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September 16, 2005
Learn by Doing?
During the Case for Community Day, I was talking to two alums. When I asked if they had lived in dorms and mentioned the Dorm Life project, they both began telling me some of their recollections. One involved an unfortunate meeting of a hot curling iron and a bedspread and the resulting notoriety of having caused an unpleasant evacuation of the dorm. The other I’m still trying to figure out. It had something to do with a beer keg and lengths of hose and principles of hydraulics. I think there was chemistry involved somehow. Application of classroom lessons to real life needs, I guess. I urged both alums to share their stories. Both seemed strangely reluctant to associate their mature and responsble selves with these memorable student learning experiences. Go figure.
Jill Tatem
University Archives
Posted by jmt3 at September 16, 2005 08:52 AM
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I have several memories of dorm life:
1. A snowball fight on the fourth floor of Tyler (yes, inside the dorm! We stopped finally when one of the guys slid around a corner and fell).
2. Reading/knitting night in Norton and Howe. I was part of a group of girls and guys who gathered every Tuesday night to listen to one person read The Count of Monte Cristo aloud while the rest of us knitted, crocheted, or struggled through our homework.
3. Norton when it was an all-girls' dorm. My freshman year in Norton was its last year as Castle Anthrax (if you don't understand that reference, you haven't seen enough Monty Python). My sophomore year we turned the fourth floor into an all-girls' haven, despite the second floor men (who were incredibly good people).
4. Midnight breakfasts when the faculty served the students. No more need be said!
5. Random snow sculptures that always popped up after the first few snow falls. My favorite was the swimmer being chased by a shark. All you saw was the head, one arm, the kicking feet, and the fin!
6. The requisite snowball fight that left everyone laughing, soaked to the skin, and exhausted. Requirements: snow, night, and some open ground.
7. Ultimate frisbee on northside. Friends running into trees during said game.
8. The upper classmen. I have to say, one of the stupider things that Case has done is to isolate the freshmen. I learned so much from the upper classmen when I lived in the dorms. Forming friendships with other freshmen was a given - we had class with each other. But living with people older and younger than me provided the ideal environment from the mentor/mentee relationships that are so important for out-of-classroom learning. Wisdom is meant to be passed on, not lost between generations. Or classes. Shame on Case for ignoring that.
9. And finally (though not really a dorm event), the best April Fool's Day joke ever - when some students got into Rock 301 lecture hall and turned all the chairs around! What they completed in 2 hours took the maintanence crew most of the day to fix. Go figure.
Posted by: Liz V at September 26, 2005 05:42 PM