How to Occupy Your Time if You’re A Resident Student

If you’ve lived on campus, chances are that you’ve been bored quite a number of times. Our Resident population is about one in eight and that really shows in the number of things to do here – particularly on the weekends when most of that limited population goes home to visit friends or family elsewhere. Myself and a few other Rambassadors fall into that category and over the years, everyone has come up with their own ways to occupy time between classes and on the weekend.

Let’s start out with home base – that is, literally home base: the building in which you live in. There are three residential halls on campus, all of them in a little triangle towards the back end of campus.


Dewey Hall is our freshman only building.

If you’re a freshman, chances are you’re in Dewey Hall which is the only freshman residence hall. Dewey Hall offers something that the other halls do not offer, double rooms in a corridor style. While that might not sound like much, it makes it very easy to socialize and meet people here. There’s also television on every floor which gives us method number one; the good old television. I’ve seen many people gather up a group of friends to watch the premiere of some show on the screens – not only that, but if you have the right cables, you can definitely hook up your game console for some pretty sick Mario Party nights. Dewey Hall also boasts its own gym on the first floor, as well as a pool table for you to enjoy some games with some friends.


Orchard Hall (Left) and Alumni Hall (Right) are our upperclassmen buildings.

If you’re an upperclassman, either Orchard Hall or Alumni Hall will be your venue – let’s start off with Orchard. Orchard Hall is our largest residence hall on campus; it houses around four hundred in suite style rooms where you share bathrooms with the rest of your suitemates. You can stay in either a double or your own single, which makes it the easiest to interact with other people in your suite. Like Dewey Hall, Orchard also has televisions on every floor in which you can watch your shows or play games on. Unlike Dewey Hall though, Orchard has a designated game floor – the third floor that has a ping pong table and a foosball table. I’ve seen many a night where people gather with their friends for a fierce game of ping pong or foosball, sometimes the resident coordinator will come out and compete as well in good fun.

Alumni Hall is a little different from the other two halls; this is the only hall that is all singles and all upperclassmen. Most residents who choose to live in Alumni more than likely like their space and prefer to venture outside of their building to engage in things – however for those who like to stay indoors, Alumni also has a large television in their lobby and a pool table.

 


RA Events and RHA Events are a great way to meet people.

If you’re talking about events within the residence halls though, you can’t ignore RA events! Residence Assistants will often host different events every month meant to engage the community and for everyone to just plain have fun. Not only that, but we have our Residence Hall Association (RHA) planning larger events where you can come out for fun activities, free food, and great people.


The Teaching Garden is a beautiful place on campus to relax and unwind.

What if you don’t want to do things inside of the residence halls? Sometimes it can get real stuffy being in the same place all the time! There are plenty of other places to explore on campus aside from that! If you’re in the mood for some relaxation whilst enjoying some beautiful foliage, drop by the Teaching Gardens on campus. During the summer, the Horticulture department works hard to maintain all the plants within.


Nold Hall is our main athletic complex on campus.

Want to work out with great equipment and a larger space than Dewey Hall? Step over to Nold Hall and enjoy our brand new gym! Not only that, if you’re interested in joining any of our sports teams, all practices are held in this same building.


Joining a club is another great choice!

Joining a club is another great way to meet people and engage in events. For a list of clubs and other organizations, visit our RamCentral page. Every student can make a profile and join clubs in order to find out meeting times or events each club is holding.


This one’s a bit of a shameless plug.

Pretty sure you all knew this was coming but, join Rambassadors! I’ve worked on campus in various jobs – which is another thing you can definitely do to pass the time but nothing has been more enjoyable to me than working with Rambassadors. You get to meet some truly great people whilst being able to do events for good causes such as tabling to raise money for breast cancer awareness as well as some purely student focused events such as spirit day and Rambo’s birthday!

This is but a small number of things to do on campus but I hope that something has caught your eye!