ASG senator’s dorm evaluation system goes online for trial run

Jason Lake wanted to live in a calm, quiet dorm his freshman year. He didn’t know Bobb Hall wasn’t the best choice until it was too late.

“I didn’t realize it was so loud over there,” said Lake, now a Weinberg junior and Associated Student Government senator for College Democrats.

To help prevent other students from making similar mistakes, Lake now is in the early stages of creating an online rating system for dorms.

A spin-off on CTEC, the Course and Teacher Evaluation Council, the new program is dubbed DTECs, with the “D” standing for “dorms.” Lake laughed admitting he still is not sure what his “T” stands for, but he is nonetheless hopeful the program will be a resource for both incoming and current students.

The DTECs system was put up last week on the ASG Web site, asg.northwestern.edu/services/dtecs/test.php. The system lets current students grade various aspects of their dorms, such as location and social atmosphere, on a one-to-five scale. It also provides space for students to name their dorm’s best and worst aspects, as well as write general comments.

Still in its testing phase, the program is experiencing some technical bugs but should be completed by the end of the academic year, Lake said.

Hinman House resident Sheila McCorkle, said she didn’t know about many aspects of her dorm, such as its location and size, until she arrived on campus.

Weinberg junior Paul Isaac said DTECs will help dispel rumors about dorms, adding that Bobb did not live up to the “party dorm” stereotype he expected his freshman year.

“The dorms change a lot year by year,” he said, “so it’s good to get the most recent opinions.”