By Steven Postolka
When I first came to Morningside as a freshman in 2007, I chose to live on a freshman hall.  I made this choice because I felt it would be better for my college experience during my first year.  But before I came to college, I did not really know what it would be like to live in a dorm building.  It’s true that I had come for a visit day and had spent a night in Dimmitt.  But my choice to live on a freshman hall was largely misguided.

I expected a freshman hall to be relatively calm.  I figured that the older students would want to party more than the new ones.  And while I don’t consider myself to be a dull person, I also wasn’t interested in drinking during my first year.

After spending a couple years at Morningside, I’ve seen that the reality is the opposite.  It seems like more partying, drinking, and generally stupid stuff happens on freshman halls, not less.

And when you think about it, this makes sense.  The idea of a freshman hall is to take a group of students who have no previous experience in college and put them in the same housing unit.  These students may or may not know the kind of effort it takes to be a college student, and in fact they probably have lighter workloads than the upperclassmen.

So we end up taking a bunch of inexperienced teenagers straight from high school with more-than-average free time on their hands and having them live together.  Do you see a problem here?

But let’s think about this from a different perspective.  According to Morningside, there are several reasons for living on a freshman-only hall.  Morningside’s website has the following to say: “The biggest benefit [about freshman halls] is that you will be living on a floor with people who are in the same situation as you: freshmen looking to meet people and make new friends.”

And that’s probably the main reason why I signed up for a freshman hall when I came here.  I wanted to be around people that were just as new to the situation as I was.  Well, I got what I asked for.

In some ways, I wish Morningside had more halls only for upperclassmen.  In my experience, upper classmen make less noise and do better at controlling their alcohol consumption.

But I know that this isn’t the right thing to do.  The best living situation is to have students of all age levels living together.  We all see enough students of our own age groups in our classes.  Living with other students can be better for all involved.  Upperclassmen can benefit by meeting new students.  And the freshmen might learn some things from the upperclassmen. (Nov. 12)

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