Swig RLCs join to form 'Cyphi'

By Bobby Philbrook

Beginning next fall, residents in Swig Hall will boldly go where no undergraduate has gone before as the Delphi and Cypress residential learning communities merge into a single entity tentatively called "Cyphi."

Currently, the two communities share the building. According to Phil Kesten, associate provost for the RLC program, the idea to unite Swig has floated around for a while. Earlier proposals suggested alternating Cypress and Delphi on every other floor or dividing the building into right and left halves. In the end, the decision was made to cease separating Swig at all.

Current Swig residents first learned about Cyphi on Feb. 12 at the meeting to discuss the new security measures being implemented. Cypress Faculty Director John Farnsworth announced the RLC along with its catch phrase, "Sustainability and the arts: Making the world a better place," to the rest of the students in an e-mail.

Although the themes seem unrelated, Kesten cites Da Vinci, with its dual themes of science and Italian heritage, as precedence for having diverging interests within a single community.

"At some level, defining community more broadly is more appealing," said Kesten. "We want communities that people want to be in. By providing enough of a mix, people can find what they want and become more involved."

According to Kesten, Farnsworth said the merger alleviates some administrative awkwardness by uniting Swig under a single staff. Currently, Dave Machado serves as the resident director of both Cypress and Delphi. Next year, instead of only having "half an RD" to work with, Farnsworth said the merger allows everyone on staff to focus on a single entity.

"Part of this is a solution to difficulties. Some stuff just didn't make sense. Take CF training, for example," said Farnsworth, professor of English and environmental science. "We split the group into two and train them separately, but we share a single building and lots of resources."

Farnsworth said that Cyphi will benefit students by offering innovative new programs and ways to get involved. Floor eight in particular will become something of a community within the community that the professor hopes will attract upperclassmen interested in sustainability.

"We've nicknamed it the 'Think Tank' right now. People that live on that floor will conduct undergraduate research for credit. We're looking for thirty or so individuals right now," said Farnsworth, adding that every other floor will have their own elected community council and budget to spend on activities.

To accommodate the renewed emphasis on community activities, Farnsworth hopes several rooms will be knocked out to accommodate a lounge on every floor.

Although the only formal discussion about Cyphi with students so far took place during the beginning of the new security measures meeting, which Machado admits was dominated by the discussion of new security policies, there will be further opportunities for student input, Machado said.

The new RLC not only shares its name with a popular genre of nerd fiction, but also with two letters in the Greek alphabet. Kesten said they considered making Greek letters part of the logo, but "at the end of the day there were potential implications we wanted to avoid."

Freshman Josh Fedder said he believed that the new RLC would not greatly change Swig.

"Swig is not going to lose its appeal even if it is called Cyphi. That's kind of nerdy, but everyone will still know it's the party dorm," said Fedder.

Farnsworth agreed that the reality is community can only be created to an extent.

"The two-community situation was kind of artificial," said Farnsworth. "The fact is, we all live in Swig."

Contact Bobby Philbrook at (408) 554-4546 or rphilbrook@scu.edu.