Due to low interest in Duels and Games (DAG) House, for the 2026-27 academic year, Residence Life (ResLife) announced in an all campus email on April 16 that 1019 Park Street will become a hybrid house between DAG members and interested non-affiliated students.
Jasper Butler-Kurth `28, current DAG House resident, was made aware of an email sent by Micho Adler, assistant director of Intercultural Affairs and LGBTQIA+ student specialist, to incoming Lavender Hall residents on March 11.
Adler wrote, “I am reaching out today because you have either accepted or have an offer to live in Lavender Hall for the 2026-27 academic year. In order to align RAHE (Residential Affinity Housing Experiences), we are excited to share the opportunity to grow into Lavender House located at 1019 Park Street, which is currently DAG House.”
Butler-Kurth then scheduled a meeting with Paul Frost-Lau, associate director of housing operations, to discuss the change.
Butler-Kurth said that it seemed like the plan was that ResLife was going to make the space a hybrid between DAG House and Lavender House, but there wasn’t sufficient interest in either house to go through with that plan.
“A lot of people just don’t want to live in houses right now because of the lack of house coordinators. It also seems unclear about how people are supposed to apply,” Butler-Kurth said.
He said things have been stressful recently with project houses because of the transition period to less housing coordinators.
“Every year we are looking at a different application process,” he said. “A different role of the house coordinator. It’s going to be really hard to have any program survive this transition period.”
“The information that we received is, based on the application timeline and what they had applied for being Lavender Hall in Younker, there wasn’t a lot of interest to pivot,” said Frost-Lau.
In response to feedback, he said ResLife pulled back from creating Lavender House for the 2026-27 academic year, knowing that DAG House will transition in the 2027-28 academic year if interest levels stay the same.
“We will really be working with campus partners and students to identify what that is and just go from there,” Frost-Lau said.
Frost-Lau said the empty space in DAG House will be taken by three students that indicated interest in Lavender House after Adler’s email and three students that expressed interest in the house after talking with those students.
“Since we had received the feedback that Lavender House wasn’t necessarily an interest at this time, we are really making sure that we are utilizing our residential spaces,” he said.
“Going forward, I think we can get on our feet this year again,” Butler-Kurth said. “Maybe if we build some momentum and have the system stabilize a little.”
