Last year I completed my freshman year at West Chester University. Almost everyone of my friends struggled with anxiety and depression which was our first semester because it was hard to create connections and friendships. Our university is beautiful and it is very sad to me that most freshmen have this same experience as most of my friends. We must create easy for freshman students to make friends and have a positive first year at West Chester University.
One of the largest problems I see in West Chester is the lack of community, especially in affiliated dorms. In affiliated housing, no one props their doors open and there is very little feeling of community in your dorm. I have had friends in traditional housing tell me that everyone leaves their dorm doors open and it has helped her make a large number of friends. They often hung out together in the common areas of the floor. This didn’t happen ina affiliated housing. It made it very hard to make friends and most people often only spoke to their roommates. I had one friend who moved home in the middle of the first semester. She lived about an hour and a half away and had three 8 AM classes every week. I believe the isolated atmosphere of affiliated housing affects students mental health and academic performance.
The space and atmosphere at any learning institutions affects students and how they grow and learn. This includes the way teachers teach, the conversations held between individuals and atmosphere of the classrooms and campus. The space student are learning and living in affects their overall mental health and academics. If affiliated housing encouraged students to prop their doors open and greet neighbors it would create more of a community. Having more friends would help students who struggle with things such as anxiety disorders and depression. It would help the students to feel supported and loved if they were surrounded by caring friends. It would give them encouragement. Friends can study together and help each other grow and learn. Having an open dorm door shows gives off the message that you are looking to make friends and welcomes other students to pop their heads in and introduce themselves. This helps students make friends.
If affiliated housing had provided evert dorm with a wedge door stopper it would encourage students to leave their doors open. In affiliated housing the doors are very heavy and lock automatically, the key to open the door is a hotel key. That makes it hard to communicate with others in your hall. Having something to hold the door open would allow students to speak to people in their dorms while they walk down the hallway.
Along with providing dorms with wedge door stoppers along with having encouraged time to prop open dorm doors would allow students to have exposure to the other students that walk down their hall. Placing specific times which students are encouraged to have their doors open and mingle with the students on the floor would begin to form connections and friendships.
These two simple steps would allow students to create bonds with others and feel less isolated. This would be beneficial for their mental health because I will provide them with friendship and support. It will also provide them with people to have fun with and enjoy their free time. All of these aspects combined and added to a college experience will make it overall more enjoyable.
Another way for our students to be able to make friends is by spaciously reorganizing West Chester to better connect students to each other. This could be done by adding outdoor seating for large numbers of students outside their dorms. I know personally, me and my roommate love sitting outside at my apartment this year and if it was available we would have done it last year. Adding a spot with comfy chairs for students to hangout in would allow students to meet others when they are in this area and talk and hangout. It will help create the connections our freshman students need to be happy here at WCU.
Another way the university could help freshmen to make friends would be to add two people desks to the classrooms, especially classrooms that have classes full of mostly freshmen, like WRT. Every student has to take writing and it is usually a class of mostly freshmen. SInce the class is mostly fresh manthey do not have to worry about the pressure of being judged by upperclassmen and are able to make friends that are the same age as you. DOuble desks would be beneficial because it would allow freshmen to make friends with other freshmen.
