In past years, the houses that have had to move out at Bennington have been the 1970s houses: Sawtell, Noyes, Fels, the Woo houses: Perkins, Paris Borden, Merck, and Bingham. This September, students in McCullough and Welling will also have to fully move out over the Field Work Term, however Bingham does not have to move out.
This change is due to an expansion of the Bennington MFA program. MFA students stay on campus during the Field Work Term (FWT). According to Student Life, the MFA program has 120 students who will live on Campus over FWT, including 19 graduating students. This is an increase of 19 students from last year, plus additional faculty and staff. Bennington’s writing MFA program has a faculty-student ratio of 1:1, so an increase in 19 students also means an increase of 19 faculty.
This news came in late September, a few weeks after the term had started, with house chairs getting an email about it on September 27th. According to one house chair of McCullough, this news was a surprise. Particularly in regards to the large international student population of the house, this decision was contested due to the inequitable nature of the situation.
“Why would you displace international students that need to figure a lot of things out,” asks the McCullough house chair. “It is not only long-distance traveling, but visas and work concerns that make the situation hard on many international students. It’s different for international students who have to live in this country for 90 days before you can get employment off campus; some people that can’t afford to travel back home are basically forced to stay in the United States.”
In disputing the decision based on the international student population of McCullough, the house chairs also expressed confusion about why Welling and McCullough were chosen over other houses.
“I was just like, why did you choose McCullough over, let’s say Leigh or Swan or Woolley? They’re all twins, all of these houses look exactly the same,” says the McCullough house chair.
According to our source, the administration responded that Third Street houses have international students who have always had to move out. However, the decision’s surprise made it feel unfair.
“It just feels like they’re not thinking about the decisions that they’re making[….]their website says one thing, and then in the middle of the term, while we have midterms coming up, they just share information that affects our lives and our future,” says the McCullough house chair.
Student Life’s response to the choice of specific houses was that the situation was based on capacity. Regarding houses that have historically also had to move out, they told the Lens that Third Street houses were originally chosen because of the number of beds in the houses.
“McCullough was chosen to be housing for MFA students and faculty because of the apartment and its two kitchens. Welling was chosen to house Bennington College students approved for FWT housing to give the Bingham housekeeper a break. Bingham has always been used for FWT student housing. Welling has a similar capacity and a similar number of kitchens.”
It is not only international students who may struggle with the surprise of having to move out at the end of the term. This change affects disabled students as well. An anonymous resident with mobility issues expressed that, while the move out was possible for them, it will be very difficult. They were also concerned about students with more severe mobility issues, as storage units that are placed in Ohio lot require trekking on foot over gravel, hauling all of one’s belongings.
“It’s gonna take a toll on me, but I can get through it,” says the resident.“[However it] feels really unfair to people who have more severe mobility issues, because [the storage units] are gonna be in the parking lot, and you have to go over gravel. There aren’t even carts. It’s not accessible.”
The resident was particularly disappointed by this seeing as Bennington College prides itself on accessibility, and many disabled students choose Bennington because of said accessibility. “You have to have stable housing to be able to get educated,” they said.
Another affected group of students are those in Orchard Housing, who are also required to move out this FWT. Orchard housing is new housing, so there is no record of moving out or not moving out, but according to a student living in Orchard, they were not informed that they would be required to move out over FWT before they moved in. The student we spoke to who presently lives in an Orchard house, told us that they may have made different choices about how they spread into their space if they had known that they would be required to move out. They also told us that it is difficult for their parents, who both work, to come to help them move out before FWT.
The miscommunication between housing and students has been a longstanding issue at Bennington. Students in the houses that now have to move out felt shocked by the decision and some may have sought other housing options had they known the situation ahead of time.
Student Life told us that the MFA program is continuing to grow, so it is likely that more houses may need to move out in the coming years. Fortunately, however, this is unlikely to affect FWT housing for undergraduates, which is already limited.
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