Dorm Life: Not as Disastrous as It Seems

Novalea Verno, Staff Reporter

Bloomsburg University’s newest push to have students spend the first two years on campus has been met with many groans from the student body. For many, being forced to live in a small room with roommates and be subjected to communal bathrooms is torture. The threat of nosy neighbors at midnight or random roommate assignments gone wrong has tainted this aspect of the college experience. Despite all that, living in a dorm has a lot of positive aspects that make it worthwhile. 

The dorm-life experience allows students to have easy access to campus. Bloomsburg’s dorm buildings are all centrally located on the lower campus. This provides students with an easy walk to class and helps new students learn the lay of the land. The close-knit nature of the locations of the dorms allows new students to be close to others in a similar boat.

Staying at a dorm also gives students access to their floor’s Community Assistants. CA’s are student leaders living in the residence halls. These individuals provide students with fun activities to participate in throughout the year. These activities range from cookie decorating to friendly volleyball competitions.

“The CA’s have quite a bit of events that they plan. It’s a nice way to get together with people from your dorm and get to know people,” said Emeline Eshelman, a freshman living in a dorm this year.

Being in a dorm also allows students to learn responsibility and be confident in their ability to be independent. Putting students in a position where they need to do their own laundry, buy groceries and budget their time allows them to develop their sense of responsibility. With the assistance of CA’s and Graduate Hall Directors, students are given a safe environment to mature independently but still have people around them to help along the way.

Overall, living in a dorm doesn’t live up to all the haunting tales told by alumni or seniors ready to hightail it out of here.

“I don’t mind [dorm life], I’ve gotten used to it…. It is what it is,” said freshman Abby Bubb.

At the end of the day, it’s an experience that will shape each of us for better or worse.