The nation's largest housing co-operative, at the University of California (UC) - Berkeley, is getting a major makeover that includes the removal of more than 149 residents.
According to the Huffington Post, the board that oversees UC - Berkeley's Cloyne Court will turn it into a more academic, substance-free residence. Its previous inhabitants, known as "clones," are worried this resolution does not address what they believe is the real issue of substance abuse and mental illness.
"We are at risk of unaffordably high insurance rates or of being uninsurable," Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC) president Michelle Nacouzi said in the proposal to drastically change Cloyne. "We need to make a direct response to this settlement to show our efforts to prevent further incidences and liability. A change needs to happen now."
In 2010, John Gibson was living in Cloyne when he sustained serious brain injuries from drug overdose. An ensuing lawsuit was settled out of court last month, but the house now has a reputation for fostering a culture of substance abuse. The incident with Gibson forced the BSC to explore changes or face other financial setbacks.
Cloyne president Marcell Zimayni told the Huffington Post that a strict ban on substances will do more harm than good. Many clones have stated that the issue of drug abuse should be discussed at length and in a public manner rather than just prohibited.
"It would create a dangerous culture of silence, in my opinion, and could be harmful to members of the house from a mental health perspective," said Zimayni.
"The conversation was shifted in the lawsuit from an individual overdosing to a culture influencing this individual to use drugs, that it was the environment that caused him to overdose," he said. "I think the individual should also be held liable for their actions... but I believe a lot of change has happened in the past four years. Cloyne is a very different place."
