SPEC 2011-12. Left to right: Brian Spatocco (Chair of the Halls), George Tucker (VP of Information), George Lan (President), Ahmed Helal (VP of Residential Life) and Holly Johnsen (VP of Resources)

The Sidney-Pacific Executive Council (SPEC) and the House Council would like to warmly welcome all of our new residents. You’re joining an amazingly diverse, active graduate community of almost 700 students. In order to serve and unite a community this large, SP has a wide variety of traditions and institutions, some of which we’d like to introduce here:

Hall Councilors and Hall Dinners: Sidney-Pacific is divided into 13 halls, and hall councilors are like your friendly neighborhood Spiderman. If you have any questions, concerns, or issues, they’re a great first resource to turn to. Plus, they organize monthly dinners and outings – basically, excuses for everyone in your hall to come together, hang out, and enjoy some free food. During orientation, each hall will be holding a mandatory hall meeting for all of its new residents to go over housing policies, roommate agreements, etc. Afterward, both new and returning residents are invited to the first hall dinners of the new academic year – please talk to your hall councilor for more details.

Sidney-Pacific Orientation: The next few weeks of Orientation are very exciting, and there are many can’t-miss events:

• First, SP traditionally kicks off its orientation with Open Doors Night, an event where 30-40 residents, both old and new, host small room parties for an evening. It’s a great chance to break the ice, meet your new neighbors, and maybe even show off some of your culinary skills. We’re currently recruiting hosts. Contact your Hall Councilor for more information!
• Then, we have our three staple large events – the Glow in the Dark Dance Party, the Orientation Brunch, and the Rock ‘n Roast BBQ. These are open to the entire graduate community and usually attract crowds of up to 400-600 people. SP is generally known around campus for its large social events (we have 2-3 every semester, in addition to orientation), so keep your eyes open for announcements during the semester. Some of the great events we held just this past year include: the Wine & Chocolate Party, a Halloween masquerade, an Iron Chef competition, Dumplings of the World night, and an Asian Street Food festival.
• In addition to our large events, SP organizes a number of smaller events, such as trips to the Museum of Fine Arts and the Aquarium, an “arts crawl” through Downtown Boston, and sailing on the Charles. All of these great events are organized by members of the Sidney-Pacific House Council. For the full list of events, please check out the orientation calendar in this newsletter, the official SP orientation guide, or our online Google calendar (http://bit.ly/sp-mit-calendar).

SP residents enjoying the monthly brunch on a Sunday. (Courtesy of SP Photofile Committee)

Monthly Brunch: Every month, Sidney-Pacific and Ashdown each provide a free Sunday brunch (12:00 – 1:00 PM, MP Room on the 1^st floor) that’s open to the entire MIT community. From scrambled eggs to chocolate-chip banana pancakes, and from roasted potatoes to fresh seasonal fruits, our brunches are not to be missed. Just don’t forget to bring your own silverware – we’re all about sustainability here! We have an enthusiastic, committed team of residents who volunteer every month to cook brunch mostly from scratch for over 300 people. As always, volunteers get to skip the lines and eat first. If you’d like to help out behind the scenes, come down to the MP Kitchen anytime between 8 AM – 12 PM.

Weekly Coffee Hour: Every Wednesday night (9:00 PM – 10:00 PM), SP residents are invited to the MP room for free fresh fruits, snacks, and of course, coffee – there’s tea and other drinks, too. Occasionally, we’ll have specialty menu items (such as a seasonal soup) or additional programs (such as a bike auction or a hobby fair). Once a month, we partner with a student group for a larger, culturally-themed coffee hour; last year, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo (Mexico), Holi (India), Chinese New Year (China), Chuseok (Korea) and many other holidays with those respective cultures’ special cuisines.

Sidney-Pacific Inter-Cultural Exchange (SPICE): Even though SP residents represent more than 40 different nationalities, we believe that merely assembling a “diverse” group of people is not enough. The benefits of diversity come from actively sharing and learning about each other’s different cultures, beliefs, and worldviews. SPICE is a dinner discussion program that facilitates this cultural exchange. At the beginning of the year, residents who sign up for SPICE are assigned to groups of 10-12 people. Over the course of the year, these groups meet about every other week for a subsidized dinner; at each dinner, members of the group discuss a particular topic, such as “How does your family celebrate various holidays, such as the New Year?”or “What do you and your family consider to be taboos?”

Housemaster Dinners: We’re very fortunate to have Professor Roger and Dottie Mark, and Professor Annette Kim and Dr. Roland Tang as Housemasters to support our residential programming and development. New residents will have the chance to meet them, along with our adorable “Housemasters-in-Training” Joshua and Samuel, during our Housemaster Welcome Dinners in the middle of September. Please check your e-mail for your personal invitation. In addition, over the course of the year, residents will receive special invitations to other Housemaster gatherings, such as the Thanksgiving and Holiday dinners, dinners with professors, and so forth.

SP Interest Groups: Are you interested in hiking the nearby Middlesex Fells trails? Do you often play Settlers of Catan and other board games late into the night? Would you be interested in going on a “progressive dining” tour of the Asian restaurants in Brighton/Allston? Over the past year, SP residents have organized these and many other great activities through SP Interest Groups. Basically, these are open, opt-in mailing lists that residents sign up for to connect with other residents of similar interests. In addition, if you can get a group of SP residents together for an activity, you can receive funding – that’s right, SP will partially subsidize that restaurant or concert trip. Go to https://s-p.mit.edu/myacct/interest_groups.php to learn more.

Volunteering at SP: All of the programs and resources run by the House Council would not be possible without the help of resident volunteers like you. Come on out, get involved, and meet other SP residents. There are many ways to get involved, from grilling at the barbeque to spearheading environmental initiatives, or even writing for this newsletter. No experience is required! You can find out about ways to get involved by signing up for the Volunteer mailing list in your “My Account” settings here: https://s-p.mit.edu/myacct/resident_edit_entry.php

Our vision for this year is: “Sidney-Pacific: Make It Yours!” All of the aforementioned institutions are ways that past and current residents have taken ownership over their community – making SP their home. We hope you’ll make SP yours as well by joining us in some of these traditions. More importantly, we look forward to creating some new traditions – if you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas, please contact us at spec@mit.edu. Enjoy orientation, and we look forward to meeting you!

By SPEC

Roger and Dottie Mark, Sidney-Pacific Housemasters (Courtesy of SP Photofile Committee)

We are honored to be your housemasters, and we extend our enthusiastic greetings to all residents of Sidney-Pacific, especially to those of you who are joining us this year! We want very much to help build our community into a safe, supportive home where we can grow intellectually and socially. We strongly support the theme for this year – “Sidney-Pacific: Make it yours!” We wish that each resident would build connections with others through small group activities and the development of new friendships. Don’t be a passive resident here – jump into the active life of SP!

Housemasters are faculty mem­bers who live in community with students in MIT dorms. We are ap­pointed by the President of MIT and report to the Dean of Student Life. Our goal is to facilitate the building of community within the living group, to represent and advocate for the needs and desires of students to the administration, and to communicate the policies of the administration to the students.

It is our great pleasure to support and advise the officers of the SP student government, but they take full responsibility for poli­cies, strategies, and programming in the dorm. The officers are a dedicated and talented team, but they are not a “closed” group. We strongly encourage everyone to get to know them, and join in to help!

SP is an unusually diverse and in­ternational community, with representatives from more than 45 different countries this term!  As residents here, we have an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn from each other during our time together! We are particularly excited about the SPICE (Sid­ney-Pacific Intercultural Exchange) program! We hope you will get involved in this unique opportunity to build intercultural bridges!  There are other ways to connect as well: check out the interest groups, and take the initiative to propose an activity – subsidized by the house budget! And jump in with your colleagues in helping behind the scenes with the launching of programs. There is no better way to make friends than to work together. Join the SP-Helper email list to be informed of opportunities to volunteer!

As housemasters we are eager to meet each of you, and to be available to you both professionally and per­sonally. We will certainly try to be visible at coffee hours, social affairs, and will host a number of house­master dinners in our apartment. It is our hope that each resident will attend at least one such dinner dur­ing the year. Do not feel you need to wait for an invitation, just come by any time you want!

Housemasters, as experienced MIT faculty mem­bers, are always available to residents for advice or counseling on academic and/or per­sonal issues, and we are particularly pleased when individual students contact us for private discussions. Graduate school can be exciting and fulfilling, but there are also times of high stress, loneliness, disappoint­ment and uncertainty. Sharing a cup of tea to talk over anything would be our pleasure – knock on the door (#568) or email (rgmark@mit.edu or dotmark@mit.edu)!

By Roger and Dottie Mark, Sidney-Pacific Housemasters