From disgusting to enlightening, good times reside in college dorms

Walking away from orientation two summers ago, I remember feeling a sense of enlightenment that makes me laugh today. Little did I know that what was made to seem like the meat and potatoes of college life in the preachings of spunky orientation leaders was not what I would need to make it through the next four years. The choice between Pattern I and Pattern II credit distributions once was a daunting task, but the decision was magically made for me after four semesters. Safewalk was a phone call away when traveling alone at night; now shelling out a few bucks for a Blue Cab is the preferred alternative to schlepping it through the snow. The MCard was in a category with the Visa Gold card, but now is only good for a Coke from an Angell Hall vending machine.

Janet Adamy Janet's Planet

The University uses everything from pamphlets to the painfully attended orientation dance to acclimate students to college life, but there's only one thing that can give freshmen the real 'U' experience: a few days in the dorms. College isn't about what takes place in the Chem Building, and it's much more than what goes on inside Yost Arena. It's about the day-to-day activities that occur in Markley, South Quad, Stockwell and all the other places that become temporary homes to incoming students.

What's so unique about your freshman year in the dorms is that it is the best opportunity that you'll ever get during your four years at school to make new friends. Before students have the chance to limit their relationships to hand-pick peer groups like The Star Trek Club and Beta Eta Thi, freshmen must first spend a few days in the dorms. Eager to find someone to share freshman experiences with (like getting lost on the way to class, being dragged across the 'M' or waking up in a guy's bed to the sound of parents knocking on the door) first-year students look to their hallmates. The proximity allows you, if not forces you, to be buddies with the people in your hall, which accomplishes all those things that college life is really about: meeting people who are different than you, having new experiences and growing and changing as a result of it.

For those not stuck in "virgin vaults" like "Stockhell" or "Betsy Barb-her," coed living will offer an eye-opening experience. Throughout high school, many students keep a safe enough distance from the opposite sex not to know some of the other gender's more intimate behavior patterns. Although I saw "Animal House" before coming to school, I believed guys didn't really act so gross in college - until I caught one of the males living upstairs relieving himself out his window.

Despite the turn-offs that can result from the proximity of the sexes, coed living can actually foster romantic relationships. Living in the same dorm as someone you're dating, or, as is more common in college, just fooling around with, has pluses and minuses. Bonuses include the power that proximity has to bring people together quickly and the increased feasibility of the late-night booty call. A major drawback is Sunday's inconvenient cafeteria hours (most close around 1 p.m.) which force students to roll out of bed, neglect grooming and scramble just to make it inside dining hall doors. Seeing your bed-headed beau munching on an Eggs McMichigan is an easy way to kill your budding feelings of interest.

Regardless of how well the notoriously homogenous dorm stereotypes fit (East Coasters in Markley and Lloyd, meat heads in South Quad and tortured souls in East Quad) you're guaranteed to meet people in your hall who are different from you and the people who attended your high school. Coming from a Midwestern town that is predominantly white, I received an entirely new experience living in a hall where the demographics were roughly one-third white, one-third black and one-third Asian, with the hometowns of my hallmates ranging from as far west as California to as far east as Singapore. Sharing bathrooms and eating meals with this diverse group of people showed me more about different cultures than any anthropology class or University-sponsored multicultural seminar has ever taught me.

Being run by the University, the dorms hold all kinds of introduce-you-to-college-through-seminars-and-pamphlet orientation sessions. If this is you're style, then by all means take advantage of these. But bear in mind that nothing does a better job of immersing you into college life at the 'U' than a few days in the residence halls. And nowhere will you experience more of what college life is all about - the people, the relationships, the gross experiences - than in your soon-to-be home away from home, the dorm.

-- Janet Adamy is a Daily staff reporter. You can reach her over e-mail at janadamy@umich.edu.

09-03-97