Designed for first-year students, the Theophilus Tower at the University of Idaho allows students to spend their year living with other new students.
Katy Kithcart | Argonaut
Students shuffle off and on the elevators at Theophilus Tower. The residence hall, commonly known as The Tower, houses eleven floors of first-year students.
Standing tall at 11 floors, plus a utility basement, the Tower is unmistakable. Unlike the Wallace Residence Center, which has co-ed floors, each level of the Tower is either all-male or all-female with about 40 residents per floor.
Jazzmine Hudson, area coordinator for the Tower, said she believes the purpose of first-year students living in the same building is to grow a strong community. Hudson said it’s a good opportunity for students to live with people who share common interests, and since the students are all fresh out of high school, they’re on similar levels.
Hudson said another benefit of the Tower is the easy access students and UI employees have to provide support. For example, the six-week community development plan was first put into action by the Tower Community Council last year, according to Hudson.
The first portion of the plan starts the week before orientation. The initial days are used as training and transitioning for the staff. Hudson said the next five weeks after the students move in is time to grow and develop a strong bond between floor residents. The students are encouraged to get involved through team building exercises, surveys, student success fairs and meeting with their resident assistants.
Tower RAs are tested on how well they know the residents of their floors by the Tower housing staff. They are not only urged to spend quality time with their floor group, but also to keep track on how individual residents are holding up with the transition to college life.
On Vandal Friday, the Theophilus Tower Community Council will host an event from 8-10 p.m. at Bob’s Place, allowing potential students to interact with current students. The event will include a toga-wearing competition, sumo suit wrestling and karaoke.
Freshman Susanna Flesher currently lives in the Tower. Though Flesher said she enjoys being a resident of the Tower for the most part, but there are negative aspects as well.
Flesher said even though she likes her RA, many of the hall meetings she attended seemed pointless. She also said her floor’s vacuum never works, so her roommate and she resort to sweeping their carpet. Her Internet connection gets occasionally slow, it’s impossible to get her room to a comfortable temperature and the elevators break too often, Flesher said.
Flesher said all of these things annoyed her, but are manageable. She said her biggest problem are other residents. Wallace includes a private bathroom for each room, but the Tower has residents of one floor sharing a public bathroom. Flesher said a private bathroom sounds nicer, because her floor’s bathroom occasionally gets gross on weekends, and other residents leave dirty dishes in the sink. She also mentioned doing laundry can be difficult, since limited washing machines and dryers make some residents impolite. Flesher said the students also make choices that are simply illogical to her.
“It’s really annoying when people on the second floor take the elevator,” Flesher said. “You have a backpack, and you get on the elevator and go to the second floor. Why? I can make it to the sixth floor on the stairs. Why?”
Although all these points are valid, Flesher said there are many more good qualities about her residence hall.
Flesher recommends the Tower to first-year students, because it’s a comfortable place to live and study, the staff is always nice and it succeeded in helping Flesher with her college transition.
“It’s kind of like a step between living at home and an apartment,” Flesher said.
Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected]