Fall 2001

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"REPROGRAMMING" BUTTERFIELD Big changes at the old dorm

by John Stifler '92G

QUIETER DAYS: the Butterfield dining room at mid-century. Photo courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library. BUTTERFIELD - THE SMALL UMASS DORM that was home to artists, musicians, vegetarians, draft counselors, and other independent spirits, the residence hall that boasted its own kitchen and dining room, the building with the uncommon camaraderie among its residents and the pirate flag on its roof — is no longer the same Butterfield. Last June — following what the university perceived as a pattern of disrespectful, sometimes violent, and ultimately highly dangerous behavior by an undetermined number of residents plus possibly some outsiders who frequented Butterfield — all former residents were notified that they would have to seek or be assigned other housing for the 2001-02 academic year. More decisions followed. The dorm's kitchen and dining commons would be closed, the spaces devoted to academic activities. The rooms would be assigned mostly to entering students, especially those enrolled in the campus’s Residential Academic Program and Commonwealth College honors program. Reactions were swift, emphatic, and diverse. [See "Letters in Print, Fall 2001" in the Exchange section for examples, and "All the Letters All the Time" for responses to this story.] Housing director Michael Gilbert received emails from students and parents expressing relief at the steps being taken, others accusing him of heavy-handedness and a failure to communicate. Student leaders expressed embarrassment at not having been consulted before the decision to disband and "reprogram" the dorm was made. Virtually everyone has agreed that recent episodes at Butterfield called for substantial changes. Open containers of alcohol in the hallways and graffiti on the walls — offenses reportable for disciplinary action under university rules — were among the milder problems. More conspicuous were overcrowded parties, allegedly including local high school students, that involved illegal drinking and excessive noise late at night. Residential advisors were harassed to their faces and by insults written on their doors. THE SITUATION WORSENED WHEN, IN March, Gilbert and vice chancellor for student affairs Javier Cevallos joined resident director John Yaun at a Butterfield House Council meeting to discuss new rules for the spring banquet. Held at the end of each semester to celebrate residents' accomplishments, the banquet was followed by a variety show, then by an after-hours party that in recent years had become increasingly unruly. When Gilbert announced tight restrictions on who could remain for the party, the reaction, as he put it in a Collegian interview, was "ballistic." In April, a student from another dorm pursued another old Butterfield tradition when he climbed onto the roof to snatch the dorm's flag. He fell, was hospitalized, and was still in a coma months later. (The episode prompted UMass Security this fall to place a surveillance camera aimed at the Butterfield roof atop adjacent Van Meter. Although the camera was not immediately activated, its presence gave some members of the community a big-brother-is-watching sensation.) The last straw dropped on May 25. Sometime between 1:30 a.m. and 4 a.m., someone tore partitions from the toilet stalls in a second-floor bathroom, ripped a sink and other fixtures from the walls, and sprayed graffiti throughout the room. According to one anonymous student, a couple of students also attempted to set fire to a sofa in a hallway. Residential advisors met with supervisors to try to figure out how such damage could have been carried out without being attracting the notice of those who should have reported it, but the conversation was frustratingly inconclusive. "Foolish students were setting up a situation in which someone was going to die," said Gilbert this fall. "Faced with such a threat to public safety, I saw no other choice." THIS SEPTEMBER BUTTERFIELD GREETED NEW students with a new face. Interior walls have been repainted. Solid doors have replaced those with frequently vandalized glass panes. The padlocked hatch to the roof has been replaced with one harder to tamper with. To most former residents, the most painful change is that the kitchen is closed. Chef Phil Cavanaugh, whose bulletin board used to be covered with fond notes from Butterfield alumni, was gone after 17 years of preparing family-style dinners that students have called one of the best things about their UMass experience. "That system was run by students," said Jen Lee '93, who lived in Van Meter but spent her junior and senior years on the Butterfield meal plan. "Instead of going to the dining commons sometime between 4 and 7 p.m., you had to sit down, family style, at 6. "Serving each other bread, you become very close-knit. When you left UMass, you left with 150 best friends." Student leaders agree. "That dining program was a hallmark of the university," says student senate speaker Aaron Saunders '02. Administrators say the space was simply needed for other important programs. Some add that closing the kitchen may help ensure that honors students are fully integrated with the campus. Students counter that since most of their classes are general-enrollment, they’re integrated already. More broadly, some former residents feel strongly that administrators could have done more to encourage them to talk about problems that erupted in rowdiness and vandalism. Jamie Fessenden '02 says he and his dormmates might have behaved better in their meeting with Gilbert if they had had more time to prepare themselves. "This bomb gets dropped on us unexpectedly," says Fessenden. "Of course we aren't going to be the most respectful people. There was no time for a thought-out response." Student leaders, similarly, argue that while the final call was Gilbert's, they ought to have had more opportunity to discuss the closure and reassignment. Gilbert, for his part, believes he gave students adequate notice that the university. THE NEW CROP OF STUDENTS in Butterfield generally seem as delighted to be there as were their predecessors. (They also tend to agree with them on some points: "They should bring back the dining program," says Joe Calvo, freshman from Connecticut.) Katie Tylus, a freshman from Lawrence now living in Butterfield, says she gets a range of reactions to her housing assignment. "If I say which dorm I'm in, someone will say, 'Oh, you live there!’" " says Tylus. " I'll say, 'It's different now,' and they'll just say, 'Whatever.' But Tylus adds that "Other people will say, 'Oh, this place looks fantastic now!'" She herself thinks Butterfield still still holds magic: "There was a lot of dorm unity here before this year, and I think we're still feeling it," says Tylus. "I love it here." Among alumni, too, the events and changes at Butterfield prompt a range of reactions, including sadness, anger, and resentment on the part of some who see their old dorm all cleaned up — and closed to them. For Charlie O'Dowd, who served in Vietnam before enrolling at UMass and living in Butterfield from 1969 to 1973, the loss of traditions he remembers is tempered by personal satisfaction with the present situation. His daughter, an entering student at UMass, is enrolled in the Residential Academics Program, and lives in Butterfield.

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