University of Tennessee Knoxville - Volunteer Yearbook (Knoxville, TN)

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joy. However, the older ones are often quieter than students; after living in a dorm, or in the city, some peace is welcome. If the apartment is far from cam- pus and friends, entertaining might be a little more difficult to arrange, but the extra room for partying probably compensates, and certainly the social life is more flexible if there are no parents, hours, and male guests that need to be escorted. Regardless of roommates, DCtS, neighbors, or social life, the individual can gain or lose a great deal in apart- ment living depending on his attitude. One can become a good cook, or ac- quire a taste for Hamburger Helper, and feel he,s coped with the larger problem. Fastidious cleaning and ar- ranging is fine, or the tenants can adopt a iileisure living attitude iiipar- don the mess, but we're studying for examsi'i. But, the overly neat tenant with inadequate time, mores, or skill to keep the place clean-or who has a roommate with more practical stan- dards-should go back to the dorm or to his mother. Apartment dwellers are often en- vied by those who live in residence halls or at home because of ignorance of the role a tenant plays in this un- usual living environment. Prospective tenants must realize that the apart- ment dweller is in an island; there is no iiproperty , only rented walls and streetlights glaring in at night. The tenant must handle salesmen, man- agers, and those littleiH bugs that ap- pear at night and during parental visits. Nevertheless having an apart- ment gives a bit of independence and, occasionally, privacy that home and hall never offer. In the end, the tenant is still able to say, Hthis is my apart- ment. After all, the university cannot throw him out at the end of nine months. 29

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choosing a lifestyle . . . APARTMENT Since UT housing only accommo- dates one fourth of the student body, a large number of students must try their luck at apartment living. Choosing an apartment without expe- rience is like ordering from a French .menu without understanding the lan- guage. Not even the landlord knows forsure. Unless one lives alone with a maid, certain adjustments must be made. One rents not just an apart- ment; one acquiresawhole new life- style. Considering the poor reputation of youthful tenants, it is no surprise that managers take a dim view of college students. th0 lease, eh? The attitude of the landlord may sometimes vary, according to the demand for his housing. West-side owners must be polite, at least, to fill their compart- ments; if a Fort Sanders Ieaser, though, bothers to paint the walls, or even smile, he is doing it out of the kindness of his heart. lYes, landlords do have heartsl There are usually two patterns of acquiring roommates. One individual may take the initiative to get the apartment, and then ask a friend to share it, thinking that a good friend makes a good roommate. Many good friends have been lost in this manner. Alternately, two dorm roommates may decide to move into better quar- ters. Certainly they are accustomed to 28 LIVING tolerating one another, and may even be friends anyway. Nevertheless, the greater responsibilities of apartment livingecooking, cleaning, rent-can make close friends too close. Acquiring a new pet for an apart- ment, or a new apartment with the pet, may add a new realm of experi- ence to any tenantls life. Having hid- den the animal from a resident advi- sor, he may then have to hide it from a superintendent. The owner may dis- cover that his roommate hates the pet, and may even be allergic to it. The problem, usually, is that the room- mate likes pets in general, but despises this particular pet, even to the point of encouraging it to play in the street. Apartment owners probably prefer plants, because of obvious advantages over pets. Plants may soil the carpet, but in a pleasanter way than pets. Plants donlt bark, or fly away, or have litters at inopportune moments. A burglar may not fear a house plant, but even a stationary cactus is better protection than the typical pet. Plants, however, like pets, have an owner who will usually consider them before a roommate. Except in the university-owned complexes, there is no guarantee that neighbors will be students. Middleaged or elderly neighbors might object to activities and sounds that the younger generation would tolerate, or even en-

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choosing a lifestyle . . . Because UT traffic is frantic, every student who has ever run across a street knows that there are two types of pedestrians: quick and dead. Yet many campus residents are un- aware of the dominant, driving force of the motorized melee; they stroll to class, or catch a bus, unaware of the fierce struggle in which fellow human beings are participating, risking lives and property to accomplish the goal - finding a parking place. Yet commuting may actually be an acceptable mode of life, the foremost benefit being that a commuter can live somewhere other than in the UT vicin- ity. A constant emigration from cam- pus housing to cosier, more distant digs indicates that, for many students, the comfort or saving compensates for a twice daily battle. A commuter may also come to enjoy a new outlook on life: those who cheat death on Alcoa Highway may worry little about such trifles as low grades. As a third bene- fit, veteran rush-hour drivers can fit a car into a small space of any descrip- tion. lgnoring all rules of humanity, conduct or road sportsmanship, a driver may trap six cars, close off an exit 0r render a fire lane useless. To park all day in a 15-minute zone or private lot, to know the price struc- ture of every lot tand every parking 30 finel in town, and to back a car over a sidewalk, grass, or patch of ground, are some of the skills possessed by a veteran commuter who knows that CA stickers are oversold two to one. Preparing for the first class of the day, the commuter must allow for a transportation interval. A 7:50 class, for example, becomes a 7: 15 for those riding the Golf Range bus. If they miss the bus by a minute - always one minute, never five - they still must drive or pedal. As the quarter goes by, the commuters trim transpor- tation time to a minimum, knowing that unexpected chores such as coax- ing a cold engine will be notes missed in class. Even if Ol' Nuts and Bolts is willing to run, a sudden dearth of acreage in the parking lot can bring that situation commuters know so well - driving futilely around by one's classroom while one's classmates are already taking notes. The frustrations of commuting - maybe it's the challenge, or opportu n- ity to release inner academic frustra- tions, that keeps these diligent people on the road insearch of higher educa- tion.