Hamsini Living Learning Community—a new residential space dedicated for upperclassmen interested in exploring issues related to the African diaspora—will open in House 5 for this semester.

The Washington University-owned house became vacant following Phi Delta Theta’s permanent suspension in February. After reviewing two petitions for the space, from Women’s Panhellenic Association (WPA) and black students, the University chose to move forward with the latter proposal.

Isabella Neubauer | Student Life

House 5, previously occupied by permanently suspended fraternity Phi Delta Theta, will be renamed as the Hamsini Living Learning Community.

The initial ask was then further developed by Hope Young, program coordinator for diverse communities, and Dominique Crosby, a former Residential Community Director, taking student input into account.

“Right now, when the students first agreed or expressed interest in being a part of this community, since we didn’t have time to flesh out all the programmatic elements, we really wanted them to be at the forefront of being trailblazers of this community,” Residential Community Director Jordan Cooper, who will serve as house adviser alongside Young, said.

Olivia Blumenshine | Student Life

Traces of Greek letters representing Phi Delta Theta remain on House 5. In spring 2018, black students and members of the Women’s Panhellenic Association prepared petitions for their respective groups to be housed in the house, with black students ultimately gaining access.

Young and Cooper also worked with a consultant from Stanford University to discuss the programming that had been put on in a similar living learning community there.

Darryl Hudson, a professor in the Brown School, will be the house’s faculty associate and is reaching out to members of the campus community about becoming involved with Hamsini, according to Cooper. The Department of African and African-American Studies has also expressed interest in partnering with Hamsini.

The house’s name was chosen to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Black Manifesto and the founding of the Association of Black Collegians, the precursor to the Association of Black Students, as “Hamsini” means 50 in Swahili.

Based on feedback from students, programming at Hamsini will center around community building, both for the 25 residents and for other members of the campus community who are interested in the African diaspora.

“The students just want a place to exist, a place to be,” Young said. “They were like, ‘We want a priority to be to make this a space where people can just come to be black—whatever it means to that person to be black.’ Throughout the possible programming that can be had, Sunday dinners once a week, they were like, ‘We just want a space to be black.’ And we were like, ‘OK.’”

The goal is to host programs within the house, open the space up to other student groups and develop partnerships with organizations outside the University, but the frequency of programming has not been determined yet, according to Young.

Although WPA was not granted the house, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Rob Wild said that the proposal could be reconsidered should another space open up.

While peer institutions such as Brown University, Cornell University and Duke University have similar living learning communities, this is a new venture for Washington University. Residential Life is evaluating other opportunities to create further living learning communities for students, with the intent of connecting students to faculty.

“We certainly are always looking at peers and the kind of living learning communities that they’re developing, and there’s a lot of universities that do more culturally themed housing,” Wild said. “We have not been one that has done a lot of culturally themed housing, and we think this is something we really want to look at doing more of as we look into the future.”

Students living in Hamsini this year will have the chance to help drive the future of the house, as the University plans to refine programming based on what is successful.

“Our intention is to have this community for as long as there’s interest in a community like this. But what we really need to do this first year is see what works—what works for students, [and] how does this work for the campus community,” Wild said.