Community Literacy in Dorms

South Green

Transition into college:
For the majority of students, the transition from high school to college is a big one. After high school graduation, everyone wanted to tell me how excited they were that I going to college. At the time, curious to know what its like, that summer I asked all sorts of people what kind if things I should expect or be prepared for. The most common responses I got from people was that its "life changing", it "opens doors to new opportunities" and most frequently that its a place to "make friends" or " have a real relationship".

What things aren't they telling you?
Judging from the college experiences that I've had, the kind of advice I was given about college has been fairly accurate. So far, through my efforts I have made many friends on campus and have even had the opportunity to have a "college relationship". Despite this, the advice I was given was very misleading. Unlike becoming a freshman in small high school, when you join a large university, your not only a "small fish", your a small fish that probably doesn't know anyone. To further complicate the situation, most large universities have individuals from nearly all walks of life that attend them. For me this came as a real eye opener because I saw and herd of people doing things that I'd never come across before.

Is this diversity a bad thing?
My short answer to this question is no. Just because diversity is not always the easiest thing to work through doesn't mean that it should be avoided or frowned upon. In my experiences as a freshman living in college dorms, variety amongst students is undeniable but should be looked at as opportunities to see new light and grow as an individual.

Weld on South Green

Personal Experiences (Insider Knowledge):
 This year I lived on the third floor of Weld, located in "dirty south" (South Green). At the beginning of fall quarter, ten other freshman, two sophomores and a junior moved into my mod. Unique compared to other dorms on campus, mod style dorms consist of two wings each with a common area and two bathrooms, that are mainly composed of singles and and a double or two on each floor. At the beginning of the year my mod consisted of fourteen people.

Fall Quarter Mod

At first, all fourteen of us interacted with one another. Of those fourteen, nine of us shared basic common interests like, wanting to be social or the desire to make new friends. Within the group of us, two of us were from a rural area, four were from the city and the remaining three were from somewhere in between. As you can imagine, our different backgrounds often led to different ideas. In some instances our different discourses led to conflicts and problems. The most challenging but also rewarding aspect of having to live with new people in dorm rooms is overcoming individual differences and creating sense of
community literacy.

Outsider Knowledge:
An outsiders perspective on this topic may be way different. If this were coming form someone who has never lived in a dorm it might be easy for them to assume that dorm relationships are small or miniscule compared to the relationships people will build outside of them.

Reflection:
To me community literacy is the ability to understand, interpret, handle, and act accordingly in a particular environment. Every environment that we interact with has a specific discourse. People are always adapting to new environments and trying to follow the unwritten rules of a particular discourse. Even though all discourses change with time, the hardest time to adjust behaviors in when you're moved from one environment to another. Because of this, I find the relatively short lived and highly diverse living conditions of dorm life to be a great test in a students ability to create community literacy with others.

By: Zach Heming