" if it weren't for graduation this May I'd live on campus in
family housing and pay three times the money, potentially saved by forfeiting
the
vehicle."
Good question .... campuses it seems provide in some ways models of potential
ecological living ... everything's concentrated and not sprawled out, you have
access to social life close to 24 hours a day, there's dancing, learning, etc.
Question : Why are Apartments NOT like dormitories?
I think what I liked about dormitories in colleges was :
A) People felt free to express their ideas, views, etc. on their Outside
doors, encouraging interaction with neighbors.
B) There were usually a large number of people in a dorm, a little more than
you'd usually know so there was still the potential excitement of meeting new
people, etc. Also, new people moving in every now and then.
C) In some dorms, potentially interesting conversation as well as adventure
late into the wee hours.
Obviously this wasn't all the time, but now that I am far from college life,
and either in housing or apartments, I find myself much, much more isolated,
and therefore using my car to bridge the gaps between friends, or to go out to
clubs. When I was at Dartmouth I never needed a car because everything was
centrally located and I really, really enjoyed that. It would be excellent if
there were more "dormitory" situations where friends could move in together so
there wouldn't be such large differences ...
... these questions make me wonder about all our lifestyle choices ... it's
assumed that a "dormitory" lifestyle is a juvenile or transitory one, where we
should then move into a household situation where we're all separated...
...What can be neat about a campus is that if you're enrolled, you often have
access to musical equipment including studios but usually at least pianos, you
can often book time in classrooms that no one is using, there are student
centers where rooms and other facilities are available ... it's like a
communist club with dues almost ...
The isolation caused by our lifestyle choices affects many, many other
ecological factors as well. Obviously it affects transportation : the need to
connect across the separations, often involving a car. But also usage of the
phone. I use the phone so much in large part because my friends live a long
way away, and there is very little if any options for interesting
conversations where I live. Ditto for the internet.
I can imagine an "ecocampus" situation where there are gardens to grow food
for the dormitories, hemp fields for paper and clothing, bamboo forests for
building materials and utensils, fruit and nut trees for nutrition, biomass
processing centers to provide the fuel for buses between communities and
ecocampuses.
Lifestyle choices are definitely implicated in ecological change.
(un)leash
