By Haley Norris | Echo
By now, you've probably seen the petition about extending open house hours bouncing around on Facebook. Maybe you thought the changes suggested were a little extreme. I wrote the petition, and I agree with you.
My petition was in no way trying to promote a specific open house schedule. It was simply a discussion-starter about what Taylor students want open house to be like in the future, whether that be weekday open house, extensions on the weekend, later hours, etc. I noticed that open house hours limited interactions with my guy friends, so I created a petition to see what others had to say. I did not put solid options for people to choose from, but frameworks that I encourage people to manipulate into that they wanted them to be.
Prolonging open house over the weekend would pose more opportunities to hang out with friends and lessen the awkwardness between sexes on campus. Classmates should have the opportunity to get together in casual settings to ease into friendships.
I would love to see open house extend a couple hours on the weekends. I think open house everyday of the week would be overwhelming for the PAs as well as take away from personal time and time with the floor. However, an extra open house per month-say, Wednesday?-would be a great compromise! Dorms already put on occasional, special open houses. But making open houses a regular feature, rather than a rare special event, would give students something to look forward to and increase fellowship.
Open house is a great tool for engaging in friendships otherwise never connected. Yes, we all have friends across campus, but who is in your core group of friends? The ones you say "hi" to only in class, or those to whom you offer home and hospitality? Open houses prompt relationships, and that is so important in college. Once we leave here, that core group of people will carry us through the ups and downs of life. More open house hours, in my opinion, would not only provided more time to cultivate relationships but also more time for intentionally building those lifelong friendships.
(Thumbnail illustration by Matthew Morse)
