Campus THEN and NOW Series - Part 12: Bean Complex

Caitlin H.

November 8, 2009 - 11:53 PM

Life in the residence halls was perhaps one of the single greatest aspects of college. My advice to all you perspective students out there: wherever you go to college, whether it is the University of Oregon or not, live on campus the first year. It will change forever the type of college experience you will have, for the better. It would be impossible for me to say everything about my experience living on campus in one post, so I imagine this will be a topic I return to from time to time. For today I just want to give you some background information about my experience.

When I transferred to the UO I wanted to live on campus even though I'd already lived in university housing before. I'd done the whole ‘new roommate you've never met before' lifestyle and I'd experienced what it was like to cram my worldly possessions in a smaller-than-you're-used-to room. But to me the ‘on campus experience' was such a valuable tool I couldn't pass it up. It was going to be a community instantly built for me when I transferred to a school where I didn't know anyone. It was all of that and more.

When I lived on campus I lived in the Bean East Complex in Parsons Hall. Nowadays that is immediately adjacent for the construction going on for the new basketball arena. When I was a sophomore living on campus I thought living in Bean was the best spot on campus. It makes me sad now to admit, I think it must be the worst. I'd never want to live next to a construction project that seems to never sleep. I haven't talked to anyone living in the area, but I imagine the worst. I'll leave it for you to decide.

I can still remember what it was like the first day I moved into the hall. Actually for that matter I can still remember exactly where I lived, room 302. I remember the room numbers of most of my friends from the hall. Most of my friends, I will add, that I still engage with, communicate with, and rely on to this day. Kate Brown, my neighbor to the left at the top of the stairs, had a note on her door saying, ‘her friends called her Kate instead of Kathryn' when we moved in. It makes me laugh to think of that now because I recall slightly judging that note, and within a month we were such good friends we were practically attached at the hip. Maybe I was wrong to question the experience at first but, in the end, it changed my life. That was how it went for the Parson's kids of ‘06-‘07. I wouldn't have believed it possible, but many of us became insta-friends. And then the friendships never really seemed to go away. From the fall of 2006 to the spring of 2007, there was a lot of bonding that happened amongst us.

In hindsight I feel as though I did nearly everything that first year with folks from my hall. There were the dinners in the Common Grounds Café, the athletic events together, the doing homework together, the board games in the lounge, or in the hallway, actually just random mischief in the hallways in general, the laundry, the trips into the city. There are few memories I look back upon from that year on campus and can't recall anyone from the residence halls. We were a family. An odd and diverse family, but that is what we became. And hopefully before the year is out, I'll be able to share with you some of our family stories. Perhaps just one for today:

One thing really hasn't changed since I was a sophomore at Oregon - I'm still slow to get my laundry done. At first it was because I lived on the third floor, laundry was in the basement, that was four doors to go through, three flights of stairs, plus, I had to pay money to wash my clothes. If I didn't have money on my laundry card, I'd have to go to another residence hall complex to get money on my laundry card. That was just too much work for a young, excited college student to focus on regularly. There were FAR too many other exciting things to be doing than laundry once a week. In general, this resulted in a mass pile of laundry that needed to be done all at once instead of spread out in increments. At least I could always look forward to doing laundry with a buddy - I was never alone in my massive pile of clothes. I recall one time I'd let the backlog of washing get particularly bad. Kate (from next door) had relented with me and accepted it must be done. Well, I've already mentioned I lived on the third floor, laundry was in the basement, there were doors between us- my goal was really to get everything to the washing machine and to my room in as few trips as possible. Kate was holding the door for me as I juggled my precariously balanced mountain of clothes out the door into the hallway. Before I made the first turn around the stairs, my brand new bottle of fabric softener took the plunge, and burst as it hit the floor of the stairwell. Although slightly discouraged I lost supplies for my cleaning effort, it was mildly amusing. And hey, we had the best smelling hall on campus for like a month!