Best Dorm?

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CYdTracked

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Mar 23, 2006
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Grimes, IA
I don't think it was in Linden when I lived in RCA in2011-2013. I'm pretty sure the president lived in the bottom of Roberts.

But I may be thinking of the BWR hall director as well.

Also our hall director was dating his grad assistant I believe. Once they became official the grad assistant went out to the towers.

But I thought it was crazy that he was talking to me about ethics when a guy on my floor did a weird fake suicide thing out the window of the floor. I was president of my floor so that's why I was called into a meeting with him about it.

Was it distasteful? You betcha. Was it kinda funny when we were all drunk as **** freshman? Yep.

If any of you saw abti-suicide bulliten boards in RCA in late 2011-early 2012 you can thank my floor as that was our "punishment".

We also got our CA fired for drinking with us and had the lowest GPA on campus (7 years later only 8 of us graduated). Spoiler alert, if you're the president or the academic chair of a floor and you have the worst GPA on campus, you're ineligible to hold house office the next year. (According to the hall director even though I couldn't find any rule)

Man... Dorm life was pretty awesome.

Hall directors have grad assistants now? Why in the hell would they need one? I don't recall them having one when I worked as a RA and they have a whole staff of RAs as it is to delegate stuff to. Most of the hall directors that were there when I was an RA I am pretty sure were recent grads or possibly working on a masters themselves usually associated in higher education or administration so the hall director job was a nice gig to put on a resume.

As for the GPA thing I don't recall there being a rule on that but I'm sure things are different now than they were nearly 20 years ago when I was there so who knows. My floor at Towers I was RA of had one of the worst GPAs on campus and other than trying to promote a positive learning environment on the floor there wasn't much we could do about it because you can't force kids to study and go to class. I know I had some students on the floor flunk out or just quit school eventually, had a conversation with 1 that I rarely saw go to class but had all kinds of time to play video games or shoot pool in the floor den. His motto was that he had an active "social life" which I pointed out if he didn't get his grades in order he wouldn't have much of a social life at ISU if he gets kicked out of school for poor grades.

The one thing I always found funny was people who were stupid with their underage drinking in the dorms that got caught because either they couldn't keep it concealed by just closing the door to their room or were dumb enough to be too loud after 2am on the weekends and got campus security or police called out on a complaint. They'd get all worked up and say things like "this is why I am moving off campus next year!" Well the biggest difference between an alcohol write up by an RA or student security and getting Ames Police called on you off campus is that you don't get fined or have an underage possession ticket go on your public record in the dorms, it's usually a talk with the hall director and some cushy punishment you have to do where as the Ames Police will actually give you a legal citation so tell me again just how much the dorms "suck" when you basically get a slap on the wrist when you busted for being stupid. That was my speech at the beginning of each semester as a RA, my motto was if I don't see it and you aren't causing a disturbance I can't write you up for it so if I do write you up it's because you were being stupid and obvious where I couldn't ignore it. Never had any issues with guys on my floors with that stance and I even took over a floor mid-semester with my 1st RA gig where the RA before me got fired and guys on the floor hated him so being upfront with them that I was not there to police them and look for ways to write them up but they still had to respect that I had to do my job when they weren't being smart about things usually made it drama free when I did have to write someone up. My #1 rule was if you are loud enough to wake me up in the middle of the night you don't get a warning where I usually would if it was just after quiet hours went into effect. Had 2 drunk idiots wrestling in the hall 1 morning at 3am that woke me up. Opened my door and just said "it's quiet hours, you'll be written up in the morning." They didn't even argue with me, just went to their rooms and even came down and apologized in the morning.
 

crs8975

Well-Known Member
Aug 14, 2013
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Lakewood, CO
Friley or Helser if you want them to build character. MWL if you want them to party all the time.

In all seriousness, if he’s going for engineering I’d recommend something in the Union Drive neighborhood (Friley, Helser, Martin, Eaton)

I lived in MWL and only partied on the weekends! :D
 
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DFWClone

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Aug 19, 2013
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Long story short - live in friley for a year, make some friends, move legacy tower, you'll have a good time.
 

Cyclone27inQC

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Jun 16, 2010
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Quad Cities
I stayed in Wilson Tower all 4 years. As you can guess that was back in the 70’s and I don’t believe it’s even used anymore?
Go Cyclones
 

nfrine

Well-Known Member
Mar 31, 2006
8,467
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4 years in Friley. Handy to classes. Handy to "dogtown" and the bars. At the time, football was in Clyde Williams just out the back door...could make it to your seat 10 minutes after getting out of bed. State Gym and Beyer were close. Still have great memories and friendships after all the years.
 
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Ace000087

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Jun 10, 2008
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www.f35.com
Hall directors have grad assistants now? Why in the hell would they need one? I don't recall them having one when I worked as a RA and they have a whole staff of RAs as it is to delegate stuff to. Most of the hall directors that were there when I was an RA I am pretty sure were recent grads or possibly working on a masters themselves usually associated in higher education or administration so the hall director job was a nice gig to put on a resume.

As for the GPA thing I don't recall there being a rule on that but I'm sure things are different now than they were nearly 20 years ago when I was there so who knows. My floor at Towers I was RA of had one of the worst GPAs on campus and other than trying to promote a positive learning environment on the floor there wasn't much we could do about it because you can't force kids to study and go to class. I know I had some students on the floor flunk out or just quit school eventually, had a conversation with 1 that I rarely saw go to class but had all kinds of time to play video games or shoot pool in the floor den. His motto was that he had an active "social life" which I pointed out if he didn't get his grades in order he wouldn't have much of a social life at ISU if he gets kicked out of school for poor grades.

The one thing I always found funny was people who were stupid with their underage drinking in the dorms that got caught because either they couldn't keep it concealed by just closing the door to their room or were dumb enough to be too loud after 2am on the weekends and got campus security or police called out on a complaint. They'd get all worked up and say things like "this is why I am moving off campus next year!" Well the biggest difference between an alcohol write up by an RA or student security and getting Ames Police called on you off campus is that you don't get fined or have an underage possession ticket go on your public record in the dorms, it's usually a talk with the hall director and some cushy punishment you have to do where as the Ames Police will actually give you a legal citation so tell me again just how much the dorms "suck" when you basically get a slap on the wrist when you busted for being stupid. That was my speech at the beginning of each semester as a RA, my motto was if I don't see it and you aren't causing a disturbance I can't write you up for it so if I do write you up it's because you were being stupid and obvious where I couldn't ignore it. Never had any issues with guys on my floors with that stance and I even took over a floor mid-semester with my 1st RA gig where the RA before me got fired and guys on the floor hated him so being upfront with them that I was not there to police them and look for ways to write them up but they still had to respect that I had to do my job when they weren't being smart about things usually made it drama free when I did have to write someone up. My #1 rule was if you are loud enough to wake me up in the middle of the night you don't get a warning where I usually would if it was just after quiet hours went into effect. Had 2 drunk idiots wrestling in the hall 1 morning at 3am that woke me up. Opened my door and just said "it's quiet hours, you'll be written up in the morning." They didn't even argue with me, just went to their rooms and even came down and apologized in the morning.

I'm sorry I got hammered on week nights, played Star Craft and Mortal Kombat until 3am, shined laser pens at casual bystanders, yelled loud noises through a construction cone, temporarily locked people in elevators and generally was an outgoing individual. It was college. Somehow the vast majority of us got our sh!t together and had great stories to tell from our experiences at ISU. Btw... some RAs had RAAs. Legit.
 

AlaCyclone

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Jun 14, 2007
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I lived in Buchanan Hall (Adult / Graduate Student dorm) when I was in school. Is it still open? I visited campus for the first time in a long time last month, and it looked like there were other buildings built attached to it. Anybody in the know about that?
 

ianoconnor

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I lived in Buchanan Hall (Adult / Graduate Student dorm) when I was in school. Is it still open? I visited campus for the first time in a long time last month, and it looked like there were other buildings built attached to it. Anybody in the know about that?
Yea, it's still open. They built a new dorm adjacent named after president Geoffrey.
 

ianoconnor

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Interesting! Is the new dorm an extension of Buchanan or for freshman and such?
They are separate structures. Per this website (https://housing.iastate.edu/places/halls), it doesn't appear either have age restrictions now. My guess is they got rid of the restrictions due to an overall shortage of dorm rooms. I was a CA in Buchanan '07-09 and at that time it was still 19+ to live there.
 

Gunnerclone

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Jul 16, 2010
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DSM
My daughter stayed in Geoffroy her Freshman year and absolutely hated it. Her floor was part of the WISE Community (Women In Science & Engineering) so half the girls got to their rooms and shut their doors and the other half were sorority girls who didn't interact with non-greeks. There were no social activities and she didn't have a roommate. She wished she'd been over around new-Helzer or a quad-room with in-room bathrooms.

She was so down on things her freshman year that I thought she was transferring to TCU. But after Spring Break she chose to get an off-campus apartment with friends and its made all the difference. She's 180-degrees from where she was last year and absolutely loving ISU.

This is the winner. Dorms are terrible. If ISU doesn’t have an on campus requirement for freshman these days I would skip it and get in to an apartment or house ASAP.
 
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