SEAHO Report - Winter 2023 - 32

with me about his daily routine of going through
each section of his room to do certain tasks or fulfill
a need. His room was split into four sections: bed,
desk, food cart, and the " living room, " which was a
futon on a carpet with a coffee table and television.
The sections would occasionally overlap if Tyler
needed to use the desk to prep his cooking supplies
or if he wanted to lounge and do school work, but
were normally used for the given purpose.
Surprisingly, people brought more items with them
this semester than they have in the past. This is
because of the limitations put on shared spaces such
as the study lounges and kitchens. Most people
canceled their dining plans this semester and opted
to provide meals on their own. The kitchens have
a limit of one user at a time, making it difficult to
plan when to cook dinner since the other residents
operate on different schedules. People brought
more kitchen appliances from home to use in their
rooms. These appliances take up space, encouraging
people to dedicate a section of furniture or the
room to kitchen needs. This allows people to sustain
themselves while operating independently.
Several participants discussed how they bought more
decorative items. The preexisting items shown in
their pictures were ones that were made or given to
the participants by their friends and family. However,
participants wanted different decorations and bought
new ones, such as lights or, as found in many cases,
rugs. In one instance, a participant admitted to
buying a coat rack for their room in a residence hall
on campus. They could not justify the purchase but
felt the room " needed it " to feel more homely during
the rough parts of the semester, around the time
people were being sent home and the clusters were
emerging.
People still decided to stay despite the university
asking people to move back home. There were
people with hardships, meaning they did not have
an environment back home that was conducive to
remote learning. There were others, however, that
managed to stay on campus, making me question
why they stayed. For Tyler, it was because he was
employed by the university's housing department and
was contracted to stay. He did have a choice to leave
32
if he wanted, but felt the income was important as
well as the ability to socialize with his friends, many of
whom were on the same staff as him, making it easy
to safely spend time with others physically.
Tyler also said that he chose the community he
was working in because of the great memories he
has from his first year at the university. For him,
the community feels like home and he will always
associate " home " with it. When asked why he has a
strong sense of attachment to the community, Tyler
replied: " I also just think that the quad that we have
is picturesque; it's something that you would imagine
when you think of a college residential community.
It provides a lot of space to get outside and be
close to the people you love. I also just have a lot
of memories in this place and it's always something
I want to keep coming back to. [...] You always talk
about finding your 'people' when you come to
college and I feel like freshman year I was able to do
that [...] once I moved here and met people in my
hall. [...] We would spend so much time together.
We would bake cupcakes for people's birthdays and
decorate them with stuff from the garden, even if it
didn't go together. And we would just lay out in the
quad on our picnic blankets and our friend would
play their guitar for us. It just felt like a movie since
college students are typically portrayed in that way. "
This quote, edited for clarity, was the most important
part of the interview. This highlights the way the
sense of attachment, the sense of " home, " is created
from not just tangible sources like physical location
or material décor, but from the community it exposes
you to. This also exemplifies the urban folklore
influences of adapting rituals to the urban setting
by utilizing resources around you. Additionally, by
coming back to the community, Tyler is memorializing
his first year by sharing his story with others and
partaking in rituals such as baking cupcakes despite
the passage of time. Underclassmen, when hearing
Tyler's story, will adopt some of his practices and
will begin the process of creating a contested space
with the quad, placing ownership of it. It would
break social norms if someone chose to lounge on
this quad instead of their own or the Wilson quad
because the quad would belong to the community
and the residents that live there.
SEAHO Report - Winter 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Winter 2023
