Tufts Blogs

This is part one in a series about special interest and theme housing at Tufts. Keep an eye out for part two, coming soon!

Do you have an interest you would love to pursue outside of the classroom? Are you eager to share your passion with others? Then Tufts’ Create Your Own Theme Housing might be for you! Tufts currently has a network of 14 (!) special interest and theme houses that range from language and culture houses (like the French Language House, Latinx Culture House, and the Capen House at the Africana Center) to interest and theme houses (like the Arts Haus, FIRST House, and Rainbow House). Special interest and theme housing offers the opportunity for Tufts students to form community with like-minded individuals and organize and host events that engage with the wider Tufts community.

Recently, Tufts has expanded on special interest and theme housing to allow rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors to apply to create their own theme house. One of the current Create Your Own Theme Houses is the Green House, located in Tufts’ newest housing space, called CoHo (Community Housing). I recently spoke with junior Marilene Rivas-Chavez, House Manager of the Green House, to learn more about their experiences creating and living in a theme house.

You may be wondering - what is the Green House? According to Marilene, “the Green House is a community of environmentally minded individuals with a mission to form and maintain a green, sustainable living space, as well as to serve the local community and environment.” Tufts also has another sustainability-themed housing option, a 10-person suite called The Hive. “The biggest difference [between the Hive and the Green House] is that our projects are different. The Hive is a suite where each member carries out an individual project, while the Green House has one collective house project,” said Marilene.

In the case of the Green House, this project and mission is flexible from year to year. According to the Special Interest Housing web page, Create Your Own Theme housing assignments last for one academic year, meaning that houses are required to re-apply for assignments in subsequent years. The Green House has leveraged this to tailor the house to future residents’ desires. Marilene said that “the Green House has been approved as a house for the upcoming year and the idea for it is that it will continue to exist, but the house project will change each year to fit the vision of the group of students currently living there.”

Despite needing to reapply, Marilene expressed that the application process was simple: “we filled out an application form and had to get a letter of recommendation from a faculty member. We also needed a roster of the members who would live in the house.” Marilene also described the benefits of themed housing: they said “[they] have enjoyed being able to pursue larger projects in a more community-based approach…[and hosting] events in which on and off-campus students engage.”

So, should future Jumbos consider applying to create their own themed house? “Yes,” said Marilene, “it is a great way to create communities based on shared interests and to be able to engage with the Tufts community in general.”