I dangled out the window of my neighbor’s truck, crammed into the backseat with four or five other girls I didn’t know until three weeks ago. Our freshman RA, Anna Thompson, stood at the end of the Rogers parking lot with her phone held horizontally above her head.
“Okay, I’m recording!” she said.
As soon as Anna said it, the truck began to roll, and we cheered out the windows till our ears popped. Anna stopped filming so we could reconvene in her living room, breathing through our 2020-vintage face masks and planning the next scene in our “hype video.”
We didn’t win the annual residence life hype video competition, but even the loss contributed to our camaraderie as a building. The Pollard Pandas’ victory brought me closer to my roommates — who, at this point, were still strangers to me — closer to my neighbors and closer to the students in our rivaling building, Pollard. Which, in retrospect, seems to be the point of those events in the first place.
“The purpose of ResLife events is to build community among students on our campus,” Hope Campbell, assistant resident director for the women’s quads, said. “Whether that be something more lighthearted like Trivium or Chomped, or heavier like Stand Up for Your Sister, we want to connect with people on campus and build a community of support and growth.”
Living in Rogers my freshman year had its quirks. Mice, worms and ants come to mind. Plus, it took me 15 minutes (I timed it) to walk from my dorm to my biology class in White Hall.
But I find myself nostalgic, not for the building itself, but for the community and excitement I found there.
My freshman experience with the ResLife events in Rogers wasn’t unique to me. Somehow, that makes it even sweeter.
A year after my residence in Rogers, I adopted the role of Life Group leader. The day that Joe Ball handed me a spreadsheet of my life groupers’ names, phone numbers and dorm rooms, I counted the number of girls in Rogers.
One. Two. Three. Four…
“Five!” I said to my Life Group partner. “Five Rogers girls.”
As I grew in relationship with those freshmen in my group, I found an unexpected sisterhood with the Rogers residents in particular. One night after Bible study, a couple of them even took me to their dorm to show me their latest pranks on Pollard.
“It’s not just your freshman year,” Isaac Elliot, graduate assistant resident director, said about the ResLife events. “(Those events) go through all four years. That’s the hope. We’re trying to build these traditions.”
The sisterhood of Rogers residents, new and old, did not end that year. Just a few months ago, I watched the Bowld fill to the brim with giddy, flushed freshman girls, led by their fearless leader Anna Thompson.
“Do you have sticky notes?” she said.
My boyfriend, who was an RA at the time, paused the Pixar movie we were playing on his laptop behind the Bowld desk.
“Sticky notes?” he said over the clamor of Anna’s residents.
“Sticky notes.”
We handed her the sticky notes, and the girls leapt into a frenzy of planning another elaborate prank. Classes hadn’t even begun yet, and the Rogers residents were pulling pranks.
They invited me, as a Rogers alum, to join them. A bit sadly, I turned them down.
Pranks like these aren’t the only way that Union building residents build traditions. In addition to those informal activities, ResLife hosts numerous annual events, during which buildings compete with each other for points toward the ultimate prize: the Union cup.
Oftentimes, those structured competitions — the Half-K, the hype video contest and the Chomped cooking competition, to name a few — are the inspiration for the practical jokes the buildings’ residents play on one another (read: sticky notes).
“I’ve gone to events just as a resident,” Sarah Rosine, senior Spanish and TESOL double major and the RA of Grace 2, said. “You kind of just show up, and do it, and it’s fun, and then you leave and it’s like, ‘oh, good memories.’ But doing the behind-the-scenes work helps you see the value and intentionality that the RDs and people behind the scenes put into the events.”
But what is the point of all of that? All the competitions, the points, the games, the pranks; what is the benefit?
Sure, there are rewards for winning the Union cup at the end of the year. But in five, 10, 15 years, will the Rogers class of 2025 really care that they won the cup over Pollard?
“The main purpose of ResLife events is to bring students together,” David Bowman, assistant resident director for Heritage, said. “Whether it be in a competitive setting such as the Union Cup, or a more relational/spiritual setting such as Round Table & Stand Up For Your Sister. At the end of the day, we want to plan events that cater to the various needs of our students while bringing about community.”
Last week, I ran into my freshman RA Anna Thompson in the Brewer dining hall omelette line.
“I’m planning an event,” she said. “Rogers alumni only. Put it in your calendar.”
I exchanged a look with my roommate, whom I first met as one of my neighbors in Rogers.
“We’ll be there.”
“Pollard is synonymous with pandas,” Elliot said. “Rogers is synonymous with ‘Roger Rogers,’ what Anna Thompson’s built up over the years. So having people committing — even if it’s just a silly name — it’s the tradition that makes it exclusive and exciting.”
Those building traditions, from major events like Field Day to small activities like making T-shirts, wouldn’t exist without the ResLife staff who contribute their time and attention to curating a fun experience for on-campus residents.
“We’re not doing [ResLife traditions] just to like, make ourselves happy,” Elliot said. “They do make us happy. But we’re even more happy when we see [students] being fulfilled and having a good time.”
Photo courtesy of The Union Photo Project.
