It means different things to different people. Some simply view it as the mother of all front yards. Others believe it to be the ultimate symbol of achievement. Regardless of what one interprets the role of the Lawn to be, those who question its significance are few and far between.
Students have come to instinctually associate the Lawn with the University. Most students walk by it every morning on their way to Cabell Hall and many throw Frisbees over its perfectly manicured grass. Yet, when the sun goes down on each crisp fall day, the majority of students have to catch the blue or orange lines back to their humble abodes. Only 54 students are lucky enough to call the Lawn home. The rest of the student body walks by their rooms, some wondering how they got there.
The Lawn resident selection process begins with the organizing committee.
The organizing committee's job is to set the selection criteria and establish the process each year, said Patricia Lampkin, interim vice president for student affairs.
The organizing committee has been in charge of Lawn selection since the '60s.
Before that, the Housing Division selected Lawn residents. In the '60s, Housing Division Director Chester Titus, who worked at the University from 1958 to 1987, decided to make the selection process student-run.
He helped create the organizing committee to make sure the selection committee, the group that actually chooses who lives on the Lawn was representative of the student body.
"We knew it was fair, because it was student-run," Titus said.
Dean of Students Penny Rue now oversees the organizing committee, which is composed of students, along with two administrators from the Housing Division and Newcomb Hall. Every year, the student presidents of all the University's undergraduate schools, the president of Student Council, the Honor Committee chairman, the Judiciary Committee chairman, and the head Lawn resident serve on the organizing committee. These students also automatically get to be on the Lawn selection committee if they are degree candidates.
The candidates for the Lawn selections committee are only judged on one thing - a single essay question asking applicants why they want to be on the selections committee. According to Rue, the 26 candidates selected "tend to be people that write really interesting things." Although the process is not anonymous and members of the organizing committee may know some of the applicants for the selections committee, Rue does not believe this is a problem.
"This is not that big a deal," she said. "The stakes are not the same as they would be for the actual selection of Lawn residents."
However, there are students like fourth-year College student J.B. Cantey, who questions the purpose of not making the selection committee applications anonymous. Cantey applied to live on the Lawn last year but was not selected.
"With the names on the application, that would leave the process open to bias," Cantey said.
The actual selection committee is composed of 35 fourth or fifth years, including all of the graduating student members of the organizing committee, whose positions in student government guarantee them a spot on the selection committee. All applications to live on the Lawn are read anonymously by each of the members of the committee, and no dialogue is allowed between members about particular applications, according to Lawn head resident Trish Morrow. Each member votes for 47 people, and the 47 applicants with the most overall votes gain an offer for a Lawn room. Of the remaining seven rooms, one is for the head resident, and six are endowed or appointed.
This system of individual votes for applicants without group discussion has been in place since the current Lawn selection process was created, Titus said.
According to Morrow, there is no particular standard to judging a Lawn application.
"Different readers look for different things," she said. "Some people will put more of an emphasis on one thing over the other."
Some students have found this aspect of the selection process disconcerting. Although the process is anonymous, some worry that committee members could favor applicants who have participated in certain organizations, which could threaten the overall diversity of the Lawn.
"The consensus with a lot of the fourth years I know is that the people who live on the Lawn now tend to have a lot of control in deciding who lives there next year," Cantey said. "Dynasties tend to form."
In response to this scenario, Rue stated, "I don't doubt that there are members of the selection committee who favor certain people; however, there are 35 members and it is a numerical process. ... I think it is fundamentally fair."
Morrow said she believes that the student body itself is capable of safeguarding against the selection of a homogeneous Lawn class.
"The more people that apply, the larger the applicant pool, the more likely that the University community as a whole will be represented and the purpose of the Lawn program will be fulfilled," she said.
But for many students, living in a Lawn room seems impossible.
"I would love to live on the Lawn," said second-year College student Sarah Bjork. "To tell you the truth, I haven't started up a club. It seems that in order to live on the Lawn, you have to be the head of everything. I would never get on because I haven't done that stuff. It seems that if you know the right people you can get in."
Bjork's comments echo the concern that an intimidation factor may exist with the process.
"I think that there is this misconception that you have to have a 4.0 GPA to apply. This is something that is deterring people," said fourth-year Lawn resident Maggie Kuhn, who is active in the University's club sports program.
When asked about possible improvements to the system, Kuhn commented, "I would have liked to have known every step that [the selection committee] went through. The more secretive processes are, it seems that the more elite they become. Things that are secretive tend to be very intimidating."
Kuhn said she believes that no application process is perfect. "Sure I see problems with it. But every application process is like that. The only way to ensure a more fair process would be to make sure that different types of organizations are represented equally on the selection committee," Kuhn said.
It is Rue's belief that at the University, where many value student self-governance, it should be up to the students to change the system if they are unhappy with it. She said she is quite confident that students could make improvements to the process. Rue also left open the idea of moving to a lottery system for Lawn selection. "If the students want to move to a lottery system, the students could propose that," she said.
Lampkin also said that if students want to change the selection process, they should make a proposal to Rue, since she is in charge of the organizing committee.
Rue encouraged students to apply to live on the Lawn even though some may find the application process daunting.
"If you don't apply, you'll never know," she said.
Applications for May 2003 degree candidates are due Jan. 18.
Cavalier Daily Focus Editor Maria Tor contributed to this article.
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