{"id":97,"date":"2002-09-27T19:15:00","date_gmt":"2002-09-28T03:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/archives\/2002\/09\/27\/life-in-the-dorms\/"},"modified":"2002-09-27T19:15:00","modified_gmt":"2002-09-28T03:15:00","slug":"life-in-the-dorms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2002\/09\/27\/life-in-the-dorms","title":{"rendered":"Life in the Dorms"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just ran across a real\u00adly inter\u00adest\u00ading arti\u00adcle about life in the Stan\u00adford dorms <\/a>from the per\u00adspec\u00adtive of a fac\u00adul\u00adty mem\u00adber who\u2019s been liv\u00ading in Don\u00adner House for 16 years.<\/p>\n

One excerpt on the late-night scene: By day, fresh\u00admen man\u00adage the ins and outs of aca\u00add\u00ade\u00adm\u00adic and res\u00adi\u00adden\u00adtial life; they are ded\u00adi\u00adcat\u00aded stu\u00addents, loy\u00adal friends, com\u00admit\u00adted musi\u00adcians, gift\u00aded ath\u00adletes, devot\u00aded com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty vol\u00adun\u00adteers. But an RF soon learns that this every\u00adday world is to some extent a con\u00adces\u00adsion on their part: they\u2019re gen\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly very nice peo\u00adple and bear us no par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar grudges. They\u2019ll play our detail- and sched\u00adule-laden game if that\u2019s what we real\u00adly want. But when the adult world puts on its bathrobe and gets ready to turn in, anoth\u00ader real\u00adi\u00adty bub\u00adbles up in the hall\u00adways and lounges.<\/i><\/p>\n

Late at night, when the every\u00adday has lost its grip, con\u00adven\u00adtion, habit and expec\u00adta\u00adtion fall away in a gen\u00ader\u00adal lib\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion from the demands of the clock. There is no eti\u00adquette for paja\u00admaed encoun\u00adters over Proust, MP3s, the Bud\u00addha, the Band. There are no cour\u00adte\u00adsies between two stu\u00addents with tooth\u00adbrush\u00ades in hand and some\u00adthing on their minds. Dur\u00ading these clock\u00adless nights, stu\u00addents begin to find and edu\u00adcate them\u00adselves. The con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtions are not always tony ones on reli\u00adgion or phi\u00adlos\u00ado\u00adphy; stu\u00addents also mix it up on the design of the dorm T\u2011shirt, the no-car pol\u00adi\u00adcy for frosh, the virtues of Willy Won\u00adka, the dif\u00adfer\u00adence between \u201cmankind\u201d and \u201chuman\u00adi\u00adty.\u201d And these dis\u00adcus\u00adsions take place in the non\u00adtra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal space of no per\u00adcep\u00adti\u00adble time at all.<\/p>\n

The late-night com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty stu\u00addents seem to cre\u00adate auto\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly is an impor\u00adtant, per\u00adhaps even vital, rite of pas\u00adsage from the world of inher\u00adit\u00aded ideas to the world of real thought. In this noc\u00adtur\u00adnal place of chaot\u00adic chal\u00adlenge and rev\u00ade\u00adla\u00adtion, new worlds can be con\u00adtem\u00adplat\u00aded, along with the lat\u00adest crush. And it was an invi\u00adta\u00adtion to this con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion that I refused when I remind\u00aded Bri\u00adan of the time.<\/p>\n

Except in the class\u00adroom, most of us at the Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty have lit\u00adtle to do with under\u00adgrad\u00adu\u00adate life. When we do become involved, we are often rep\u00adre\u00adsent\u00ading the University\u2019s author\u00adi\u00adty to its most insistent\u2014and some\u00adtimes troublesome\u2014students. As a res\u00adi\u00addent fel\u00adlow, I\u2019ve had my share of dif\u00adfi\u00adcult dis\u00adcus\u00adsions. It falls to the RF, for instance, to tell a stu\u00addent that, delight\u00adful per\u00adson that he is, he\u2019s an ugly drunk. Or, as the care\u00adtak\u00ader of the whole com\u00admu\u00adni\u00adty, an RF will have the unpleas\u00adant task of let\u00adting a few stu\u00addents know that their par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar brand of hilarity\u2014sexist, homo\u00adpho\u00adbic, or just plain loud or smelly\u2014is a pain in the col\u00adlec\u00adtive tush. I remem\u00adber once hav\u00ading to remind a group of young men that when our facil\u00adi\u00adties super\u00advi\u00adsor (a won\u00adder\u00adful woman who took vir\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly every oth\u00ader thing about dorm life in stride) was in the men\u2019s bath\u00adroom, they need\u00aded to refrain from using the uri\u00adnals. And I remem\u00adber rather twitchi\u00adly see\u00ading the stu\u00addents out, care\u00adful\u00adly shut\u00adting my door and col\u00adlaps\u00ading in laughter\u2014at the sheer ridicu\u00adlous\u00adness of hav\u00ading to remind smart young peo\u00adple of such a nor\u00admal cour\u00adtesy; at the very real impor\u00adtance of it; and final\u00adly, at the fact that no one had ever told me I\u2019d have such a con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion in my own home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What life looks like in a fresh\u00adman dorm at 3 AM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stanfordministry-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}