2001
The Voice: Fall 2001
Students return to home on campus
Sally Jongsma
It’s an interesting irony that students always have opinions about where and how
they live on campus, yet say that housing accommodations did not play a
significant role in their decision about where to attend college. Senior Nick Vander
Kwaak from Johnston, Iowa, says, “Housing is a plus, but it wasn’t a
big deciding factor in where I went.”
Sophomore Joya Gerritsma from St. Catharines, Ontario, answers “Not at all” to the
question of whether housing affected her decision about where to go to college,
then having second thoughts adds, “Maybe if it had been really bad it
would have made a difference. Overall, the housing here is good,” says Gerritsma.
Most students seem to agree, according to student services staff.
Ken Boersma, vice president for student services who has had experience in both
small college and large university residence life administration describes Dordt’s housing as exceptional.
“One of the most positive things about our housing is the fact that
it is maintained and updated so regularly,” he says. Many institutions defer maintenance
on facilities and especially residence halls. Within the past few years, most of
Dordt’s residences have been built new or significantly renovated. Replacement of carpeting and
repainting is scheduled to happen on a regular basis.
Students notice this commitment. Vander Kwaak says clean, spacious rooms are what he
values most about where he lives. While he notes that not all Dordt
rooms are as spacious as others, moving from residence halls as a freshman
to apartment living as a senior—especially in Southview—allows students to have both. The clean, well-kept rooms are noted
and appreciated by most students.
First-year student Erin Houtsma from South Holland, Illinois, lives in East Hall with
her roommate, Katie Boer. The entire hall was renovated a year ago, with new carpeting,
paint, and lighting brightening the rooms. This
summer attractive oak lofts were built into each room. While Houtsma says housing
options had little effect on her decision to attend Dordt, she appreciates the
cleanliness and upkeep of the residence halls. “Our room is very comfortable and
feels like home,” she says. “The lofts make the room more spacious and
inviting. It’s so much easier for Katie and me to be doing two
different things in the room—like studying and sleeping—without feeling like we’re invading each
others’ space.” This past summer North Hall received a similar renovation.
Director of Resident Life Sandi Altena, who has stayed in numerous university residences
at young people’s conventions, says that while the amount of space at Dordt
is comparable to that at most other institutions, its upkeep is generally better.
Yet she also notes that despite students’ general appreciation for such surroundings, amount
of space or newness of rooms is not in the end the most
important housing factor for most Dordt students.
“What’s most important is where their friends are,” she says. In her experience
with assigning rooms, almost all students would give up a better room for
the opportunity to be where they want to be.
“My favorite thing about living on campus is constant community,” says Vander Kwaak.
“My friends are around me all the time, and whenever I want to
talk to someone, they are within walking distance.”
Freshman Andrew De Young from Minneapolis, Minnesota, agrees. “It’s not so much the
physical aspects of college housing that make you feel comfortable, but the social
aspects. The RA can make a big difference in making you feel at
home and so can having really good next door neighbors.”
Houtsma says, “Oddly enough, I really like having community bathrooms. It’s always open,
and you don’t have to worry about a showering schedule. And you meet
so many people by talking to them when you’re getting ready for bed.
I think the most important thing about good housing is the sense of
community and cleanliness. Dordt does a good job of both.”
With 1200 students living on campus, that sense of community is crucial, says
Altena. And it is something she and her residence life staff work at
building very consciously.
“Community experience is essential in the development of the whole person,” Altena says.
Putting people in community is almost always a catalyst for growth, she believes.
Even roommate conflicts can be good because they help individuals learn how to
work through difficulties in life, she says.
“I have a favorite line from one of Marva Dawn’s books that says
something like ‘God puts people in our churches that we don’t like so
that as Christians we learn how to love better.’ That applies to college
communities too,” Altena says.
Encountering differences and diversity are good for the maturing process,
and even though Dordt students do not deal with as much diversity as
students do at some schools, opportunities to grow through living in community are
present. Altena says she encourages residence life counselors to help students in their
wings and buildings not just tolerate diversity but celebrate it. That may present
challenges on a campus where many people come from similar backgrounds, but it
is worth doing, she says.
But does having so many people living in such a small area
present special problems? Not really, Altena says. In some ways it gives the
residence life staff more opportunities to accomplish their goals. Resident assistants, each of
whom is responsible for thirty-five to forty-five students, are trained to look for
opportunities to engage students in discussions about problems they face in their living
or studying and issues they confront through the news or in their classes.
Much of the interaction is reacting to what is happening in students’
lives. “If we can help someone deal with conflict in a Christian way,
we’ll have helped not only build community but helped a person grow,” says
Altena. If they can encourage students in an informal way to critically think
through political or cultural issues from a Christian point of view they will
have done their job.
The approach must be working, because few students even request to live
off campus.
“I would feel cut off if I didn’t live on campus,” says Gerritsma.
“You never know when something fun is going to happen with your friends—and
it usually happens spontaneously.” Altena can attest to the fact that in years
when housing is tight, most groups of student who are housed off campus
are not happy.
“Students come here partly for the sense of community,” Altena says. Boersma adds,
“The large percentage of students on campus really does give a sense of
belonging, a sense of family.” That sense stays with many students long after they leave campus.
“Living together and getting to know a group of people who will be
lifelong friends is an exciting time of life,” says Ken Boersma, vice president
for student services. He and his staff work hard to complement the education
students are gaining in the classroom with good living and learning experiences in
the rest of their day. He is pleased with the options Dordt offers
students both in physical facilities and community support. Living with people of varying
interests and majors enriches the living experience, he believes.
Dordt is somewhat unique for a school of its size, Boersma says, in
that it provides different kinds of living situations. First and second-year students generally
live in dormitory-style residence halls with two to a room and communal baths
or four-person suites with their own bath. Most juniors and seniors live in
apartments that vary in size but accommodate six people and allow students to
do their own cooking. This is a bit unusual, says Boersma, since most
colleges and universities require students living on campus to purchase a meal ticket.
Boersma is also happy with the North Hall renovations of this summer. All
residence halls now have direct Internet hook-ups, giving students more flexibility in choosing
where they work. Next on the schedule of renovations is East Campus, completing
the current round of updating in campus housing.
