Students swarm the student section at a sporting event in crazy-looking costumes. They proudly brandish the titles of “Simpsonite” or “Olds Girl.” They purchase their residences’ respective shirts in droves, and they passionately shout their dorm chants during Homecoming.
These scenes depict Hillsdale’s avid dorm tribalism, a phenomenon that is unique to our school.
Many Hillsdale students find a lot of identity in the dorm in which they reside. This is a good thing. The dorms strengthen students’ attachment to their college, increasing their love for our school and its mission.
Similarly, the most avidly patriotic citizen holds an affection for his nation rooted first in an affection for his closest communities. He loves his country because he loves his state, he loves his state because he loves his local community, and he loves his local community because he loves his family. Describing this phenomenon, Conservative thinker Edmund Burke says, “To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country, and to mankind.”
In the same way, the student’s love for his most immediate community in Hillsdale, that of the dorm, strengthens the affection he hold towards the larger community: the College. The dorm’s close proximity increases the student’s appreciation for his residence, which in turn increases his appreciation for the school and its values of civil and religious liberty, self-government, scholarship, and intellectual curiosity. The incredible school spirit displayed by the dorms makes that appreciation evident.
During my time in Simpson, I have seen this spirit manifest in our dorm. Simpson’s support for the college at football or volleyball games is unmatched. Simpson residents volunteer in droves to serve the local community during Homecoming. We support other campus communities by joining in on their chants or by displaying some healthy competition by quipping with them or battling them on the Quad. All these activities serve to increase pride in our dorm and the consequent pride in our college that follows.
There are plenty of other things that students find strengthen their attachment to Hillsdale and its values as well. For most students, their “little platoon” is found not in the dorm, but through a club, a Greek house, or the off-campus community. All these things can help students achieve a greater love of Hillsdale and all that it stands for. Dorms also accomplish this mission in a unique way.
As the largest student residence on campus, Simpson hosts the most freshmen each year. The newcomers who want to be active in Hillsdale’s community can first be active in the dorm. They express their enthusiasm for the college through the opportunities the dorm provides. Simpson’s community is formed by those who choose to stay. This is how our dorm’s culture has been built and sustained class after class.
A dorm’s culture does not simply fluctuate from year to year as residents move in and out. It’s kept consistent by those who identified the things they enjoy about it, decided to participate in it, and will later sustain it for their dorm’s future residents. Tales of the Simpson of old are passed down from alumni to current students, and then from those students to new freshmen who will go on to add to the tales with their own hysterical antics.
This type of dorm culture may seem strange and out of place to someone familiar with a dorm’s more conventional function at other schools. They consequently contest a dorm’s ability to have character and culture and question why a student would get so attached to it.
This perspective discounts the importance of building community with those you happen to live with. We are all attending a school that values good things — the higher things. We should advocate for those things to everyone we associate with, including those who we live around.
In my dorm, I find a culture characterized by people who do just that. There, my love for my college is increased. There, I am best able to act on that love.
To love the little dorm we belong to in Hillsdale is to love our college and our campus community in our own special way.
Caleb Lambrecht is a junior studying politics.