Residence life be like...

Watching American series about university life created strong stereotypes about dorms and how students manage the households by themselves. Honestly, in real life it is not like that. It is even more fun! Not that I am bragging, but when you spend 24/7 in student community with people approximately your age – that cannot be compared with living outside the campus.

CBU has three residence buildings: Cabot, Alumni and Harris. Harris Hall is considered to be a main building. There you can find all mailboxes, meal hall, ATM, laundry card machine and offices of Director of Housing - Doug Connors and Residence Life Coordinator - Christine Harrietha. People who live in Harris do not have a kitchen so they eat in the meal hall. Apartments in Cabot and Alumni have kitchens. The only difference between 2 buildings is the number of rooms and bathrooms: Cabot has 4 bedrooms and 2 washrooms, Alumni has 5 bedrooms and 1 washroom, but cozier interior.

The first person you meet while moving in the residence is usually an RA. These students are on duty during the day and you can see whose shift is now by looking on a little white board near their boxes. RA is the first person to call if you have an emergency or want to make a noise complain. The list of Ras and their contact information in each building is on the first floor.

Living on campus have some huge benefits, like two-minute walk to classes, community life and heat. After you get used to buy groceries and doing laundry, the social part comes. Roommates will become either your best friends or worst enemies. You will quickly learn how to share space with strangers, but what takes time is building trust and respect. At the same time, you will meet your neighbours in the hallway and corridors. In couple weeks you will already know what is going on in your building and after you make friends with people from Harris and Cabot – congratulations, you are now truly a part of the residence life. Participating in events, going to parties and hanging in your friends’ apartments helps to socialize and build contacts.

There are also couple disadvantages like possible conflicts with roommates, distance from the city and grocery stores and power outages, because if the whole campus lost it – it is going to take a while to restore it.

I have been living in residence since September 2021. As for an international student that was a good idea and I have met many wonderful people there. By writing this article I am not trying to persuade anyone to choose on campus housing, but if you want to feel how the university lives – that would be the best thing to do.