by Kathryn Abruzzo
Walk into the front door and past the signs for Scavenger Hunts worth $200, and the “Jogues Idol” contest, down the first floor male hallway. Most of the doors are open and there’s Eminem blasting down the hallway of Jogues One.
“Hey you!” yells a male freshman. “You gotta come see this!” he continues as he walks down the hallway leading to another male, hair slicked back, fully dressed in a black leather jacket, sunglasses, blue plaid shorts and white socks, singing and dancing in the hallway. There is a crowd of other freshmen laughing and having the time of their life.
They’re all happy about the Department of Residence Life’s decision to make Jogues an all freshmen dorm this year. It gives a chance to “meet a lot of people in your grade at once, this way you can find which people fit you the best,” said Chris Daniele ’06. He is happy that he is in a freshman dorm because he does not feel “intimidated” talking to people like he would if there were upperclassmen around.
Mike Fallzone ’06, the dancer, said, “The all freshmen dorm is good because you can develop friendships that you’ll keep down the road.”
One of the giggling bystanders, Kristin Huss ’06, said, “I like [the dorm] it a lot , it’s fun.”
Residence Life’s approach to freshmen living this year is not a new one. The idea of the “whole package” of the freshmen experience was coined by Don Gardener at South Carolina State 25 years ago.
Fairfield had experimented with freshman dorms over 10 years ago, but stopped to give students a different experience. This meant intermingling dorms, classes and the cafeterias.
With this approach students still get to know their entire class by the time they graduate. “Having only 800 people in a graduating class, and knowing all of them is a big selling point for Fairfield,” said Laura Cantrell of Residence Life.
Jogues Hall holds approximately 300 people, less than half the freshman class. The other freshmen are scattered throughout the residence halls with the rest of the student body.
The “whole package” approach to freshmen year goes hand in hand with the freshmen experience (FYE) groups. In the Residence Life office there is a shelf dedicated to the freshman experience, and a stack of magazines dealing with freshman housing. Fairfield has done its studying, and according to Cantrell, Fairfield has a “great program” for the freshmen.
“Research shows housing freshmen together leads to a larger retention rate,” Cantrell said. Helping them create bonds to each other and to the faculty members helps their transition.
Allison Lebonitte, the residence hall coordinator of Jogues is very happy with the change. “It is working out very well,” said Lebonitte. She was RHC of Campion last year and after comparing the two she said “the freshmen in Jogues have much more enthusiasm for their hall.”
“We had Jogues Idol last week,” similar to American Idol, “and the room was filled, there were over 30 kids there.”
She attributes this in part to the resident assistants in Jogues. The RAs were hand-picked for Jogues, particularly the ones who would take an active interest in the students there.
Frank Ficko, assistant director of Security, also gives the RA staff credit. Jogues has not had any major misconduct violations this year and no more problems than any other dorm. “Credit goes to the RAs who are there all the time watching what goes on.” said Ficko.
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