Dear third week freshmen: Words of advice from a sophomore

Dear Lawrence Students,

First week is over. Everyone’s had time to adjust to living on campus. It’s time to get educated about lesser known aspects of living at Lawrence.

School is challenging, life is busy, but please, for the love of God, let’s all agree to do a few simple things to make life at Lawrence better.

First, return the dishes you take from Warch. Bon Appétit spends a lot of money every year replacing lost or damaged dishes that are taken from the cafeteria. Bon Appétit goes out of their way to make it easy for students to return dishes by collecting dirty dishes from the blue milk crates located in each residence hall foyer. If you can’t manage to return your dirty dishes to the foyer of your own residence hall or bring your dishes back to the cafeteria, then you’re lazy and don’t deserve to take dishes from the cafeteria in the first place.

Speaking of making the wonderful workers at Bon Appétit’s lives easier, clear your table when you’re done with your meal. Again, Bon Appétit makes it ridiculously easy to clean up your own mess. Pour liquids—not napkins or food—down the drain, put your dirty dishes on the conveyor belt and go on with your day.

I’ve concluded that Lawrence students, as a whole, are conscientious and therefore don’t intentionally throw rubbish on the ground. But alas, campus is often littered with empty Gatorade bottles, random pieces of papers and plastic bags. Honestly, it takes maybe ten extra seconds to pick something up and throw it away. We all live on campus, which makes this our temporary home. While I’m sure it’s not you who litters, everyone benefits when good samaritans pick up litter around campus.

Other helpful pieces of information you should know by third week: There’s only one line in the Café and it goes from the divide between the cash registers towards the door to the main room in Warch. The “turnaround” is that little ‘U’ shaped driveway behind the library where you can catch the shuttle to Alex Gym. There are free art supplies on the fourth floor of Warch.

When I was a blossoming freshman, it took me a while to get the hang of campus slang. For your convenience, I’ve put together an (incomplete) list of words that upperclassmen often take for granted:

Warch Campus Center: Warch; the campus center.

Café and Coffee Shop: The café; the grill.

Kate’s Corner Store: The corner store; the “C” store; the campus store.

Andrew Commons: The cafeteria; the commons; downstairs (as in “I don’t want to eat at the café because I want to eat downstairs”).

Youngchild Hall of Science/Thomas A. Steitz Hall of Science: Science (as in “I’m headed over to Science to finish my lab”).

The Conservatory of Music: The Con (home to the “connies”).

Alexander Gymnasium (the gym that’s about a mile off campus): Alex; the gym (not to be confused with the rec).

The Wellness Center: the rec.

Guide to Houses

Houses on the Quad:

Beta Theta Pi (Beta): Black doors.

Outdoor Recreation Club (ORC): Last house on north side of Boldt; “ORC” sign above the door.

Phi Kappa Tau (Phi Tau): Last house on south side of Boldt; Phi Kappa Tau letters hanging next to door.

Sigma Phi Epsilon (Sig Ep): Red doors.

Slug: Between ORC and Sig Ep; two white pillars flanking white door.

Sabin House (Greenfire): Yellowish colored two-story house on Alton; across the street from Hurvis Center Film Studies.

Draheim:  Green doors (but technically not a group house or theme house).

Gaming House: Grey doors.

Swing Dancers: Pink doors.

Delta Tau Delta (Delt): Purple doors.

Union Street Houses (yes, they do exist):

Co-Op: Stone archway over patio; yellow trim; first house on east side of Union.

GLOW: Second house on east side of Union; light grey house with white trim.

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia: Sign with Phi Mu Alpha on the patio; last house on west side before the park.

Comedy House: Light colored paint and white trim; bushes around entryway.

Artistic Expression House (Art House): First house on west side of Union; light colored house with white door.