University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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old faithful Generally, as University students living on campus progressed towards graduation, they moved farther away from conventional campus living arrangements. This year ' s group of seniors mostly lived in apartments or houses with a few of their best friends. However, for some seniors, this was not the case. While their peers avoided standard University housing like the plague, they chose the path of dorm life. Seniors chose to live in residences usually occupied by underclassmen for various reasons. For chemical engineering major and Bursley Hall resident Dawn Abernathy, life in a dormitory was something she wanted to experience, since she had never lived in one until senior year. I went to a community college for the first two years, she said, And when I transferred here I lived in a house. My first year staying in a dorm was my senior year, in Baits. I had never lived in a dorm before, and I wanted to experience dorm life. Alongside the desire to expe- rience dorm life, there were also some very practical aspects for a person in Abernathy ' s position. I ' m in the School of Engi- neering so it ' s convenient, close to classes, and there is a meal by Nathaniel Williams plan, so I don ' t have to prepare my own food. There were some disadvantages to life in Bursley, the greatest of which was, according to Abernathy, a lot of loud eighteen-year-olds. Another North Campus resident, Jacob Balazer, chose Baits, a more specialized dorm largely populated by upperclassmen and graduate students. Although he felt living in a traditional dorm was a worthwhile experience, as a student he preferred his current arrangement. I did not enjoy the social atmosphere of the dorms, he said. I came from South Quad, and it was very loud. In Baits, I am not on a hallway with other people. Balazer also liked Baits for aesthetic reasons. It ' s in a nice setting, with all the nature and the trees, he commented. It was hard for Balazer to come up with many disadvantages to his housing situation, but he did point out a couple of problems. Com- pared to off-campus housing, the rooms aren ' t as large, and it is expensive. This year ' s dorm-dwelling seniors proved that living ar- rangements were not a function of class standing. Rather, they were merely based on the preferences of each individual. FIRST JORDAN SECOND JORDAN SanMsky. B rfan Liu. 1 n.in.fll fcamin Kurtz, Sarah | 2: Michael Wisr THIRD JORDAN Rebecca ( Natalia Kalaida, Leah Marsh, Anne Nagrant, Sarah 1 Wu, Dwana Mitchell photo by Sharonda Ayers ,

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Cottingham through the twists and turns of West Quad ' s basement, a DPS officer at- tempts to help Cottingham find herfriend ' s room. DPS officers as well as students who lived in the particular dorm were usu- ally good sources of informa- tion for lost students. photo by Jennifer Johnson With a sigh of relief, Jibreel Lockhart and Angela Cottingham celebrate finding one another. On her way to visit Lockhart, Cottingham found herself completely lost in the basement of West Quad. West Quad was notorious on campus as being one of the most confusing dorms. pholo by Jennifer Johnson lost , souls , ven after receiving the addresses of friends in other dorms, many ' Students had trouble finding their friends ' rooms. Thedifferent ns across campus varied greatly in their different structures and r plans. If a friend called and asked you visit room 4157 of kley, you would have assumed that it would be fairly easy to te. However, once entering Markley, you would be forced to ; up and down each of the four hallways that compose the fourth r. First-year LSA student Erin Gutenschwager commented, ne of the larger dorms here are like mazes. South and West ids, Markley, and Bursley all contain a million corridors. You d walk around forever and not find what you were looking for. ring lost while walking outside seemed to be a problem for some ents, and getting lost inside the dorms only added to the ilem. One dorm that was notorious for being confusing was West .d. The many different houses in West Quad dorm made it easy et turned around. First-year LSA student and West Quad lent Keith Lonergan stated, I had a friend wander around the ding for thirty minutes before he finally called for me to help . Nursing student Alexis Punches, who also lived in West Quad :d, West Quad is like a maze. One friend who came to visit had by Lindsay Bielski someone at the front desk draw her a map and she still got lost. The floor plans of some dorms did not aid students in finding the rooms they had searched for. In Mosher-Jordan, for example, there were two hallways of students on the first floor. However, the cafeteria separated the two corridors. In order to go from one corridor to the other, students had to follow a winding path through the kitchen. At night, it was not a problem, but during the day, students had to watch for chefs carrying 50 pound bags of flour. Many students simply gave up, returned to their respective rooms, and informed their friends they would meet them in an easily accessible area. Although each dorm looked pleasant and basically the same from the outside, the insides of many resembled mazes. Visitors and students unfamiliar with them often were forced to spend great amounts of time trying to navigate their way to a certain room number. As first-year Kinesiology student Nicholas Stanko stated, Most of the time, it was easier to meet people outside when they were visiting my dorm for the first time. Perhaps the University should have included maps of the inside of each dormitory in the trustworthy student planners that were distributed to all first-year students at the begining of each year. Housing 247

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Taking a moment to chat with her RA, Xanthe Wigfall pokes her head into RC senior Andrea Pullo ' s room. Pullo, like other seniors, chose to spend her last year at the University in the dorms. photo bv Audra Rowley Writing a paper in her East Quad room, senior RA Andrea Pullo enjoys the conve- nience of the computer pro- vided to her by the University. Resident advisors were provided with a computer as well as room and board. photo by Audra Rowley FOURTH JORDAN Fnint R ) vi Lisa Grup Carissa Br Andrea Ve Ashley Mi! Come, Amy photo by Sharonda Avers FOURTH JORDAN CENTER hen Stefles, W Lee, Nathan Prc rren Strong, Ciabri ' M M B .ir. Melissa Bal FIFTH JORDAN photo by Sharonda Ayers Housing 249