Gracie Fairfax | Echo
You may have noticed something that had grown out of Gerig Hall when you returned to school last fall. That's our new friend Breuninger Hall, more affectionately known as Breu, gaining great popularity since its introduction last fall.
Breu proves to be a unique place to live-a true melting pot in terms of where the students come from on-campus and where they come from in the world. Students moved to Breu from every dorm on campus and come from as far as Paraguay and Peru.
The dorm is still developing its traditions, since something done once can only be considered an event or the "First Annual" whatever. This year, Breu PAs have a chance to bring back the events that were a success in the past in hopes of creating traditions.
"A cool part, but also a hard part, of being a PA in Breu is that you really have to be creative," said junior Camila Chiang, PA on third Breuninger. "Me and Katrina, my co-PA, really have to feed ideas off of each other and also talk to the upperclassmen to see what kind of culture and tone we want to set with traditions."
In a dorm with a one-year history, the current residents of Breu are still in the beginning stages of creating the culture.
"Breu is the people," PA and senior Hunter Sims said. "It's the people who lived there last year, and the people who are living there now. So as they grow and change and relationships form with people on the floor, that's what's going to lead to the culture of what Breu is years down the road."
When asked about stereotypes, Breu residents find pride in their lack of a stereotype. As former Breu resident and senior Nate Scheibe put the dynamics on First Breu, "We're just a bunch of bros. Bros on the wing."
Taylor students generally find it comforting to place everyone into a box. However, with the variety of campus culture backgrounds represented in Breu, it's impossible to place a label on Breu-other than the fact that they're fun people who aren't afraid to branch out and meet new friends.
"In the afternoons there's always people in the lobbies and lounges doing things (from Breu and other dorms), so that's kind of fun, coming into a fun community of people and meeting new people. It feels very welcoming," Chiang said.
Breu residents don't fall short in the creativity department-a key factor when creating a new dorm culture. When we asked what animal Breu would be, we got some interesting answers.
"That thing in Revelation with the head of an eagle, the body of a dragon. That. We're that Revelation creature. Not Satan. The other one. The one that's good," said Sims.
Breu can be summed up pretty well with the animal Camila chose to describe her new home-a chameleon.
"We are learning to adapt as a new entity in a community that is so rich in history and tradition," said Chiang.
For those interested, Breu is still on the lookout for a campus rival.
"No one hates us yet," Scheibe said. "We don't have a campus rival. Maybe English will be our rival."
While Breu might be the new kid on the block, the Taylor community has embraced this new addition to dorm culture-a place where all of campus has come together for a common purpose of taking something new and making it great.
