Aaron Crabtree, dean of students at Grace College, Winona Lake, Ind., is quoted in an article about dorm life in The Huntingtonian, the campus newspaper for nearby Huntington College. A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article.
Nerdy, quirky, and sporty: HU dorm culture
“It’s kind of legendary all around campus,” said Brent Rocheleau, the current resident assistant on Baker second, when asked to elaborate on the origin story of “The Womb.” “A way, way long time ago we had someone come in, and they had this huge, huge beanbag … When he was getting ready to leave college, he said, ‘You know what, I don’t want to take this with me. It’s huge, and I can’t fit it in my car. But also, it’s become part of this floor, and I can’t take that away.’ It’s just kind of integrated itself into who we are as a floor.”…
According to Aaron Crabtree, dean of students at Grace College, dorm reputations come from two main sources: the people and their personalities, and a love of tradition.
“The students themselves tend to create a culture that tends to perpetuate itself as a portion of the same students sign up for the same res halls over and over,” Crabtree wrote in an email interview.
He also said that students tend to reproduce the leadership style and culture they experienced in previous years. The similarity within the college demographic makes small differences amplified.
Crabtree went on to say, “In a relatively insular community like a college — where 90 percent of the membership is in the same generation and life-stage — people look for differentiators.”
Click here to read the complete article.