By Cassidy Grom | Echo
Six weeks ago, many first year students spent their first night in the dorms a few feet away from a snoring stranger.
Now, mere weeks later, freshman answer the question "Where are you from?" with the name of a residence hall instead of their hometown. They sit with their wing or floor in chapel and the DC and the stranger sleeping beside them has become at least a little less strange.
Students speculate that, like an all-knowing genie, administration does its best to stereotype new students and place them in residence halls and with roommates that fit their personalities. Students who move halls or switch roommates are just an unfortunate glitch in the magic.
Yet, there is no magic involved. Roommate pairs are based purely off a 10 question survey and residence hall assignments are based on a list of three preferences new students provide before they come to campus.
Scott Barrett and Lori Slater are in charge of assigning roommates and residence halls to new students.
"We are aware that students have perceptions about each residence hall," said Barrett, director of residence life. "We value the experiences and opportunities available in each community and do our best not to perpetuate these stereotypes in the work that we do. Thinking about these stereotypes is not part of the housing assignment process."
Sophomore Mikal Lake said he listed Wengatz, Samuel Morris and Breuninger as his top three choices on his new student housing application. Lake was placed in Swallow Robin. He speculates that he didn't get his top choices because he turned his housing application in rather late.
Lake found a roommate in Samuel Morris and switched to Broho for his sophomore year. He said he enjoyed the "quiet" community of Swallow, but decided to join Broho because he wanted to be around a group of people who were more active.
"You don't really know (about perceived stereotypes) until you are here," Lake said. "Unless you know someone who went to Taylor all four years and can tell you exactly what the stereotypes are."
According to Barrett, 25 percent of space in each hall is reserved for new students before room draw takes place for returning students.
Barrett said his office does not track students who, like Lake, switch after their freshman year.
Some students forego the process that pairs roommates based on questions like "What kind of music do you prefer?" and "Are you a heavy or light sleeper" and instead choose to pick their own.
Freshman roommates Abbie Roth and Jordan Heiniger live in Second West Olson. They were among the 95 applicants for the 2015-2016 academic year who requested a specific roommate. Roth and Heiniger are an anomaly: their mothers were roommates in Olson and their families have lived side by side in the same cul-de-sac in Fishers, Indiana for 18 years.
The pair's mothers lived on Third East Olson and both married Taylor graduates, but the pair says their parents never pressured them to live in Olson or even to attend Taylor.
"It is just nice to have (Roth) here, in the midst of everything else that is out of our comfort zone; it is just great to have her here," said Heiniger.
Yet for the students who don't room with an old friend, they must rely on the system.
"There will always be exceptions to the rule, but Taylor does a really really great job pairing people up," said senior Josh Vahle. "You see a lot of people who stick (with) the same roommate for four years. Or you see people become (someone's) maid of honor or see those connections last."
