![Nelson Hall Resident Director Kendall Engelke Davis looks over to see what Resident Assistant Chloe Smith paints. For her weekly 8 p.m. staff development meeting in Nelson Shack April 16, Engelke Davis held a watercolor event to relieve stress. “It’s a unique opportunity to get to really invest and be in [RAs’] lives,” Engelke Davis said, “which I consider such a privilege.”](http://thebuclarion.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/041624_KendallEngelkeDavis_Holland_05-1200x800.jpg)
Freshman explore Lissner Life
Christine Ramstad
“The Co-ed living is terrible,” Brennan White joked when asked about being one of the freshman living the upperclassmen life in Lissner Hall.
The dorm experience for the 51 first-year Lissner residents differs from life of the roughly 800 freshmen living in Nelson or on the hill.
Living in Lissner grants the freshmen upperclassmen visitation hours and eliminates freshman rules, for example, having a shoe in the door when a student of the opposite gender is inside.
“It’s really important that we can still cultivate the communal freshman lifestyle even while living in suites,” Sydney Graham, a second-floor RA said. “We keep our doors open and try to still focus on the larger community. It definitely requires a little more effort when your entire floor doesn’t share a bathroom.”
“It’s nice having higher expectations to live by,” Jacob Nugent, a Lissner freshman, said. He explained that the Lissner freshmen have a new respect for the rules by knowing that other freshman aren’t experiencing the same freedom.
John Farris, the Assistant Dean for Resident Life, explained that having freshmen living harmoniously under upperclassmen rules will not open up conversation about loosening up visitation hours rules for all freshman.
Why?
Farris said it’s because the rules in freshmen housing have nothing to do with the fact that the students are freshmen.
According to Farris he limited visitation hours in freshmen dorms are in place to provide students with the necessary privacy that’s harder to maintain with dormitory-style bedrooms and bathrooms. Visitation hours ensure that students can shower, use the bathrooms, change clothes, study, sleep, etc. without the disturbance of the opposite gender in their living spaces. The rules are made according to the physical spaces that students are living in and are not based off any behaviors associated with freshmen students.
Though the Lissner freshman are more isolated from the rest of the freshman class, they extend an invite to get to know other students. That is, if they are willing to make the walk.
Nugent, a Lissner freshman, said. He explained that the Lissner freshmen have a new respect for the rules by knowing that other freshman aren’t experiencing the same freedom.
John Farris, the Assistant Dean for Resident Life, explained that having freshmen living harmoniously under upperclassmen rules will not open up conversation about loosening up visitation hours rules for all freshman.
Why?
Farris said it’s because the rules in freshmen housing have nothing to do with the fact that the students are freshmen.
According to Farris he limited visitation hours in freshmen dorms are in place to provide students with the necessary privacy that’s harder to maintain with dormitory-style bedrooms and bathrooms. Visitation hours ensure that students can shower, use the bathrooms, change clothes, study, sleep, etc. without the disturbance of the opposite gender
in their living spaces. The rules are made according to the physical spaces that students are living in and are not based off any behaviors associated with freshmen students.
Though the Lissner freshman are more isolated from the rest of the freshman class, they extend an invite to get to know other students. That is, if they are willing to make the walk.
