Many freshmen are learning that community building doesn’t have to end with New Student Week, since those living in one of three all-freshman dorms in the newly established Freshman Quad can extend the freshman class fun to the rest of the year.

“Everyone’s going to be in the same boat and on the same level so we can all make friends,” said Marshall Miller, a Weinberg freshman living in Elder.

After last year’s success with transforming Hinman House and 600 Lincoln into the first all-freshman residential halls on campus, the University Housing and Food Service Policy Advisory Committee expanded the concept by giving Elder Hall the same treatment this year. The three freshman dorms now make up the Freshman Quad, with a joint area coordinator, hall government, and social events and activities directed specifically toward freshmen. About one-fifth of the class of 2008 — or 373 freshmen — lives in the Freshman Quad.

“Freshmen want to live with freshmen,” said Mark D’Arienzo, associate director of University Housing and Food Service. “It does represent a paradigm shift from recent years when it was always believed that freshmen benefit from the involvement of upperclassmen within the residential halls.

“While that’s still true, there are a number of students who have very much taken the idea of freshmen living in an entirely freshmen hall to heart.”

Andrew Hinderaker, the area coordinator for the Freshman Quad, said a small group of administrators, professors, students, and health education representatives met throughout the summer to discuss the quad’s objectives and vision. He said one of the strengths of the “multi-faceted community” is that the freshmen are all part of the same “shared experience” and together can develop a class identity. The Freshman Quad’s first event was a dance last week in Elder.

“It’s a really great community to get to know each other, to learn together, to go through the experience together,” Hinderaker said. “First-year communities have the potential to become one of the most vibrant communities on campus. They’re all coming into this experience new. It’s our hope that students will establish relationships that will last throughout their undergraduate careers.”

When freshmen applied for housing this summer, many said they were drawn to the idea of living with only freshmen. Anita Goyal, a Weinberg freshman, said she chose Elder because she wanted to be surrounded by other eager people from her class.

“I was looking for an environment where everybody would be social and want to get to know each other,” she said.

Though most said they liked the idea of an all-freshman dorm and the Freshman Quad, some admitted the absence of upperclassmen in their residential halls makes it difficult to find someone to turn to for advice.

“There’s not upperclassmen to point us in the right direction,” said Weinberg freshman Marshall Miller, who lives in Elder. “So right now we’re all bumbling freshmen, but once we get a grip on college life, it should be fun to be in an all-freshman dorm.”

Without the presence of upperclassmen in the three dorms, the Freshman Quad RAs are left with a much greater role for their residents.

“As we’re quickly figuring out, we’re the only upperclassmen in the building and it gives us a much greater responsibility to help them figure out what Northwestern’s about and what the opportunities are for them here,” said Reed Van Gorden, a Weinberg junior and an Elder RA. “There’s 10 of us in the whole building that they have to come to for everything so it doesn’t give them a whole bunch of resources.”

Van Gorden said that his freshmen seem to “love it so far” because an all-freshman dorm “gives them so many people to connect with.” But Dan Berkowitz, a Music sophomore and former 600 Lincoln resident, said that even though he thought living in an all-freshman dorm last year was a great idea, he now sees the benefits of a mixed-class environment.

“A lot of people told me that upperclassmen make the experience better and now that I’ve moved, I think that’s probably true,” Berkowitz said. “When I look back at it, it would have been nice to have some freshmen and some upperclassmen to answer your questions when you’re completely lost.”

Reach Andrea Chang at [email protected].