A Community of Strangers

     On ASU's official website, there is a page dedicated to informing prospective students of what they can expect going into their freshman years. The page includes details about housing that outline an experience of a "close-knit culture" and "creative connections" that result from living in dorms that house students with similar majors (ASU.edu). First of all, from personal experience, I can assure that in Adelphi II, the community is not close-knit and creative connections are not being made. I am not saying I have not made friends because that would be a lie, but I am saying that when my peers and I are in our dorms, we are usually working on homework or sleeping.
      A study was done at "a major research university in the Midwest" on how dorms effect students openness to diversity (Pike 284).The results showed that dorm life does help students more become accepting of diverse situations. While these findings seemingly provide a compelling counter-argument against my thesis, this was only conducted at one school so the theory is limited. First off, 73% of the participants in the study were female, and only 8 percent were in a minority group. So, as it may suggest a positive outcome, the variables did not allow for clean research. It exposes students to a fresh environment and challenges students to grow as people, but there is a catch. That justification for personal growth does not apply to forcing students into it. Community exists everywhere and it does not have to be limited to campus-sanctioned locations.

[Source: Ryan Rash]