It’s October 2014, and Facebook is full of pictures featuring the hashtags “#betterthanboardwalk,” “#InstaWigwam,” and “#boardwalkbabes > #wigwamweirdos.” Two groups of friends — the women of the Boardwalk and the men of the Wigwam — decided to see who could have more fun over fall break, documenting the competition via Instagram and Facebook.
Sophomore Sam Clausen, who lives in the Simpson suite called “The Wigwam,” called the intense back-and-forth a “friendly competition.”
“For fall break most of the Boardwalk went down to Cincinnati, and we decided to go with Spencer to Frankenmuth, so we had a little friendly competition to see who was going to have more fun,” Clausen said. “We figured the best way to prove it was through five-second videos or pictures on Instagram, because of course that’s the best way.”
When the Boardwalk and the Wigwam returned to campus, they had dinner together and compared their adventures.
“It was kind of cool because we could talk about ‘What in the world were you guys doing when Eric, Spencer, and Luke were wearing lederhosen posing in front of a big German man, and what was Elizabeth doing when she was falling out of a hammock,’ or something,” Clausen said. “We’re pretty good friends with all of the Boardwalk], we like to be able to pick on them for things that they do in a kind of brother-sister way, and they do the same to us.”
Junior Rebecca French of the Boardwalk tells the story of how she and her freshman year roommate, junior Elizabeth Green, first met juniors Ben Strickland and Eric Walker. Little did they know that the friendship would grow into a huge community stemming from the off-campus Boardwalk house and Simpson suite Wigwam.
“It started freshman year when Elizabeth and I became friends with Ben and Eric,” French said. “I’m not sure how that friendship really started, it’s just grown a lot over the years. A lot of people have been added on to it. Our group of friends, if you will, is like 40 people, and there’s no lines to see what the core group of people. The Wigwam is more than four people, and the Boardwalk is more than 11 people.”
Clausen, his roommate sophomore Luke Robson, and suitemates Strickland and Walker first started throwing what they call “Wigwam Powows” because they wanted a good way to invest in the community of Hillsdale.
“Last year, Garrett Holt, Spencer Bell, Ben, and Eric had decided to be suitemates, and they got together and wanted to name their suite because of the off-campus houses where people go and have fun and name their houses,” Clausen said. “They said, ‘we want to be a place where people can go to have fun, let’s name it,’ so they called themselves the Flagship. They threw parties mostly when Garrett was supposed to be on duty so he could still be with lots of people. Those two guys left, so Luke and I decided to be suitemates with Ben and Eric, and we wanted to carry on that tradition of having people over and making it a fun dorm room and a dorm room you can actually go visit not just a place where we sleep.”
When Strickland found Native American flute lullabies, the foursome decided to name their suite “The Wigwam.”
“It’s been really cool because it’s been a way for us to have a platform for what we want people to think of Simpson and Hillsdale,” Clausen said. “People come to our parties, and we like to think it’s lots of fun and ridiculous, and that people probably shouldn’t be doing these things — like 70 people in a dorm room just shouldn’t work — but it does. Some [who come] you do know really well and some come in and I have no idea who they are. It’s been a way to reach out on campus and get a foothold and say what Hillsdale’s culture is and shape how awesome it is.”
Choosing Hillsdale had a lot to do with finding this kind of community, French said.
“I was initially attracted to Hillsdale by seeing the relationships my siblings had when they were here,” French said. “Coming here and seeing the incredible community they were able to build, that’s kind of what I wanted to come here for.”
“As much as we talk about what’s good and true and beautiful, the real thing I feel like we learn here is how to live a decent life,” Clausen said. “In my opinion, and in my experience, relationships are the most important thing.”
The Boardwalk girls feel the same way about community as the Wigwam, which might be why they are such good friends. Junior Christina Lambert, who lives in the Boardwalk, believes that in the pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty at Hillsdale, “there’s something about having friends on a common mission with you.”
“It’s like when C.S. Lewis in ‘The Four Loves’ talks about how friendship has to be about something, so you’re doing something together, so we’re learning together,” Lambert said.
The Boardwalk, in Lambert’s mind, isn’t just confined to the people who actually live in the house.
“The Boardwalk represents a place where community and friendships flourish, because a house is a place where you can have a great conversations and have fun with friends and cook and bake with friends,” Lambert said. “It’s not really the people sleeping there that contain the circle, it’s a place you can invite people and develop friendships. We joke we have a lot of honorary housemates on campus.”
French says the easy brother-sister relationship between the Boardwalk and the Wigwam is testimony to the importance of community at Hillsdale.
“The relationship with the Wigwam is something very special,” French said. “They store stuff in our house during break and we have a war going on between the houses of stealing stuff.”
But more than just hosting Powows and engaging in prank wars, the Boardwalk and the Wigwam are cultivating a community to enrich their education and support those around them.
“These past couple months I’ve been realizing how incredible this community is,” French said. “My friends have made my Hillsdale experience.”
