The Daniel House is a SMU apartment building that houses mostly transfer students and a few upperclassmen but most people are unaware that these apartments even exist on campus.
The Daniel House is only two years old and is located far from the dorms on the other side of campus. These apartments are supposed to help new students find where they fit in at SMU but residents feel it is hard to get involved due to the Daniel House location.
While most of the other dorms are located on the southern side of campus near the boulevard, residents of the Daniel House live on the very northern side far from the other dorms. One former resident Maria Renna who transferred from Pitzer in California said, “The Daniel House is totally unknown to the rest of the campus.”
Apartment Coordinator Christine Feit said in an e-mail interview that there is “a combination of factors” why the Daniel House is not well-known around campus. “First, I think lack of knowledge could be attributed to the group it is marketed to,” said Feit. She explained that the Daniel House is not offered to freshmen because it is primarily for transfer students. If there is extra room, the space is occupied by an upperclassman.
Furthermore, “the Daniel House, as it is known, is only in the second year of existence,” said Feit. Another problem she said is the apartments are “located on the north end of campus” which is “not really close to what the average student would pass on a regular basis.”
Because these transfer students are secluded on the other side of campus, it is hard for them to get involved with SMU life. One resident of the Daniel House Kelly Castro who transferred from Loyola Marymount University commented, “It’s like we are all in the same boat; the blind leading the blind.” Castro said residents meet other students in class but because of the Daniel House location residents do not meet other students just by hanging out on campus.
However, residents said there were many advantages living in the Daniel House. “For me it was the best arrangement on campus. I had the freedoms of having an apartment and I enjoyed living in student housing,” said Renna.
In an effort to make residents feel more involved on campus, both Castro and Renna agreed the Daniel House should have more activities with the other dorms and apartments on campus. Renna said the Daniel House should be involved with the Multicultural House that is right next door and the other apartments close by. She also suggested “movie nights, bowling and barbeques” as ideas to get on-campus residents to know each other.
Castro added, “It would be nice to have the options of going to events to meet other residents on campus because it would be a lot easier for new students to meet other people outside of the classroom environment.”
Much like a resident assistant for a dorm, the apartment community assistant (ACA) encourages residents to get involved in campus life. “We keep them informed with flyers and encourage them to participate in the Week of Welcome activities as well as other SMU traditions,” said Feit.
Students living in the Daniel House are informed by their ACA in resident meetings how to join clubs or organizations in order to get involved on campus. “Our goal is to help the transfer students become connected to campus by providing staff who have all of the resources to help students find their place at SMU at whatever level they would want that to be,” said Feit.
