Housing Perspectives: Vandy/Barnard
Aaron Stannard
Issue date: 8/20/05 Section: opinion
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Versus Magazine Online [Image based format]
Life in the Vanderbilt/Barnard dormitory was an excellent experience last year. My floor, Vandy 4, was filled with terrific and lively people, and the building itself provided us with areas to cram for exams, hang out, do laundry, play poker, or get plastered. Dorm life is driven largely by the people, but that doesn't mean that the character of the building doesn't contribute either.
You will find that you are fairly self-sufficient at Vandy/Barnard; you have a mini-mart (with an awful doorbell), a decent sized laundry area (you'll get to meet plenty of nice Kissam kids who are washing-machine deprived), lounges (great poker spots), and class rooms, which are vacant in the evening and serve as a great area to get actual studying done. You have the disadvantage of being a bit further from the Greek areas and the Rec Center, but that won't stop you from going to either place. Regardless, you're likely to make most of your closest friends in your dorm, and Vandy/Barnard, like all dorms on campus, is sure to have people to your liking.
One of my favorite things to do was, of course, underage drinking, such as closet beer pong tournaments and botched attempts at making Jello shots in the dormitory kitchen. You'll find that as long as you don't do anything to irritate your RA early-on during the course of your stay at Vandy/Barnard, you probably won't run into any trouble. On a guys floor, you can stay out in the halls late without as much as seeing your RA; the girls' floors, however, are usually very quiet during the late hours and are probably not the best place to be if you are doing anything in the halls. In short, if you want to avoid getting written up, keep your RA happy, or don't let them know that it was you who vomited in the elevator.
Enjoy your stay, and welcome to Vanderbilt.
{Aaron Stannard} will be drinking his nights away in Gillette, after spending a year on the run in Vandy/Barnard.