As the class of 2015 prepares for
the final stretch of its first year, it behooves one to remember that some of
these fine young things are struggling
to make ends meet. That’s right—
come fall many members of the rising
sophomore class will be without one
of the necessities of life: shelter. I refer,
of course, to those who were assigned
summer housing.
As everyone knows, there are
about a billion too many people in
2015, and though Modest Proposal-
like suggestions have been circulating around North College for months,
Laura Lay ’15 engages with her hosts.
it seems the execution of such a plan
would put a moderate to heavy strain
on the alumni network, thereby hurting our venerable institution’s already
meager endowment.
So where will these “young
minds,” “scholar-athletes,” and “Hot
Rachel” live next year? That’s the
question being asked on most ACB
threads, including “Anger...everyone
sucks” and “why don’t Asians under-
stand sarcasm?” The answer: many
students will be required to live with
Middletown host families.
“It just makes sense,” explains one
ResLife member. “Like the sentence,
‘Do you surf the library?’”
A representative from the Office of
International Studies agrees. “It might
be hard for them to understand the lo-
cal accents at first, but once they get
used to it, I think the different cultural
perspectives will be really valuable.”
The last time the university had
to resort to such measures, it was met
with mixed result. Sam Gringold, ’83,
noted, “I mean it was nice of the fam-
ily, I guess, but it was pretty annoy-
ing when my host mother made me
stay in on Fridays for family movie
nights.”
Another student recalls, “That
was what made me decide not to go
abroad.”
The system wasn’t a complete fail-
ure though, to which many students
can attest.
“The food was pretty weird, but
once you get used to it, Usdan seems
weird! I love cultural immersion!”
says one enthusiastic alum.
Despite the obvious drawbacks,
many students are excited for a chance
to connect with individuals outside the
“Wesleyan Bubble” and even those
who aren’t are, as expected, choosing
the option over Light House.
