University of Wisconsin Eau Claire - Periscope Yearbook (Eau Claire, WI)

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Midway: A Typical? Although the Midway Apartments are considered dormitories by the UW-Eau Claire Housing Office, one look around clearly indicates the differences. Four people occupy each apartment, equipped with kitchen, dining room, living room, two bedrooms. It's not a typical dorm situation, and Cathy Collins, freshman from Elgin, Illinois, is happy with it. It's more of a family unit, she said. It has a sense of privacy that you don't see in the dorms. Collins, who expected freshmen to be more mature than she sees them as being, likes the responsibility of keeping track of bills and economizing. We're growing up by learning to pay our bills, thinking about not wasting jii.m. UK. 5£R(3E £TS electricity, and keeping the thermostat low. It makers you feel like an adult who goes to school, not a kid who lives at school, Collins said. Because it is run as a dormitory, there are resident assistants who were hired by housing, but are under the management of Barberg Real Estate Management Co. We have quiet hours, visitation hours, and formals, Collins said. We are a dorm. If given the opportunity, Collins said she would return to Midway next year. It's a bigger area, and you can entertain your friends without them sitting on your bed. And there's more of a sense of being able to get away from people. People are content here, Collins said. It's something to come home to. fc Commuting Bus headlights emerging faithfully through a morning snowfall. Fortunately it's not fatal There is a disease affecting many people during their life. It is not fatal, but those contracting it feel very ill. Homesickness, Dr. Vincent Giannatasio, a Milwaukee psychiatrist, said is a normal occurence. I think homesickness is a normal re- action, he said. Most people experience some kind of homesickness at some point of their life. It's important to think of homesickness as being normal. Dr. Kent Garrison, director of counseling at UW-Eau Claire, said as many as 50 percent of the freshmen students experi- A route the car knows by itself. Scenery your eyes have memorized thousands of times. These are images familiar to students who commute to school each day. Students make a daily journey to ole UW-Eau Claire campus from the area. Most students travel by bus, automobile or car pool from Eau Claire, Chippewa Falls. Fall Creek, Altoona, Mondovi and other such towns. Most area students commute because they find it cheaper to live at home than in a dorm or apartment. But money saved by living at home is often spent on transportation-bus fare, parking permits, car upkeep and fuel. Students walking to school on rainy or cold winter days may feel driving to school would be an improvement. But few think of the problems involved in commuting. Commuting students are under the control of sometimes unreliable cars and drivers and unpredictable weather. If they do not own their own car, they are dependent on other students for rides. Dead batteries, heavy snowfall and missed rides often cause commuters to miss classes or campus appointments. Basically, non-commuting and commuting students' lives arc similar. School days, studying, friends and projects are similar; worries of apartments may be exchanged for automotive worries. And getting up early— whether to walk or to drive to school-ako feels the same. ence some sort of homesickness. Giannatasio said going to college and being away from home for the first time is a prime time for homesickness. The school dorms are a major place for homesickness to start. he said. Many students are tossed together to live in close quarters with strangers. No longer does the student have a private bedroom or mom's cooking. It takes time for them to adjust. Garrison said the causes of homesickness are varied. He said it could be caused by fear of the unknown, displacement, identity crisis and the lack of their support basis (home). Time cures a majority of the homesick students, Giannatasio said. There is so much a student can do in and around campus that homesickness is quickly forgotten. tiring 31

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A new life The Hill: There's Each of life's goals seems lo include an uphill climb. For students on upper campus, there is a daily uphill climb that they will likely remember as vividly as any of their college experiences. The hill, as it is known on the UW-Eau Claire campus, is the stretch of Car-field Avenue that extends from Putnam Hall on lower campus, under the Hilltop Center, to Towers and Murray Halls on upper campus. Upon first seeing the hill and realizing that she would have to climb it everyday, freshman Sandy Scully, a Sutherland In search of ... Parking Around and around the blocks you go in search of the impossible-a parking spot. Ideally, one near campus and within walking distance to make it on time to your next class. This merry-go-round search continues while expensive gas is burned, valuable no way around it Hall resident, exclaimed, Oh wow, I don't think I can do it. The hill provides extra fun for upper campus students in the wintertime. Groups of students often enjoy sliding down the hill on various objects, including those pieces of roll-up plastic (you know what we mean). Probably one of the most beneficial services that the hill provides is exercise. Every year freshmen and students new to campus can be heard saying, I'm going to be in great shape after climbing this hill all year. time wasted, and headache number 13 develops. lack of parking is not new; it gets worse every year. Yet UWEC students continue to demonstrate unique ways of handling common parking frustrations and hassles. For instance, faking leg injuries by limping to and from parked cars in the reserved handicapped sections. Or to prevent tickets, handy water bottles have been used to remove little white marks from tires. Ik Me and my mom were here unpacking my stuff and all of a sudden this girl in a robe and slippers plops in and starts talking to me Laura Keefe, freshman from Oak Ridge Hall was startled, but soon got over it as did hundreds of new resident hall occupants. It's the casual camaraderie and easy friendships that constitutes hall life. Patty Villalobos, Lori Lucius, Barb Homann, Keefe, Sue Baker, Lori Miller, and Sue Rather discussed hall living as they watched TV and popped popcorn. All but Baker are freshmen and agreed on most of the advantages and disadvantages of such dose quarters. You make a lot of friends; you make friends with people from your hometown that you didn't know before. I've never been so poor-everything costs money. When you lived at home. Mom and Dad would give you some money to go out; now you have to give yourself the money. I never expected everyone to be so friendly. My girlfriends from home were surprised. Villalobos was blunt. With sisters you tell them off if you get mad at them, but here you've got to be nice because you see them every morning. You have to be so considerate. Getting along with people is not as hard as some imagined. Keefe thinks it's due to the fact that they're all freshmen, and all in the same boat, all the sophomores have their friends already. Keefe said. And you really have to grow up here; there's no one around to say that you can't go out. For all the freedom and friendliness, there are some disadvantages. Such as, I miss a room of my own. I can't turn on the radio or TV whenever I want. It's hard to study with noise outside your door. All you do is eat around this place. I hate it when people aren't quiet in the morning. But most of them are taking advantage of the closeness the dorm life promotes and are anxious to return next year. It's a riot! Lucius said, fc 30 Living

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Off-campus life in a nutshell It's the kind of place that one will fondly look upon in about ten years. It's not that it's a bad apartment; it's just that it's so small. The problem is that the kitchen is the dining room, is the living room, is the study, is the den, is the rec room, said |im Kothe about the apartment he shares with Sam Hutchison and Rick Carlson above Challenger Sports World on Cameron St. Hutchison simply said, It's like living in your kitchen. It is small but that's due to it being space that has been converted into an apartment. Thus the floor plan is not ideal. The three men spent time fixing it up, adding carpet to the enclosed porch, painting over the institution green walls and filling cracks in the walls. But that's nothing out of the ordinary. Kothe said. Most old places need to have time spent in fixing them up because the people before you don't clean it up. Carbon admits it gets crowded, especially when everyone is cooking at the same time and when there's not enough hot water for the shower. But as long as everyone has his own room, it’s no big deal. Besides, it's just a place to live for a semester, Kothe said, which is why most people put up with the housing. We thought we could stand it for a semester, Kothe said. The three were December graduates. Besides, it's cheap and close to school. fe The shoebox was quieter Moving off-campus creates excitement for many students and with it often comes apprehension. One UW-Eau Claire student was both excited and apprehensive when she made the move from dorm life to life above a Water Street bar. She was excited because she didn't have to worry about visitation, quiet hours, warnings and formats. Escaping to the bathroom with her guitar at midnight for privacy would be a thing of the past. And showering with everyone else and listening to a group of girls try to flush 12 toilets at the same time would all be in the past. Yes, she chose to leave all these fond memories behind. But the hopes of getting peace and quiet and privacy were replaced by loud music till 2 a.m., and a drunk at her door expecting to be put up for the night. She also gets to deal with jolly intoxicated souls who just love to stand outside the bar and talk till 4 a.m. She said she wouldn't mind if they were quiet or if they weren't below her room. It seems to her that every drunk thinks that the other is deaf. But there are advantages to this, she said. It's a great way to catch up on gossip. She figured that since they're keeping her awake, she has the right to eavesdrop. (Not to mention how much fun she has at it.) It's quite interesting when you can recognize the voices from below! At first she said she thought dorm life wasn't right for her and now she knows that living off-campus isn't right either. She asks for the return to her shoebox, the ol' dorm room. Is Sorority houses Living off-campus incorporates longer walks to school, cooking one's own meals, plenty more cleaning and hassles with bill-paying. It often means a room to yourself, playing the stereo as loudly as you like, cooking what you want when you want, and having new found freedoms outside dorm life. Students in this off-campus housing live with these circumstances for a segment of their college life, perhaps two or three years. Then they move on to jobs and careers. However, several houses of women at UW-Eau Claire experience a type of college living allowing such an environment, but with extra dimensions incorporating a life-long bond of sisterhood. 32 living