Residence Life
Theme Dorms
Each year the residence life office offers students the opportunity to create a living environment centered on a specific area of study or interest. The theme dorms for the 2008-2009 academic year are listed below. Applications are online through each student's IRIS account. Students accepted to a theme dorm are not eligible for the general housing lottery. Please refer to the 2008-2009 Housing Lottery Guide for more info.
Theme dorms are living/learning communities centered around an academic or extracurricular interest that the residents share. Along with the House Advisor, Activity Coordinator, and Theme Dorm Organizer, dormies work together to plan events each semester that reflect their theme and are open to the entire campus. These activities are often social, educational, or both, and sometimes involve faculty members from related departments, or staff members with related interests. This requires more time and participation from residents than a non-theme dorm, but theme dorm residents often cite a more close-knit and involved community as a great benefit.
The organizer of the theme dorm along with a member of the Residence Life Committee will be reviewing applications and making final decisions. Decisions to live in the theme dorm will be based on your answers to this application.
These applications are for Returning students ONLY. First year students will have a separate application mailed to them in May.
2008 - 2009 Theme Dorms
CROSS CANYON THEME PARK
For students interested in maximizing their opportunity of residing in and around a theme dorm community…check out making your home in the new Cross Canyon “Theme Park” (Griffin, McKinley, Chittick, and Woodbridge Residence Halls). Around the Tír na nÓg, French/Spanish Culture, Middle Eastern Culture, and Ancient Civilization are a great way of integrating more than one theme in your social and educational living experience.
Note: There are double rooms reserved for upperclassmen in all of the cross canyons. If you have a roommate in mind that is also applying for the theme dorm, please make a note of this on your application.
Ancient Civilizations (Woodbridge)
When in Ancient Civ do as the ancient civilizations did. This doesn’t mean conquering the next dorm over and claiming their women. It does mean eating dormice, artfully wearing your bed-linens to class and reveling in your love of pre-Dark Ages history and culture. The Roman Emperor Caligula made his horse a Consul. In Ancient Civ you can make your dormies horses and jeer them on as they drag your chariot to victory in our annual Funeral Games. Of all the ancient civilizations, which are you? Persian? Greek? Chinese? You decide.
Tír na nÓg (Griffin & McKinley)
Come one come all! Tír na nÓg is a haven for students who love myth, folk-lore, and most importantly FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION. Whether it be Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Brother’s Grimm, d'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths, or anything else; it is welcome in here. Tír na nÓg, Gaelic for “The Land of the Ever-Young”, is a community of people who love bonding over fantastical stories, games, quests, movies, and much more. Remember that time All-father Odin sacrificed his eye for wisdom? When Gimli and Legolas had an Orc slaying contest? LABYRINTH?? Or when Harry Potter finally finds the philosophers stone? WILLOW?? Or when Rand Al’Thor first encounters Trollocs? HIGHLANDER?? Or when Thrall and Grom Hell-scream go claw-to-claw with Mannoroth? Rumpelstiltskin ring a bell ?!? In Tír na nÓg all are welcome!
Middle Eastern Culture Dorm (Woodbridge)
Sheesha, Israel, Farsi – oh my! What do the following things have in common: monotheistic religions, camels, oil, falafel, and the average Reedie? The answer? They all have a place in the Middle Eastern Culture Dorm. If you’ve got an interest in the Middle East, join the Middle Eastern Culture Dorm and explore this diverse region’s past, present, and future. Join the Middle Eastern Culture Dorm!
French and Spanish Culture (Chittick)
Students who are interested in French or Spanish languages, literature, and culture have the opportunity to live in a dormitory environment that aims at helping students maintain and improve their French and Spanish. French and Spanish Language Scholars will live in the dorm and assist students with informal language development, will be available regularly to help with language assignments of all levels (grammar, literary analysis, etc.) and will coordinate lively cultural activities, both on and off-campus. This group of students will also be closely affiliated with the language house.
The Co-Op (Garden House)
The Co-op is a close-knit group of dreamers, thinkers, activists, and artist shopping, cooking, and cleaning communally. All members of the Reed community are welcome to the dorm’s daily nightly dinner, which emphasize local and organic food and are always vegetarian – and vegan- friendly. The Co-op makes major decisions communally, with special attention paid to the free exchanges of opinions in a supportive environment. Co-op members work and play together, fostering a tight and unique group unlike any other. The conscious community development central to the Co-op creates a family of diverse students, working to achieve shared utopian goals
Mad Science (Foster II & III)
Mad Science welcomes those who love science and who wish to live among others that share similar interests and the desire to explore them. Our close-knit community is friendly, diverse, and inclusive, and we participate in a wide variety of activities ranging from making ice cream with liquid nitrogen, to weekend science fiction viewings. If you are interested in joining this group of spontaneous, engaging, and generally awesome people but want to know more than 100 words of blurb, come to our open house.
Mediaphilia (Scholtz II)
A congregation of connoisseurs, a gathering of media enthusiasts, a commune of artists and art-addicts, a home for the devoted mediavores who want to come discuss, enjoy, and make the best in the auditory and visual. If you want movie marathons, mix CDs, jam sessions, film festivals, and a communal library of music and movies; we're here for you. Share what you know and love with the similarly obsessed and everyone prospers. Come join the collective, and bring your tastes with you.
Japanese Culture (Scholz III)
The Japanese Culture Dorm, affectionately known as J-Dorm, is a place where Reedies come together to enjoy and learn about some of the finer points of Japanese culture. We love both the nuances of Japan’s traditional culture (read: the movie Samurai Fiction or proper nigri preparation) in addition to its pop-culture (read: study breaks at 2 in the morning playing Final Fantasy or watching a Kitamura film). The aim of J-Dorm is to promote and educate others about the awesomeness that is Japan and it’s culture, and to provide a friendly support for Reedies interested in Japan and its rich historical and modern cultural legacy.
Outhouse (Naito I)
The Outhouse is more than a dorm. It is a family interested in having fun in the great outdoors. It is a place where nature lovers, climbers, backpackers, sherpas, cyclists, kayakers, tree huggers, and anyone else with a passion for nature can live together and get outside as often as possible.
Green Dorm (Sullivan I Northside)
Reedies with green thumbs live in the Green Dorm, a dorm decorated with potted plants, pretty flowers, and a vegetable garden. Aside from our obsession with chloroplasts, our theme includes an interest in environmental health—including our dorm environment, which we make welcoming, supportive, and unofficially substance-free—and the beautification of urban areas. We also host potlucks where we discuss how to improve our impact on the Earth. Flower-children and tree-huggers unite!
Tea House (Sullivan I Southside)
A tea house resident awakens Saturday afternoon after a long night of activity. The only sounds he can hear are the birds outside and the soft foot-steps of his dormies. He rolls out of bed and throws a bathrobe over his pajamas and slips on his flip-flops. As soon as he opens the door he is greeted by the smell of jasmine vines and the smooth sound of a Miles Davis trumpet solo coming from the common room. Two residents are seated across from each other making quiet small talk, only pausing to pour themselves more tea from the kettle. Another sits off to the side, buried in a book. The new arrival grabs a cup from the shelf, and joins the conversation.
Substance Free (Sullivan II & III)
Are you looking for the perfect dorm environment? Do you want a dorm full of fun, creative, accepting members? Love the weekend parties, but prefer to live in a quieter, substance-free space? Never fear! The Sub-Free Dorm is here! As a sub-free community, this dorm agrees to leave tobacco, alcohol, and other substances at the door. Full of wonderful people, a warm atmosphere, and lots of fun, Sub-Free might be your ideal.
AstroDorm (Naito III Northside)
Do you wonder if there is life on Mars? Do you enjoy wearing aluminum foil hats? Do you like things that are shiny or glow in the dark? shooting rockets? Have you ever felt like an Alien or Astronaut? It is time to face the final frontier and learn to appreciate the awesome power of space and marvel at the sciences of astronomy and astrology. Finally you can escape this bubble and venture into the unknown. Come live in infinity and beyond in the ASTRODORM!
Wild West (Naito III Southside)
Way back, before Olde Reed, there was the West. Do you yearn for the good ol’ days of rugged individualism and cattle rustling? Then come on down to the Wild West dorm where we will reintroduce the frontier to Reed College with campfires, games of Cowboys and Indians, Wild West movie nights, and maybe even expeditions on the Oregon trail or to Lewis and Clark! Bring your cowboy hats and boots, because you’ll need them. Together we will brave the unknown and make a home out of this desolate wilderness.
Women’s (Bragdon 3)
The women’s floor is a living option and not a theme dorm. We are still collecting applications so that people who desire to live in a small close community of women can have a place to live. Any spaces that are not filled by applications will become available in the lottery.
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