As long as people need to sleep and eat, all agree, technology itself doesn't threaten to disintegrate the House system. But if the House system doesn't figure out how to engage technology to make a community, it might be reducing its own relevance as the lynchpin of the College experience.Certain Houses--like Georgi's Leverett or Pforzheimer--may see their communities become tighter, as other, less-technologically inclined Houses fall behind.
But just as Georgi chases the cutting edge, Herschbach cautions that the College must mind the "bleeding edge."
"We should probably determine a minimal standard for [House technology use], but Leverett House is not that standard," she says.
And she says serving students in the 21st century will likely require a faster rate of change than Houses have so far engaged. "We rely on the students around us to poke us towards what we need to be doing," Herschbach says. "That's what it really means to be on the following edge."
Advertisement