The Wellness House was moved to the fourth floor of 25-27 High Street after being located in the Matthews House on Mooreland Ave. for two years.
The Wellness House became a Special Interest House at the beginning of the 2011-2012 academic year, with the help of Dean Tim Poirier, the former Wellness House faculty advisor.
“Previously there had been a Substance Free Dorm on campus that housed a mixture of first year and upperclassmen,” said Elizabeth Hess ’14, former Wellness House Manager.
“Approaching the 2011-2012 academic year, the residents in that substance free housing wanted to shift the goals of the living space from strictly substance free housing to a special interest house interested in a more rounded ‘well being.”
The House was unable to meet the 100 percent occupancy requirement in their previous space and its occupants were moved to a more suitable space.
“There are very clear programmatic and operational expectations for special interest houses. For example, all special interest houses have to submit a house charter and must maintain the 100 percent occupancy requirement,” said Dan Confer, assistant director of Campus Life-Residential Operations.
To remain in the Matthews House, the Wellness House needed to fill 25 spaces, but by the time roster submissions were due last spring, only had 10 spaces filled.
“Some of the interested students couldn’t commit because of studying abroad,” said Hess.
“They had the same challenge the year before, and when it was clear that they’d have the same challenge again, we worked with them to identify other spaces that would be less challenging to fill,” added Confer.
The archeology/anthropology house had previously been assigned to the fourth floor of 25-27 High St. and is currently split between the Strayer & Carriage Houses on College St and Chapel Ave, respectively.
Last April, the Matthews House became available for all students during room selection.
“We worked with the organization’s leadership (Jordan Turner is the current house manager). As vacancies in the house continue to exist, he and I have been working together to figure out ways to get the spaces filled,” said Confer.
Wellness House Manager Jordan Turner ’16 expressed his view of the move.
“Working closely with campus life, we were quite successfully able to move to an off campus location that suited all of the residents,” said Turner.
Out of the 17 total beds on the fourth floor of 25-27, 15 have been currently filled this fall semester.
“This upcoming year, we are going to try and recruit more heavily, so we might have the option to move into our former house, which accommodates a larger amount of people,” said Turner.
Members of the Wellness House community have reacted positively to their new location.
“The new location of the Wellness House has been great! We are almost in the center of town, with all the local business just nearby,” said Tyler Hanson ’16, Wellness House resident. “I truly feel like I am a part of Carlisle now. It is a much different style of living than at my first-year residence hall last year. ”
