Under typical circumstances, anytime a group of college students live together, it’s a scene out of Animal House. But these are not typical circumstances. The SMU students living in East Garrett Park aren’t rowdy partiers, but rather devoting their time away from school to inter-city children of Dallas. They are the volunteers of I.C.E. House.

The Center for Inter-Community Experience was rededicated during a ceremony Saturday in which SMU celebrated their new ownership of the community service oriented house. Habitat For Humanity has owned the house since they built it in 1994. The purpose of the house is to provide mentors and tutors for young children that live in the community. Not only do they tutor these children, they build relationships with them.

Everyone in the neighborhood was invited to the ceremony, as well as faculty and students from SMU. They served food, raffled away prizes for the children, and even Peruna made a special appearance. The event was called “A Rededication to the Community: Building Bridges for a Better Tomorrow.”

After numerous speakers, including the four members of the house: Delta Keoninh, Dawn Schwemm, Jeromia Stinson, and Jimmy Tran. Robert Munoz, the principle of Robert E. Lee Elementary spoke about how proud he was that SMU has not given up on his school. Munoz also expressed that he would like to help expand the house library and donate some books.

House senior resident Dawn Schwemm said that sometimes they have five kids trying to read from the same book.

Jim Caswell, dean of Student Life, also spoke and said he was going to see about building a new fence for the back of the house.

The event was summed up by a ribbon cutting ceremony that took place around the front yard. Everyone there gathered in a large circle, each holding pieces of the ribbon.

Director of the I.C.E. Center Bruce Levy teaches I.C.E. Courses throughout the school year. Students can get involved by either taking one of the I.C.E. Courses, which counts as a Cultural Formations credit, apply for

a work-study job, which includes working approximately 10 hours per week at

one of the tutoring sites in Dallas, or they can live in the I.C.E. House in

East Garrett Park. Levy says that he believes in what the organization does.

“It’s nice to be motivated by students. It’s a treat to see students do things like this. It changes the way we think about students,” Levy said.

Levy’s interest in the I.C.E. program comes from “a desire to combine academic life with the larger social and political life of our community.”

Cyndy Lutz, who helped build the house, said that SMU was the intended owner.

“It just took a while to get through the paperwork,” she said.

Lutz says it is more meaningful for SMU to own it than Habitat For Humanity.

Since the transformation of owners, the school has put in new carpet, painted parts of the house, replaced the tile and has fixed odds and ends. A maintenance crew also comes to fix any problems that they might have around the house.

The children come to the I.C.E. House Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 3:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. Not only do they work on homework, but they often enjoy snacks. Sometimes the I.C.E. members take them to SMU sporting events.

“We want to take the kids to Six Flags soon, but normally we try to take them to SMU events to get their mind on college,” Schwemm said.