A group of student-run councils created by the Office of Residential Life aims to give students more say over their dorm buildings.
The four new Residential Hall Councils will help organize community events for their respective dorms. The RHCs will hold monthly meetings to plan, and the members of the RHCs will hold meetings open to the public every other month.
Susan Vieira, ResLife’s assistant director for upper division communities, wrote in an email to The Herald that she hopes to empower “student voices to advocate for an improved residential experience” and to “increase opportunities for community engagement and sense of belonging and the creation of residential traditions.”
Madi Goeke ’27 is the President of Residence Hall Council 4, which oversees upper-division housing and Greek, program and theme houses. Goeke said she chose to run because she “had several ideas for improvements within the dorm, but had very few places to voice those ideas.”
Goeke’s main priorities include making paper towels available in all residential bathrooms, ensuring that there is filtered water in all dorms and building a sense of community within Brown’s residential halls.
Once she decided to run, she sent in a flier that was publicized to the Brown student body and provided an explanation as to why she wanted to be on the Council. After voting closed, Goeke received an email that she was chosen as president.
Lauren Lee ’28 is the president of Residence Hall Council 2, which oversees Emery, Wooley, Champlin, Morriss and New Pembroke halls. Lee said she ran because she “wanted to be able to contribute to the overall positive environment and ensure that the dorms are an inclusive living space for my freshman year.”
“I come from a really rural town, and so I really wanted to ensure that Brown, for the next four years, would be our home away from home, especially because it’s a different environment from where a lot of us are from,” Lee said. “The best way for me to do that was to be a part of the Residence Hall Council to ensure that everyone would be able to have a great year at Brown.”
Eden Ben-Shoshan ’28 is the Advocacy Director for Residence Hall Council 2. Her role is to report any ongoing issues in the residence halls and receive feedback from students in those buildings.
Ben-Shoshan’s first priorities in her new position include getting printers for more first-year dorms and fixing ongoing laundry machine issues. “Most of our dryers and washers are broken,” Ben-Shoshan said, adding that laundry is becoming a “battle.”
Ben-Shoshan decided to run for the Council because “it was super important to be able to have someone to advocate for the different residence halls and people on the floor.”
“I thought it would be a good idea to have someone that could make a living space more comfortable for people and the transition from home to college more smooth,” Ben-Shoshan said.
Leah Koritz is a senior staff writer covering student government beat. Leah is from Dover, Massachusetts and studies Public Health and Judaic Studies. In her free time, Leah enjoys hiking, watching the Red Sox and playing with her dog, Boba.
