AS A TRANSFER student, I have encountered many factors that have hindered my adjustment to Virginia. Coming from a small liberal arts school in Vermont, where Greek life is nonexistent and the nearest fast food restaurant is miles away, I have experienced a fair amount of what one would call culture shock in transferring to the University. Probably the most jarring obstacle to deal with upon transferring was the housing situation I found myself in. Along with other on-Grounds transfer students, I was "awarded" housing in Gooch/Dillard dorms for the year, relegated to the extreme edge of the University's social life in that prison-like cluster of buildings. The housing division and the Office of Resident Life currently runs a program that intentionally places transfer students in Gooch/Dillard dorms, but despite its ostensibly good aims, such an idea only complicates a difficult transitional period in the life of the transfer student. Transfers that wish to live on Grounds should be offered closer, more centrally-located housing in an attempt to smooth the rocky process of beginning life at a new school.
Gooch, quite simply, is a bad dorm. If it is not the furthest dorm from Central Grounds, it is certainly near the top of that list, and residents are faced with the equally unappealing choices of walking or cycling on the heavily trafficked Alderman Road or bussing themselves towards civilization. Of course, the distance from classes is only half the issue, and the sheer divide that separates Gooch/Dillard from popular social areas like Rugby Road and 14th Street is enough to discourage even the most avid pedestrian from making that sojourn on a Thursday or Friday night. While many University students deal with long walks to class and parties, the issue more acutely affects transfers because Gooch ostracizes its newly-transferred residents physically from a social environment to which they are already outsiders.
As unfortunate as its remote location is the inhibitive effect that Gooch/Dillard's prison-inspired architecture has on the interrelation and interaction of its residents. If you've ever been over to Gooch/Dillard you'll agree; the structure of the buildings is restrictive and closed off, creating segregated little pockets of life in the suite without allowing for an active, open community among neighbors. There is no central room or building in which neighbors can interact, and even the simple pleasantry of hall conversation is impossible due to the dimly lit outdoor walkways that serve in place of hallways.
While this all comes across as pretty grim, for transfers, this situation can be an outright nightmare. While non-transfer Gooch/Dillard residents chose to live in Gooch/Dillard for its peace and seclusion from the rest of the University,? transfers are set up to fail, entering into the miserable dorms without even knowing what awaits them. Transfers need every advantage possible to get accustomed to the University, and being sequestered from even the neighbors in one's building makes adjustment that much more difficult. Current upperclassmen that select Gooch/Dillard for residence do so for a reason, but for transfers, the lack of community in these dorms can be a crippling blow to the overall experience of the first few semesters at the University.
For the sake of full disclosure, it must be noted that I no longer live in Gooch. I am in Brown College now, and despite what you may have heard, it is a great place to live on Grounds. Gooch/Dillard is so hard on new transfers that many others made the same attempt to escape, and despite binding contracts that the Housing Division enforces zealously, took up residence off Grounds in more social and comfortable locations. "I ended up moving off Grounds and paying double rent, I had such a bad experience," admits former transfer and Gooch resident Laura Deakins. One of my former suitemates in Gooch also went this route, forgoing the oppressive living conditions for a more socially-viable location on Wertland Street. Dean of Resident Life Jason Shaffer? reports that the feedback to the program placing transfers in Gooch/Dillard? has been moderately positive, citing increased attendance at ResLife events in the area as one indication of the program's success. But with residents accepting additional leases off Grounds just to escape from Gooch/Dillard, the overall effectiveness of the program must be reevaluated. There are more conveniently located and socially central residential areas on Grounds, like Lambeth. The housing division and ResLife could avoid many of the issues that plague the current transfer housing system by placing incoming students in one of these areas instead of the dreaded Gooch/Dillard.
The transfer experience is a difficult one in itself. Moving from one school to another gives rise to quite a few problems, but at the University, those problems are compounded by the poorly-devised program that removes on-Grounds transfer residents away from central social and academic areas of the school. It makes sense to group transfer students together, but they should be put in a place where they can enjoy both the social aspects of the University and the company of their peers. Gooch/Dillard offers neither option. The housing division and the Office of Resident Life must recognize the detrimental impact that a Gooch/Dillard address has on the transition of transfers and reorganize the structure of the program to provide housing arrangements for these new students that augments and accelerates the acclimatization process, rather than retarding it.
David Infante's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at dinfante@cavalierdaily.com.
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