One of the added advantages of having in-laws that live in Provo is every time we visit them, we can also visit my alma mater - Brigham Young University. I am a true blue cougar. I loved BYU before I went, loved it while I was there, and love it now. I still say I spent some of my best years on this campus. I love coming back and doing some of my favorite things - eating BYU creamery chocolate milk and ice cream, walking around in the Wilk (the student center and my second home in college), seeing the campus, watching current students run around living the college life. It brings back so many great memories.
This time, I passed a very sad site. It seems that BYU has decided to discontinue the use of one of its freshman dorm complexes - Deseret Towers. These seven towers have some six levels and house as many as 50 people on each floor (two people per room in traditional dorm style). I lived in T-hall my freshman year, the 5th floor, room 523.
Imagine my sadness as I drove by W-hall and saw its demolished remains lying in a heap. For whatever reason W-hall was chosen as the first to be destroyed. I am devastated to know that T-hall will meet that same fate sometime this summer.
Apparently, BYU believes that dorm living has become archaic and out of style and has decided to favor apartment style housing for on campus. And maybe they're right, maybe this is a more popular alternative, I haven't spent a lot of time studyinig it. But I will say this, I think it's a tragedy that they are discontinuing it. And I'll tell you why.
Dorm living is the best way to live your freshman year at BYU. You are put in a ward where everyone (except four resident assistants RAs) is a freshman. Everyone is brand new to BYU. Nobody knows anyone and everyone wants to make friends. You only have a tiny room as your living space - so everything else becomes your living space too. The rooms down the hall, the hallway, the common areas, the laundry room. This means that you meet TONS of people all the time. And fifty closets on your floor are open for borrowing clothes - a woman's dream!
Everyone eats at the Morris Center (the cafeteria) most meals*. This means you see all of your new friends for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No plans for later tonight? No problem, just go to dinner and see what's going on. Want an opportunity to run into your latest crush? Just figure out when he eats breakfast and make sure to "happen to be eating at the same time." The folks in my ward all ate together in different eating groups according to time. We had the 7am breakfast group, the 8am, and 9am. We had the 5pm dinner group, the 6pm dinner group, etc. They were my pals, my comrades. You can't get that in an apartment situation. In an apartment, you have to create your social activities, in the dorms they are created for you just by living there.
To this day, my freshman year was my best year at BYU. It was the one when I had the most fun. And the one when I made the most lasting friendships and memories. And I am convinced that many of those memories and friendships would not had been made had I lived in an apartment style setting. It's too bad that BYU has made this decision. Luckily, future BYU freshmen, at this point, still have the opportunity to live in Helaman Halls (another dorm complex) which for the time being is not a target of the demolition ball.
Farewell, Deseret Towers. Goodbye T-hall. You were my favorite college residence. Home to laughter, joy, and love. All who have graced your halls mourn your loss.
*The food, while not tremendous, is better than what I ate the rest of my college career - top ramen, mac & cheese, etc
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