March 07, 2024 | NEWS | By Annalise Selby
Last month, the office of Housing & Residential Experience informed the Synergy program that they would disband the intentional living community focused on sustainability at Colorado College.
Synergy has been in operation for more than 30 years.
Made up of two houses on East Campus, Synergy features a student-run garden, solar panels, greywater systems, and energy-efficient appliances for residents and is dedicated to reducing environmental impact and living sustainably in a community-oriented setting.
Entering into either of the two houses, one can see art made by residents past and present covering the walls. Walking by, students might hear bluegrass jams that are held inside, or live music being performed by student bands. They might see a greenhouse maintained by Synergy residents, who grow fresh vegetables for cooking; or students might enter the doors of Synergy to have a meal with their classmates and professors.
“The houses themselves are so comforting and beautiful,” said Isabella Ingersoll ‘25, a current resident of Synergy. “They just really make me feel like I’m at home in a way that no apartment or other house could.”
On Feb. 8, Synergy residents received an email from Housing notifying them that the department planned to disband Synergy.
“We are writing to inform you about an important change that will be taking place within our housing program,” the email read in part. “After careful consideration and evaluation, we have decided to sunset the Synergy programing [sic] between Residential Experience and the Office of Sustainability, including associated housing options. This decision was not made lightly, and we understand that it may come as a surprise.”
Reasons the office gave for the closure included “evolving circumstances,” “on-going facility concerns,” and “lack of partnership” with the Office of Sustainability. Such issues baffled some students who say they had been repeatedly asking to meet about relations and expectations, only to receive no response.
Understanding that the relationship between Synergy and the Housing department had been “tense” in the past and seeking a better line of communication, Synergy resident Ruby Mae Heathman ‘26 said she reached out to Housing to explain how in the weeks leading up to the decision, she and other Synergy members had attempted multiple times to connect.
“Unfortunately, the housing office never responded to any of my emails, even after I called the office multiple times and went there in-person,” Heathman said.
The Feb. 22 meeting held between the Housing department and Synergy residents gave students an opportunity to ask questions and gain some clarification on the situation, and Housing explained its reasoning behind the decision.
In the meeting, according to multiple Synergy members who were present, Housing representatives focused on apparent instances like residents leaving behind personal items in common spaces over summer breaks, a lack of programming partnership with the Office of Sustainability, as well as ongoing issues with mice. Students spoke about how there had been mice in the house long before their time living in Synergy and had taken on the issue themselves through consistent trapping, and also explained how they had been putting in maintenance requests for this issue for years.
“It feels extremely unfair to blame our community for a problem that existed in Synergy before our time there,” Ingersoll said after the meeting.
Housing had an issue with the cleanliness of the space when they hadn’t cleaned it in 10 years, said Synergy alum Galileo Defendi-Cho’24. The reason the Synergy houses weren’t cleaned is apparently because students had left personal items in the house, like couches, according to multiple students.
“It was never communicated to residents that those items would need to be removed to be cleaned,” said Defendi-Cho, who added that there was communication between residents and housing officials where emails stated that personal belongings could be left in the houses over the summer.
During the conversation at the meeting, some students brought images of several events to show the Housing officials the community impact of Synergy, only to be told the images looked like “fire hazards.”
“They were focused about it being a fire hazard when there were nine people in the picture and they didn’t know the fire limit of the house,” Maya Mossanen ‘25, said about an image presented of a bluegrass jam in Synergy’s living room.
In recounting the meeting, Ingersoll said Housing questioned whether the importance of Synergy was the house or the people in it, arguing that students didn’t necessarily need a house for the community to remain in existence. Synergy residents explained how important the houses are for fostering this strong community, Ingersoll said.
“It’s legacy,” said CC alum Kai Matthiasson ‘23 who lived in Synergy for two years. “I have pottery in there and I have paintings on the wall there that I want to live on. There’s that lineage that just disappears.”
When The Catalyst asked for comment prior to a Feb. 22 meeting between Synergy and Housing, the residential life coordinator (RLC) of Synergy, Mollie Hayden, said she would “follow up” after in order to set up a time to meet. That didn’t happen. Hayden did not respond to two follow-up emails.
When asked for a statement, Housing and the Office of Sustainability said that “the decision was not taken lightly.”
They explained that the Synergy community has evolved significantly over time, and recently has “moved away from sustainability as a core concept to include other community ventures.” The Office of Sustainability hasn’t been able to maintain a meaningful connection with the Synergy community for years, according to Ian Johnson, the Director of Sustainability at CC.
“That isn’t a bad thing,” Johnson said, “but it is indicative that this is time to reflect on the future and what the community’s mission and objectives are.” He committed to working towards determining “the best path forward for any future clubs, LLCs, or other efforts that come from this two-decade evolution of the community.”
Students articulated deep impacts and connections.
“The administration doesn’t hear about it because it’s not for them,” Matthiasson said. “It’s a place where people can go and the doors are open. It’s for all the people who don’t feel comfortable at a frat[ernity], or for people who want to play some bluegrass. There’s so many little niches that it fills.”
At the time of Synergy’s meeting with Housing, 240 CC students had signed a petition to save the houses.
Alumni dating as far back as 2013 gave personal testimonies about how much Synergy meant to them from “great days and nights in which we invited the school into the houses and provided a safe space that truly felt cultivated by the students themselves” (Katie Pell, Synergy resident in 2018), to “cooking meals, spending afternoons in the greenhouse, or hosting potlucks & dance parties” (Charlotte Cadow, Synergy resident from 2013-2014).
Matthiasson expressed a sense of frustration about the disbanding of Synergy.
“It’s really saddening news and overall just a disappointment on behalf of the college,” he said. Even though he doesn’t attend CC anymore, he said Synergy was a huge part of his experience, and “many other people’s experiences in the past and present that is just being deleted.”
Ultimately, despite student testimonials, Housing asked to “press pause” on Synergy short-term while considering reinventing it long-term, according to Ingersoll. The office committed to openness about a future Synergy rebuild but maintained discontinuing the current program was necessary for now.
“I feel like the meeting brought out a lot of emotions in us, and to have them respond to those emotions in condescending ways was really upsetting,” Ingersoll said.
By the end of the meeting, as some students were crying about the news, they were told “stop laughing at me” by their RLC, according to Synergy resident Olivia Tukman ‘26.
“I just think that that shows how out of touch and not on the same page we are, which is really concerning,” Ingersoll said.
Defendi-Cho said that at the end of the meeting, the RLC made some “very unprofessional” statements that perplexed students. It was “offered that we should go vent and be upset, and that it’s OK to be upset and that we should go smash some plates in Synergy because apparently the plates are very old anyways,” he said.
Some students said they left feeling “unheard” about losing space considered sacred.
“It’s an intersection of art, music, community building, and sustainability. I think that’s the more special part of our community,” said Synergy resident Penelope Thornton ‘25.
Now as the CC community processes this administrative decision, advocacy continues for preserving Synergy’s ethos. According to Defendi-Cho, Housing told Synergy members at the end of the meeting to take some time to put together a proposal of how Synergy would be able to work in the future.
Students are currently in the process of making an action plan that will include “exactly what we envision Synergy to be and exactly what we would need to make it that,” said Defendi-Cho, and for that proposal to “align with the Synergy community’s needs, the needs of Housing, the Office of Sustainability, and Colorado College administration as a whole.”
So far, the action plan includes how students envision the application process to Synergy will work, taking into consideration the wants of the community as well as the needs of housing. It also details the reconstruction of the move-in and move-out process, which seemed to be one of the greatest issues Housing had with Synergy, according to Defendi-Cho.
The student proposal is also covering how future community programming will work with the Office of Sustainability, as well as the broader CC community. Students are considering proposing to become unaffiliated with the Office of Sustainability entirely, as they haven’t received much support from the office and believe that they can fulfill their mission without it, said Defendi-Cho.
Defendi-Cho spoke about how it might not be possible to keep Synergy for next year, but “at the very least, have it set up to be a one-year hiatus, if that.”
Students said they ideally want Synergy to still be a housing option for the 2024-2025 school year, but Housing removed Synergy as an option for students to choose when selecting a place to live in the housing portal.
“Synergy has touched so much more than just the people who live there, and you can feel that when you walk in the doors,” said Lily Naughton ‘26, a friend of students who live in Synergy. “I don’t even live there but seeing it disbanded would feel like such a blow to all of the memories I have made, and an end to the experiences I know I would have there in the future. It’s really disappointing.”
Some students say they believe Synergy represents the types of autonomous spaces students need, especially when they aren’t able to find that community elsewhere on campus.
“There’s not a lot of true communities in the sense of the word where it’s people who don’t have any familiar relation being that close and there for each other that didn’t know each other before,” Matthiasson said. “It’s not like a friend group that decided to live together; it’s relative strangers who care about similar things and you put them together and they start caring about each other and that’s beautiful.”