulated a list of potential programming ideas in which future residents could take part.
Most of these programming ideas would take place inside the building and in the areas surrounding Rogers Estate. In her email, Place listed nine possible programming ideas: cooking lessons in the Rogers kitchen with a chef from Bon Appetit, weekly family dinners, mental health-related activities, Rogers Glen hiking, yoga, mindfulness activities, spirituality activities, snowshoeing, and rock climbing at the climbing wall with a one-time block for Rogers residents only. Rogers Estate is equipped with a full kitchen and residents are offered the seven meal plan, which allows them seven Hill Card swipes each week and can be used in any of Hamilton’s dining locations.
Although the wellness program will mark a significant change to the function of the residence hall, Place noted that the substance-free special housing designation of Rogers will remain in place. The Estate was originally the property of Philip V. Rogers ’30 but was sold to the College in 1994 after his passing, according to Hamilton’s Campus Building and Renovation Chronology archives. The Estate was made a housing option for students in the Fall of 1995, but was not initially a substance-free housing option. Rogers was made substance-free a few years ago.
Roger’s current Residential Advisor David Sills ’20 explained the reasoning and necessity behind this substance-free designation at the Student Assembly meeting on Oct. 30, 2017. Sills explained that the Residential Life office made Rogers substance-free after recognizing that parties at the estate were a hazard to the safety of those in attendance.
As Sills noted: “Rogers Estate is the closest thing to off-campus housing at Hamilton College. We are located approximately six tenths of a mile northeast of the Admissions Office, at the end of an access road adjacent to Eels House that was built to access the grounds when the College purchased the Estate in the mid-1990s.”
Rogers Estate is also used as a special events space for community members. Alumni, faculty, and staff members and their children can book Rogers as a wedding reception venue. Destructive partying at Rogers Estate could potentially damage the grounds and interior and rule Rogers out as an option for these special events.
The decision was also made, Sills added, “for purposes of preserving the integrity of the building.”
While Rogers will remain substance-free, this pilot program is a change for potential Rogers residents.
A separate lottery for Rogers was held on April 11 at noon in the Residential Life office; Place explained that “we have separated Rogers from the regular substance-free lottery in an effort to allow more time for participants to determine if they would be interested in being a part of this opportunity and to make sure that they don’t feel pushed into choosing it as a last resort.”
