Along with the establishment of the commons, the Enhanced Residential Plan called for the construction of new residence halls and associated dining halls. The original plan was to build the commons one by one. Ross Commons was completed first; Atwater came online this year, with its dining component opening just two weeks ago.
The residential requirements of the commons system have been among its most divisive components. When the Enchanced Commons idea surfaced in 1997, students were ``very much against it,'' said David Edleson, dean of Cook Commons. There are still ``very mixed feelings'' about the commons, Edleson said, though ``each year it gets better.''
``One strength of the commons system is to live with some people for a long time,'' he said. ``Not necessarily with friends; that's not the point. The point is [students become] more respectful and get to know each other well.''
``Students resent limitations on where they can live,'' Edleson said. ``Some students feel [the college is] small enough already.''
Eli Berman, a sophomore member of the Task Force for Commons and Student Life and a senator from Wonnacott Commons, said that ``right now people see [the commons] as a separator, as the inability to live with friends.''
Berman disagreed with the assertion of some students that the commons over-compartmentalize the campus: ``There's no chain or boundary separating each commons,'' he said.
The inequality of upperclass housing among the commons has been a source of frustration for students since the implementation of the system. ``With students, the principle concern is housing,'' Spears said.
Students in the unfinished commons have little desirable housing. ``Right now, there's nothing to look forwards to,'' Spears said. In the past, students have changed commons on a yearly basis to get better housing.
Campofranco said the experience of students living in completed commons is not different from the experience of those living in uncompleted commons. ``Facilities is only a piece of it,'' he said. According to Campofranco, the oldest completed commons, Ross, has the highest percentage of people leaving it each year.
When the commons were not part of the room draw system, students switched commons annually for the best housing. That meant that some commons did not have enough beds after to accommodate first-years who wished to continue in the same commons. In Cook Commons, there were 170 first-years and only 12 spaces for rising sophomores.
The college has revised room draw several times to enable continuing membership in the commons. ``The [old] room draw was defeating the purpose of continuity,'' Campofranco said.
Goodwin said, ``This is the first year where room draw has supported the commons.''
As it stands now, Middlebury has a multi-tiered room draw. First, students are assigned random numbers within their commons to choose single or double rooms. If students wish to leave their commons, they must wait for the all-campus room draw, which takes place after all the commons draws occur. The system is based on seniority. Students who switch commons pick at the end of their class.
Some rooms at Middlebury are reserved in groups as pseudo-suites for another round called Block Draw. In this round, each participant is assigned points. A student receives a point for every semester he has spent at Middlebury and a point for every semester he has spent in his current commons. This system rewards students based on seniority and continuing membership of a commons.
Within each commons system are academic interest and substance-free housing. When a student moves into a language house, he changes his commons affiliation.
According to Kelly Bevere, residential systems coordinator, ``More times than not, [juniors returning from abroad] do have to live in a different commons.'' These students are not penalized and receive the points they would have received in their own commons.
Spears said there is ``de facto segregation'' by class year, even within the commons. He said that study abroad and separate first-year housing account for students living primarily with their classes in the commons.
Some students ``dislike [fewer] residential choices,'' Spears said. On the flip side, there has been an increase in student demand to stay within the same commons from year to year. Edleson also said there are 50 percent fewer students who want to live off-campus for 2005-06. Only 65 students applied.
Spears said the college is reassessing its plan to proceed with building and may consider completing the housing across campus before building additional dining halls. This will save the college money, as well, as dining is the most ``economically challenging'' part of the commons system. The continuing costs of operating multiple facilities is greater than the cost of operating the existing three, Spears said.
Students may greet that development favorably, as the decentralization of the dining facility has been the most contentious issue for them as of late. ``People don't want to be separated that much,'' Goodwin said. ``It's our one time together.''
Edleson agreed that communal spaces were important but questioned whether dining halls were ultimately worth the cost. As an alternative, he suggested that the commons build open spaces to hold catered dinners once a week for commons residents.
Berman strongly supported the dining component of the commons system. ``If you're alone for dinner one night, you should be able to go to your commons dining hall and it's not weird to sit down with anyone there.'' He envisioned the dining hall as a community-building facility.
There is also a perception among the students that the commons have detracted from the faculty resources of the college. ``If you really want to push something, do you want new buildings or do you want to increase salaries and hire more faculty?'' asked Goodwin, who serves on the student committee charged with advising the board of trustees on tuition. The Special Initiatives Fund is a proposed system by which representatives from the commons and major student organizations like MCAB would meet to decide co-sponsorship. They would pool the commons' current resources to give out money.
The problem now is that students can go to every commons to get co-sponsorship money. In addition to the communication gap, ``[the commons] are not aware of how much they've given out. They're not finance people,'' Goodwin said.
Berman disagreed with the centralized funding pool. ``Ideally, you would just go to your commons [for sponsorship],'' he said.
Unlike MCAB, which brings in campus-wide events, ``The commons' focus is smaller,'' Campofranco said.
The purpose of each commons council, which co-chairs like him run, is to allocate money to other students.
In his commons, Wonnacott, the commons distributes Wonnagrants to help pay students for community-based internships.
Campofranco said the atmosphere of the commons differed from the social houses, ``[The commons have] more wholesome events.''
Berman hoped that the college would give more than 
12,000
per year to each commons in the future, a level of funding that he
believed was unacceptably low.
Most commons events are under-attended, Goodwin said.
According to Berman, Junior Counselors (JCs) take freshmen to events. But as students get older, they become ``more concerned about housing,'' he said.
Campofranco agreed: ``The commons is more geared towards freshmen and sophomores. Older students are busy with work.'' He said that because ``upperclassmen are less involved,'' they are critical of the commons ``from an outside perspective.''