The Grass May Be Greener On The Other Side

When I first stepped foot onto Scripps campus, I was excited and incredibly nervous. I hadn’t the slightest idea of what awaited me, and I didn’t know anyone. It was like the beginning of middle school all over again. But I looked forward to getting to know people and learning more about the campus culture. After all, I had heard that some of the best friends of in my life would be made in college. Interestingly, the first time I had to interact with my Scripps peers in a fun setting was during the 5C parties the first week of school. I had thought that like me and some of the other Scrippsies, most people would be wide-eyed and wouldn’t know too many people. What I found was quite the opposite. One of my high school friends who happened to go to CMC found me during one of these 5C parties. I was shocked to see that not only did he seem to know a lot of other students in his class, his dorm as a whole seemed to come together pretty well. I wondered how they were able to build such strong bonds in such a short time. When I asked him, he told me that CMC had taken them on a freshman orientation trip before move-in and that the experience had really helped him interact with his classmates.

This made me think about my freshman orientation trip. We had gone to Griffith Observatory whereupon a middle-aged woman with a microphone told us that we would get “pumped” by playing grouping games where we were supposed to group ourselves based on our age, birth date, and whatever other commonality she could think of. I don’t think I actually remembered any of the people I was grouped with that day. After that, a few others and I hopped onto a bus to go on a hike to see the Hollywood sign. We never got off the bus. Needless to say, my orientation trip hadn’t done much other than make me tired. But the sentiment wasn’t only expressed by me. A lot of other freshman expressed dissatisfaction with the whole process and felt that while the college made sure we were kept busy during orientation, we didn’t actually have time to build any of the connections much of the other colleges had already made during their orientation trips.

The trip aside, there are many other problems that I see with Scripps’ approach to creating a vibrant campus culture. To me, the dorm culture at Scripps is ok, at best. Sure, it makes for a quiet environment to study in akin to the library (for the most part), but rarely do you see the relaxed and open culture that is present in the other colleges. Most of the doors are closed, and some of my friends have claimed that for the most part they never really knew their neighbors in the hall. Looking across campus though, I notice entire dorm halls regularly meet up and grab dinner together or have weekly activities. That’s not to say that Scripps dorms don’t hold activities, but for the most part, these are infrequent and the attendance is very low. I recall many a spa night I’ve been to where other than the RA and the RA’s close friends, there weren’t many others. These activities are also college planned events whereas a lot of the hall activities I notice in the other colleges are much more spontaneous and happen simply due to the interest of the students.

Another trend I noticed with Scripps students is that most of them leave campus and go to the other colleges to have fun, while most other students stay at their own colleges. In fact during the beginning of freshman year, I knew quite a few Scrippsies who were desperate to find friends from the other colleges because otherwise they felt socially isolated and believed that networking options at Scripps were limited. After all, why doesn’t Scripps have its own version of TNC? Or some weekly event for students to help support more collaboration and community? Instead it seems like Scripps has a diaspora movement every weekend as students go elsewhere to seek out fun. Again, I realize that some students might prefer this quieter environment and may have even opted to choose Scripps for this environment, but I believe that a happy compromise can be reached. I’m also not saying that Scripps doesn’t have any sense of community. In fact, I believe that our community can be seen through the Motley, Tea and many other events. It’s just that I think our sense of community is much more muted and scaled down, and that may affect people’s efforts to acclimatize to the environment. Most students are able to find lasting friendships and bonds, but it may take more effort on their part than I would say is required at the other schools. I think this is where Scripps should come in. Instead of an orientation that passes by in a blur, or that sporadic dorm event, I think Scripps (if they’re indeed asking for more) should focus on how their efforts to create a tight-knit community have been reflected in the reality of the situation. And if many individuals indeed feel that the community could be enriched, then perhaps they can alter their efforts to match the student body’s desires.

Aish Subramanian

 Staff Blogger Scr ’16