Asperger House

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I am currently researching the idea of creating a housing unit called "Asperger House" on a local university campus for students who have been diagnosed wit AS and other Autism Spectrum Disorders. In addition to the pressures of a grueling course load, students with AS also have the challenges of learning how to interact with their peers...often hundreds or thousands of kilometers from their families and friends back home. Here students would receive support services in the areas of developing critical socialization and organization skills as well as academic and career guidance from staff (including Resident Advisors) who are specially trained to handle the challenges we face on a daily basis. Asperger House would be located in a vacant fraternity house in the campus area. I wish I had these services available when I was attending the University of Illinois 25 years ago.

I would greatly appreciate any ideas and suggestions you may have in developing my proposal.

Thank you for your assistance.

Actually, I think it sounds like a great idea. Special training is important; house rules that may be a little different than those of other residences (for instance, limits on who may visit and when); more quiet, perhaps soundproofing; that sort of thing.
Though I really, really wouldn't call it "Asperger House." For one thing, that rules out residents with autism spectrum disorders other than Asperger's; also, don't forget that there are probably residents who would love to be in the house, and who would be a perfect fit for it, but may have issues that are not part of the autism spectrum at all. I'm also pretty doubtful that even people with Asperger's would want to live in a house proclaiming it. Most residence halls are named for important people in the school's history, or for their location on campus, that sort of thing.

Please keep in mind that the name "Asperger House" is merely a conceptual name, rather than the actual name of the house. The house would be for all students with all Autism Spectrum Disorders. Would the name "Alpha Sigma Pi Fraternity" sound better? The house would look and function more like a frat house than it would a dorm as it would be located in a previously vacant frat house on campus.

Among the proposed features would be a well-equipped fitness room, a hot tub, a media room, a state-of-the-art computer lab, and possibly a pool in the backyard (for the "Laboratory" section of the "Social Interaction Workshops"). After all, we have to learn how to better interact with our NT peers on a social level. Among the house rules would include a ban on all recreational drugs (including tobacco and alcohol) and quiet hours after dark. Visitation and other basic policies would be the same as those in force at the University Residence Halls.

I hope to develop and submit a formal proposal to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees by the end of 2011.

Wow, I was just thinking and reminiscing about this. I was fortunate to have a similar experience when I was an undergraduate in the early 90's and it really helped turn my life around.

I was wondering how common it is these days for a University to turn some of its dorms into "birds-of-a-feather" residences, like mine did. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Rather than deal with its then-overcrowded Greek system for this, my University had "houses" within the dorms. Mine was for Honors students, you had to have either a certain high school GPA, or certain test scores to get in. Since my high school grades weren't good, I got in (just barely) based on my ACT score. There were brother and sister honors houses. Knowing that many of us would be reclusive and shy, the counselors made sure we had plenty of activities to get to know each other, yet it wasn't forced on us. It was "Aspie Heaven", back in the days before anyone was ever diagnosed. Everyone I met there was spectrum-ish, and one of my friends from there was later diagnosed OCD. It was full of mostly science, math, engineering & pre-med majors. For the first time in my life I had friends and a social life, thanks to being around people like me. I finally learned many social skills that most people learned in Jr. High and High School. They had similar houses in the dorms geared for other common interests, such as athletes, music majors, etc. I don't think many of them formed as many close friendships or tended to stay in their houses as long as we did, though. In many ways we were more like a frat/sorority group in spirit.

I know it can work in a dorm, no reason it couldn't work in an off-campus house. In fact I'm not sure if it'll make much difference, it really depends on where there happens to be a vacancy for it when it gets started. I agree it should have a nice name that doesn't have anything to do with labels though. Ours were named after famous scientists and the like.

Edit: I just remembered that there were honors frat/sororities as well, that actually were part of the Greek system. Those were for honors students who wanted the full rush and partying experience, in other words, smart NTs. I guess that's how the non-Greek house I chose ended up with all the spectrumites, even though nobody knew what the spectrum was back then.