Fairhaven Residents, time to get out of your shell!
Welcome to the Fairhaven community. As a college student, I didn’t realize how college requires connections. What I mean by requires is that college forces me to build relationships with students. For example, I went to a summer orientation at Western to get more information about the school and to sign up for fall quarter classes. The orientation was for all incoming freshmen and the event was only two days long. During those two days I experienced the college lifestyle I slept in a dorm, went to the classrooms and I ate food at the dining hall. The orientation mainly focused on what kinds of opportunities Western can offer and to help determine what activities I should join when I attend at Western in the fall. For example, the mentors at summer start split us up into small groups, with two leaders that talked about different clubs and sports available for upcoming freshmen on campus. The two leaders made it clear that building connections can help us become successful as college students. Then in small groups we did interactive activities; we played name games, shared our favorite sports and shared our major. All those activities were trying to get us out of our comfort zone and bond with each other.
I ended up moving into the Fairhaven residence hall. I have realized that building relationships and connections on campus is difficult due to Fairhaven feeling so far off campus. Fairhaven has a large residential community located on South Campus at Western Washington University and can hold up to 650 residents. The buildings are surrounded by many trees making me feel like I am live in a forest. But as lovely as it is, here’s the thing: I genuinely feel like Fairhaven is too exclusionary. The Community already is set up in a way where everything is located around the residence hall and students don’t have to leave the Fairhaven complex. For example, inside Fairhaven there is a college, dining hall, a small grocery store and a public computer room with a printer. So this might seem like I never need to leave Fairhaven which Fairhaven shouldn’t feel exclusionary, it should feel more like a tight community. But my concern is that Fairhaven has its own college located above the Fairhaven dining hall. I think having a college inside the Fairhaven hall makes that place have its own campus feeling.
The first day moving into the Fairhaven Hall was a shock to me; I didn’t know it was going to be a 15 minute walk to my classes every day. On the plus side I get the exercise and don’t have to worry about the freshman 15. Most of the classes are located on the north side of campus, which gives an advantage to the north campus people. For example, the north campuses are less than five minutes walking distance to class. The north campus has advantages too go to cafés like Zoë’s bagels at the library or the Underground Coffee House at the VU. Since Cafés are far away for the south campus students, it’s hard to build connections with other freshmen that live on north campus.
If Fairhaven gives an “off campus” feeling, then what might spending time in a place like the Underground Coffeehouse do for the Fairhaven students?
The Underground Coffee House
What makes the Underground Café a place for Fairhaven students? When I first went to the Underground Café, the place was hard to find; it’s in the Viking Union on the 3rd floor. The café is well organized and has a peaceful setting and positive energy flowing through the room. The colors of the room are not too dark and not too bright; you see orange, dark red, blue, and yellow. There are a variety of seating areas, black stools, colorful couches, and brown wooden single chairs making the place more comfortable and relaxing. There are five booths with 3 to 6 black stools and more than 10 couches facing different parts of the room. Some are facing the windows and others are facing the stage. Across from the stage there are rows of glass windows showing the view of the bay. Around the windows there are more couches with tables. On the walls there are art pieces and a clock with pictures, making the place have a more artsy feeling. This might seem like a physical description of a regular coffee house and it is but, there is so much more.
Staeheli, argues that places are not only physical but there also contextual. Staeheli writes that
“Place as a physical location is often contrasted with more abstract notions of space. If place is grounded and particular, space is understood as abstracted from the particular.”
This is where place as physical more interesting than pointing at place on a map. What this means to me is that I can use the five senses, by seeing, smelling, hearing, touching or tasting. By that the Underground Café is not going to have the same similarities like other Cafés. For example, How the Underground space structured makes the place different than any other cafés. Like, when I compare the Underground to other cafés on campus, the underground gives a relaxing vibes by having an advantage of the view of the bay. By having the view of the bay it offers a different environment than any other cafés on campus. For example, Zoe’s bagel has a different space due to the location being at the library, by that the space setting is focused on a studying atmosphere. Staeheli explains a place as a contact
“…relations attach first to space and place, and only secondarily to people; place, in this sense, describes the social positionality…”
This might mean not only a place can change humans’ behavior but humans can change the spaces atmosphere. For example, people can use the space as a gathering and a socializing environment. Each time the space is being used for different things the environment changes to a different vibe.
If Staeheli thinks space can be changed by people then how are the Fairhaven residents using the space of the Underground Café?
Most Fairhaven students that I interviewed told me that when they go to The Underground Coffee House they feel peaceful and relaxed. What I notice about the interview was The Underground place serves different values to each student in the Fairhaven community. The Underground might be a café but for some a Fairhaven resident named Tyler said “the place is much more than a café” For him the place is where he feels comfortable sharing his songs that he wrote. Tyler continues by saying “If Students are done with their homework or want to take a break from studying, they can come to the Café at night, and the place is a great way to meet new people.” Tyler means that the Underground holds night activities for students and the activities are organized by Western’s students. On Tuesday for open mic night it gives students a chance to play an instrument or if they like to do stand-up comedy or do slam poetry. Also if students enjoy night concerts they can go on Wednesday. This gives students the space to share the talents and meet new students who have the same common interest.
Not only the Underground can be used as an activity space but the place can be used as a study environment. Alex another Fairhaven resident said “The Café gives us a place to study that is not surrounded in an education environment.” I totally agree with her, after being in class all day I get tired of being in an educational environment center. During the school week the underground is pretty quiet with music playing in the background. Students are sitting individually with their computer on their laps and their eyes looked up on their computer screen. This opens up an opportunity for the space to be used as a study time in between classes. For some Fairhaven students like Alex, it’s pointless to go back to the dorm if he has only an hour break in between classes when the Fairhaven campus is too far away from the main campus. But students that live on the north campus can go back to their dorm during their classes break. What this means is that Fairhaven hall has an off campus feeling comparing it to the north campus halls.
For some Fairhaven resident the Underground place can feel close to home. The Fairhaven Hall and the Underground Coffee House are two different types of places and they have similar cultures. Both of the places have a free spirited vibe that attracts students who love nature and love to be artsy. For example, one of my friends Aysel loves the Underground Coffee house because it reminds her of the café back home in Redmond. She enjoys going to the Underground to listen her favorite music and look at the bay while drinking coffee. Aysel goes on explaining that “It’s a comforting feeling to finding a place at Western that I am familiar with other people than being at my dorm.” I totally agree with her, I love that I found a place where that is outside of Fairhaven community.
From my experience I learned that as a freshman living in Fairhaven, that it shouldn’t stop me from building a connection on campus. From researching and talking to students now I can answer the question given. If Fairhaven gives an “off Campus” feeling, then what might spending time in a place like the Underground Coffeehouse do for Fairhaven students? First, most students that live in the Fairhaven community have similar culture or similar taste. The residents are very outdoors, artistic, or musical. Even though Fairhaven Hall and Underground Coffee House are far away from each other, both share common culture that brings students together. The underground offers a space where students can come together and share their common interests. Even in the interviews each of the students used the space in different ways to build connections with people or with the place.
