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TAPSI Housing

Overview

Theme/Affinity/Program/Special Interest (TAPSI) Housing allows for a community of students to live together based on a certain shared theme/affinity/program/special interest. Theme/affinity housing allows students with a shared part of their identity to live with one another and celebrate this identity. It is meant to strengthen the solidarity amongst the residents with marginalized identities. Program/special interest housing allows students with a shared programmatic or special interest to live together and bond over this shared interest. The TAPSI program hopes to provide more resources for students and help promote a sense of community on campus.

Controversy

In 2023, the college proposed moving all TAPSI communities to Mark Hopkins House. There was widespread backlash from students across campus. Affinity housing community coordinators in particular expressed discontent, noting that they were not at all involved with the decision and that it felt as if the Housing department was moving the communities merely for the department's convenience and not to actually help celebrate the identities those communities focused on. There was also a strong push to separate affinity housing from the TAPSI program.

In response to the backlash, the college called off the relocation of the affinity TAPSIs and waived the application process for affinity housing the following year.

For further reading, see Students Express Frustration, TAPSI Relocation is Part of a Long History of Suppression, and College Calls Off TAPSI Relocation.