Photo from: https://www2.acadiau.ca/alumni-friends/development/heritage-acadia.html
As my first year is coming to an end and I reflect on my time here at Acadia, I hope to be able to help incoming new students to have a comfortable, smooth transition to university life. The first week living on campus is the hardest with a new room, new schedule and being away from home. The first obstacle to face is setting up your dorm room in a way that makes you feel comfortable. This room will become your home for the next eight months so making sure you like your space is very important. The second obstacle is navigating O-Week to get the most out of the events before the busy-ness of classes hits. This article will outline dorm room hacks to optimize your small space, and how to navigate O-Week to get the most out of your first week on campus.
Dorm Rooms:
I chose to stay in Christofor Hall for my first year. While not all the facts stated about my residence room will hold true for every building on campus, if you have any questions regarding a specific aspect of your building’s room, reaching out to Residence Life is a great way to sort out any confusion. I picked my residence building because of a recommendation from a second year Acadia student I knew. She told me about the atmosphere of all the buildings on campus and made a recommendation on what I would like based on my personality. She told me that ‘the quad’ (referring to Christofor, Eaton, and Roy Jodrey) are relatively calm and quiet buildings and picking one of those three would be a good fit for me. If you are an incoming first year student and know any upper year students, I would recommend reaching out to them for advice as they would know the ins and outs of residence buildings that might not be advertised online. Another great thing to ask an upper year student is the layout of the building’s floor. Online you can find a blueprint of what each building’s floor is roughly structured as but it doesn’t provide a lot of detail. Asking things about if the bathrooms are individual or stalled, or if there is a laundry room per floor or just the ground level are also great ways to get a better understanding of the buildings you’re interested in. Those two factors also contributed to my choice of Christofor Hall. While Tower has one large laundry room on the main level, Christofor has one washer and dryer per floor reducing your journey on laundry days. Christofor also has around five bathrooms per floor, all of which are single person bathrooms opposed to bathrooms with stalls such as in Tower. All of these factors are great things to learn ahead of time, before selecting your building.
Storage:
When I first arrived at my residence building, I was a bit surprised at how small my room was compared to my room back home, however a smaller space does not mean it can’t be just as homey. My first recommendation to first years is to maximize your ‘under-the-bed’ storage area if your room has it. There isn’t a lot of floor space in your dorm room, and even less shelf space, but a wonderful, hidden from the eyes storage area is under the bed. You can fit shoe racks, storage containers, and even a suitcase if you are coming from a different province. Maximizing your ‘under-the-bed’ space can help make your small room feel less cluttered and appear bigger. On the same topic of storage, I recommend bringing a shelving unit for yourself. Currently my Ikea RÅSKOG (three-tiered shelving unit with wheels) houses my hair products, bathroom caddy, and a charging station for all my devices. While your Acadia room won’t have as much shelving as your room back home does, there are plenty of spaces that you’ll be surprised can function as storage areas. In addition to those two hacks, I also recommend using the top of your wardrobe to store cleaning products, a great way to keep them separate from your food and bed area, while also out of sight and reducing visual clutter.
Decor:
Before I made my drive down to campus, I took a trip over to my local Walmart, and I printed about fifty different photos from my camera roll of memories with friends and family that I wanted to put up in my dorm. While posters are also a great way to decorate your walls and brighten up the space, a photo wall is a nice way to bring a touch of home into your dorm room. If you are looking to bring posters to Acadia but don’t have any suitcase room, Acadia typically holds a poster sale in the Student Union Building during the fall semester so you can alway purchase room decor once you are here. Another great purchase for your new room is fairy lights. Every Acadia dorm room has a ceiling light, but if you’re ever looking to keep your room a bit dimmer, fairy lights to hang up around the border of your room is a great way to go. It allows for you to still have a source of light for doing homework, but one which is a bit less harsh on the eyes.
Navigating O-Week:
General:
My biggest piece of advice for first year students coming to Acadia during O-week is to not be scared to start up conversations with new people. During this week you will meet a lot of new people, and you’ll have a lot of conversations following the same script of questions: Where are you from? What is your major? What building are you staying in? It’s important to not get discouraged during this time. Making deeper connections with a person and getting past the surface level information takes time. Don’t be scared to invite them to join you at the football game, or an event being hosted in the SUB. O-week is also a great time to get to know your campus a little bit better. A great way to take off some stress when classes start is to make sure you know where all of your class rooms are located. Take some time and tour around the campus buildings to figure out what your first two days will look like.
Events:
O-week is the best opportunity to meet new people and figure out what activities you may want to take part in during the rest of your time at Acadia. O-week has back to back social events, allowing for you to get to know so many different people. As well, many of these events help you to get to your campus and the resources available. The library runs informational sessions, the university runs a mini scavenger hunt which acts as a way to tour the buildings, and each residence typically runs events so that you can get to know your floor mates.
An event I think is one of the most important to attend is the club fair. This fair has almost every club at Acadia in attendance and allows for you to pick organizations that you are passionate about, and want to continue to attend throughout the rest of your years at Acadia. Each club will have a sign-up sheet so you can stay in the loop on when the first meeting will be, and talking directly to the club reps helps you to understand what they are all about.
During O-week, Acadia also offers a themed event for numerous different degrees which will allow you as a first year student to get to know people in your major before classes start. This can help reduce a bit of the pressure of starting class, as you may meet someone with a similar schedule.
Overall, make sure to enjoy your time during O-week. Soon you’ll be preparing to take your first midterms, and then finals. As I am heading towards the end of my first year, my biggest piece of advice is to enjoy your time. It goes by so fast, and before you know it you’ll find yourself heading home for summer break.
