English major Danielle Sanzone' 05 is now a reporter for the Troy Record; she was involved in more campus activities than we have room to list! Examples of recent theme cottages: Habitat for Humanity Ray Ross (coeducational African American organization) Outdoor Alternatives (the Outing Club hangout) Low-Impact Living Greenhouse La Casa Latina Pink Triangle Commons College (residents take a self-designed course together) Women’s Resource Center Artists’ Guild Coffee House (residents of this cottage are responsible for programming at an alcohol-free night spot for stand-up comics, folk singers, etc.) Black Women’s Residence Residence Life Office

Living Space
Look for colleges where you’ll have housing options.

By Danielle Sanzone ’05

Maybe you think residential living is being pretty much the same whatever college you go to.  Not so.  On St. Lawrence’s campus alone there are many options for campus living.

As a first-year student, you will find that your housing arrangement is part of your First-Year Program, or FYP to its many friends—you’ll be living, most likely in a double room, with the 30 or so other students in your first-year college (you’ll get to indicate your preferences for a college over the summer). These colleges are coeducational; thus, so is their living component.

After the first year, living options open up: suites, Greek living, block housing, theme housing, theme floors and finally, in your last year, senior townhouses, if you qualify (see below). All of these require membership in an organization or an application, so either you must be motivated enough to go through all that, or else accept the outcome of the lottery that determines who gets what in the traditional residence halls.

But the extra motivation can be rewarded.  In the suites, for example, you get a small kitchen and a living room. And you have to share a bathroom only with the people you’ve chosen to live with!  Suite populations typically range from four to six.  Typically, members of clubs, organizations and sports teams apply to live in these suites. “Theme housing” often means a “theme cottage,” which is a real house on the edge of campus. Students can propose a theme cottage for any theme they can come up with, and the ones that are approved can change from year to year (see sidebar for the 2006-07 list).

Greek housing is very similar except that you have to be a member of the fraternity or sorority. Greek living normally includes a separate meal plan along with other forms of independence. Not all members of Greek organizations choose to live in the houses, though.

If you’re in a residence hall (they used to be called “dorms),” you have options too. When a group of friends want to live together they apply for block housing or to live on a “theme floor.” In block housing, a group of people live on the same floor because they specifically asked to live near each other.  Theme floors are basically the same thing, except the people have similar interests.  A couple of recent theme floors at St. Lawrence have been the Scholars Floor and the Substance-Free Floor.

When your senior year approaches, you can apply to live in a senior townhouse. You must be active on campus, be well-rounded, and have good grades. If you make the cut, you’ll get a large single room, two bathrooms for five people, a large living room and a large kitchen. Each house also has a patio, and there is a barbeque pit at the end of the townhouse complex. It’s in a secluded corner of campus, right next to the golf course—what more could you ask for?

With all of these options to chose from, college residential life is anything but monotonous.